WFFM Congress in Italy
Last year I was lucky enough to receive a second Luigi Bossi Scholarship to travel to Italy in October and attend the 13th International World Federation of Friends of Museums Congress.
It was a real contrast to the Congress held three years ago, in Jerusalem, because the focus was much more academic this time – with little discussion on the role of Friends of Museums.
Here are ten highlights from the Congress:
1. WFFM Vice-President for Europe Jean-Michel Raingeard asked, ‘what is the role of new media for friends groups?’ Will the new technologies overpass our role, or become a good partner for our work? He argued that Paulo Buroni’s work that he presented was an example of young people playing, not learning. Lauro Magnani claimed that technology is now a part of the life of museums, and that some technologies can be extremely useful. Maria Mautone echoed this with the sentiment: “Technologies are something that we cannot live without.” Professor Pierangelo Campodonico, Director of the Galata Museo del Mare in Genoa, warned that new media can be costly to maintain, and rapid obsolescence is another issue to consider.
2. Maria Teresa Balboni Brizza said ‘a museum is a place where you can practice imagination’. I liked her point about some works of art made more accessible through reproduction. For example she cited that the Mona Lisa is behind 10cm of bullet proof glass, and even then you can only see the reflection of the person standing next to you.
3. There was also much mention of the word ‘interactivity’. I enjoyed Maria’s point about visitors liking to touch things because they’re normally not allowed to touch anything in museums. But she stressed that museum designers and curators need to keep focussed on their aim, not just flashy effects that will ‘conquer the young’. I do disagree with her statement, though, that a museum is made of concrete objects, otherwise people would just stay at home and watch video clips of it. That excludes any video art. She also said that ‘we all agree that this [new technologies] will never replace the direct experience.’ Is that true? Aren’t people already visiting virtual museums?
4. It was great to hear from Valerie Cooper again from the Art Gallery of Calgary, and I noticed that her average number of people per event has risen in the last three years from 1000 to 1200/1300 people.
5. Myrta Steiner of the Hess Art Collection mentioned the importance of good wine and good art in life. This is definitely relevant to The TMAGgots and our partnership with the largest privately-owned museum in the southern hemisphere/winery, the Museum of Old and New Art.
6. Jean Michel also said that icons hide the rest of the collection, saying that the Mona Lisa hides 99% of the Louvre collection.
7. I liked the comment somebody made in the marketplace session. They said “Silence is important – sometimes applause can upset the conductor.”
8. “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Winston Churchill. “If we do not plant knowledge when we are young, we will have no shade when we are old.” Lord Chesterfield.
9. Simone Ferrari said that Leonardo da Vinci was considered a craftsman…he was “paid to paint people’s bathrooms”.
10. I liked how Mark Carroll called the art gallery space ‘the sublime’. I also enjoyed Leonardo Sangiorgi’s thoughts on creating more than one viewpoint for the visitor, namely by ‘immersing’ them in the art. Architect Mario Botta said that one thousand new museums had been built in the last year. He also said that museums might have replaced cathedrals as a space for spiritual experience. It was interesting to hear from James Snyder on the progress of the Israel museum, particularly as the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is currently undergoing a major redevelopment. That they pulled out one million tonnes of bedrock however, differentiates the projects slightly.
Did you know that Italy has the greatest number of UNESCO-listed archaeological sites in the world?
Photograph by Glenn Mead.
QR codes in Museo di Sant’Agostino, Genoa. This museum housed some fascinating pieces of medieval architecture and Roman sculptures, and there were plaques where you could scan the QR code to get more information about the piece you were looking at. Photo by Ben Britten.
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