Yesterday I arrived in Salzburg, Austria to attend the Salzburg Global  Seminar,  Connecting to the World’s Collections: Making the Case for the Conservation and Preservation of our Cultural Heritage,  and today the seminar started. In a matter of a few hours of being here I met countless smart and inspiring people, literally from all over the world.

But what really made today special is that I was able to take the time to step back and consider a broader, fuller picture of what it means to preserve our cultural property and to care for our global heritage. My hope is that you will take a moment to join me and consider some of the questions that are being raised here, and also give some feedback in the effort of finding new solutions. In my previous posts, I’ve asked for you thoughts on readings and even invited you to write a bit about global heritage – I’m still quite  interested  in your feedback on those two topics, but we must also move forward.

I know that this kind of thinking – the ability to find distance and grab a kind of fresh mental space – comes at a premium that few get to enjoy. I know this because back at home my day-to-day usually consists of working with my nose close to the grindstone, focusing on my daily work, working on the projects that need to be accomplished right now in order to meet my museum’s exhibition and collection needs.   So taking the time to reflect is a real luxury.

Today we were treated like global leaders in the field and made to feel as if our group could consider, question, and accomplish what matters most to our own institutions – to our own communities – and that we would be able to find better ways to preserve what we call our global heritage. Please join us and help to think about some of the “big issues.”

The introduction to our seminar began with clear statements and provocative questions by (from left to right at the front of the room; you can click the image to make it bigger): Edward Mortimer,  Debra Hess Norris,  Vinod Daniel,  Anne-Imelda Radice, Nancy Rogers (at the podium), and Susanna Seidl-Fox (seated in the front table with the green scarf).

The context and plan of our seminar was outlined and two primary questions were presented in an effort to find a declarative mission for our symposium. What do you have to say to these two questions?

1)           Why should we preserve our global heritage?

2)           What specific activity can build on or strengthen our preservation work?

I’ve been given a blank note card in which I’m to write my response, but you are given the comment section of this blog.

The keynote speaker for this symposium was Lonnie Bunch, who gave a commanding, inventive, and  inspirational  talk on his efforts to realize the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which will open on the Washington, D.C. mall in 2015.

What I took away from Mr. Bunch’s keynote presentation was a personal sense of his unflinching aspiration to represent African-American history within the context of the history of the United States.

Mr. Bunch discussed his unique approach to take on a variety of perspectives while creating this museum, even the one that suggested that “America’s greatest strength is its ability to forget.” He told a story about how this particular perspective came to him via a personal letter expressing clear disagreement with his mandate to start the museum. His talk countered these ideas and outlined the importance, significance, and meaning of maintaining memories related to topics in U.S. history that some would rather forget. He demonstrated the importance of difficult memories, and the particular significance of physical objects to trigger and represent memories and experiences that are long past.

He reminded us that a museum’s “greatest challenge – its greatest gift – is the power to help remember our personal history.”

Finally, he said, in pointing to the mission of the  Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, that “we don’t really need to erect a great African-American museum; what we need to do is erect a museum that sings for all Americans.”

It’s not hard to expand Mr. Bunch’s mission to a broader view of global heritage and say that what we need to do is find ways to better articulate our missions and sing our personal memories and connect them into a global consciousness. His talk provided our group a new and  tangible  perspective, and gave us all a tremendous  purpose.

However, I’d like to say that all was not heavy-minded tonight.   We were given a fantastic tour of the Schloss Leopolskon by Ian Brown.   I’ve made a Flickr set of the images I took on the tour.

Richard’s set of images on Flickr

Plus, here’s a link to a very short introductory video that I made with Ian after everyone had gone to dinner:

Ian gives me a brief introduction to the Schloss

Finally, I would be remiss not to tell you of the musical portion of today’s program: Joyce Hill Stoner gave us a conservator’s interpretation of a rather famous song, as only she can do.  She said she was inspired to perform “after a jolly cocktail hour and the Sound of Music tour earlier in the day.”  Have a listen for yourself:

Joyce Hill Stoner at the Salzburg Global Seminar

Here are the lyrics:

By Richard McCoy, Associate Conservator of Objects and Variable Art

Indianapolis Museum of Art

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 9:01 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.