Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LAWHA (Lebanon's Art World at Home and Abroad: Trajectories of artists and artworks in/from Lebanon since 1943)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-10-01 do 2022-03-31
The main focus has been to set up the DDP, which forms the spine of the project. The aim is to create a tool and central and open-access repository for future research. This includes the localisation and preservation of artistic records with the aim of building up artists’ dossiers that draw on local and international networks. The database is guided by the project’s research questions, which revolve around the professionalization of Lebanon’s art sector, the impact of the social, political and economic environment on the art world and its protagonists, how artists are represented in relation to the nation, and the role of women artists and artists of Armenian origin in Lebanon’s art world. Throughout the period, LAWHA connected to a number of digital humanities projects and technical experts, art historians and archives in order to determine which software to use, how to organise the data, understand the needs of potential users and generally learn from other experiences. An ontology has been developed and the selected open source software (Omeka-S) was adapted to LAWHA’s needs in collaboration with the University of Bologna’s Dh.arc. A partnership has been formed with the VeDPH of Ca’Foscari University of Venice, a direct beneficiary of LAWHA, in order to host the DDP during its initial phase. A publication is under preparation to discuss the possibilities and challenges of the digital field to reconstruct art history in regions like Lebanon.
LAWHA collaborated with the Sursock Museum and the Arab Image Foundation on a series of workshops on Intellectual Property in spring 2021. The aims of this series were to understand common challenges and best practices of peer institutions in terms of copyright, rights and reproduction policies; to have a grasp on how to deal with risk mitigation in finding a balance between the aspiration to grant wider access to collections and archival material for the public and respect rights; to understand the legal frameworks and laws under which our institutions and projects currently function, and strategies for open knowledge.
In partnership with the American University of Beirut and the Global (De)Centre, LAWHA/OIB has successfully applied for funding from the VolkswagenStiftung to hold a Summer School exploring the topic of biography/sīra in June 2022, entitled Moving Biography.
The project team has begun fieldwork, including archival research and preliminary interviews with key figures in Lebanon’s art world. Team members have also participated in international conferences, workshops and other events to introduce the project and preliminary results to the scientific community, stakeholders, and wider public.