Call for Proposals for ICOM Journal on Gender & Museum

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Submit your proposal on Museums and Gender by 13th September 2019 and participate in the issue of Museum International being prepared by ICOM Belgique Wallonie-Bruxelles. 

This issue of Museum International aims to generate serious reflection on gender issues in museums, how they are intertwined, and the role of museums in a world prioritising gender equality. Issues of gender impact every layer of museum practice, from governance to visitation. This issue focuses on gender representation within museum management, operations and trusteeship, as well as in collections, exhibitions, education and public programmes.

As the social construction and politics of gender vary between societies, issues of gender and sexuality within institutions are as broad as they are specific. Questions around whose objects and stories are being preserved and promoted, and from what perspective, are as much of a concern to history, culture and living museums as to science and natural history museums. A reflexive examination of the role cultural and heritage institutions play in understanding gender as well as how they manage their own gendered construction is overdue. Can museums lead the way in terms of institutional change on issues of gender equality?

Museums are envisaged as guardians of the past, educators/entertainers of the present, arbiters of the future. From the lack of female artists, to carefully stored away imagery of powerful goddesses and intersex beings, some museums have maintained an imperial model of cultural values embedded in the origins of most early collecting and display. Others are challenging this system of stereotypes and phobias to better represent a more inclusive history. Addressing this inherent gender bias in museums requires great effort on the part of the museum sector as a whole.

Suggested, but not limited, topics: Museum management and operations, Gender equality/biases (pay gap; workplace safety), Sexuality and discrimination, Representation, both historic and contemporary, Gender and imperialism, Policy and ethics, Sexism and misogyny, Education, Visitation, Monitoring and evaluation, Collections and archives, Public programming.

Provocative thoughts and solutions are most welcome.

Know how to apply!

The issue will be published, in collaboration with Taylor&Francis/Routledge, in June 2020.

 

Call for Papers – Textile & Place

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From 23 to 24 April 2020, the Conference Textile and Place will take place in Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University with the aim of exploring politics through textiles. The debates will be built on the findings of the first conference also organised at MMU.

Mapping memories and places, the stories of trade and history transmission, migrations and cultural exchanges are some of the topics that will be raised during this exchange. The connections between communities, movements and alternative narratives through textile issues to be examined.

“We use the word politics as a broad term to indicate how textiles is implicated in particular places and is part of the relationships between groups or organisations and used to confront issues of power.  Textiles can fix us to a place and also be part of the process of making change.”

Invited keynote speakers are Dr. Fionna Barber, Jessica Hemmings, Assadour Markarov, and Vic McEwan.

If you wish to submit your paper, take into account some of the topics suggested:
  • Textiles as a medium of protest and activism.
  • Textile sites which represent migration and globalisation.
  • Narratives of community and social interaction encountered through textiles.
  • Responsibility, textiles and the places we live.

Submit your abstract and short bio by Friday, 8th november 2019.

PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITY
The papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication in a special issue of TEXTILE: Cloth and Culture.WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE?
We welcome papers from, textile artists, artists exploring textiles among other materials, designers, academics, early career researchers, art, fashion and textile historians, curators and archivists, ECRs, PhD candidates.We also welcome short films and audio-visual work that explore textiles and place for our ‘Film as textile site’ space.

UDHR Quilt Project

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Some time ago I participated in a craftivist project called UDHR Quilt that aims to promote human rights.

The #UDHRquilt Project is a collaborative craftivism initiative documenting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It uses craft as a tool and a strategy to celebrate the UHDR and raise awareness to the ways it is challenged—even violated—around the world today.

Central to the project are four large quilted wall hangings, each featuring 30 embroidered blocks representing the 30 Articles of the UDHR. The blocks critically engage with the Articles, celebrating the intrinsic meanings of this landmark document, now in its 70th year, while also drawing attention to local and global human rights issues.

My contribution was to embroider the Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Through my stitching work, I tried to highlight the rights of women and the LGBTIQ + collective.

The block that I embed is part of a quilt in which the rest of articles of the UDHR are included.

In the project we participate more than 130 people, mostly women, from around the world. It was a great honor for me.

Here you can see in detail my block, those of the other people and read more about the project and the Universal Declaration. 

Because never is late to raise your voice for human rights.