Just a quick post to mention that my review of the new Portland Collection gallery at the Harley Gallery has been published in the latest issue (May 2016) of the Museums Journal (pp. 44-47) – it’s not yet online but I will add a link when it becomes available. the review can be read online. The…
Category: My publications
Draft programme: The Museum in the Global Contemporary: Debating the Museum of Now
The draft programme for the forthcoming Leicester Museum Studies Fiftieth Anniversary Conference is now available on the ‘Global Contemporary’ website (where you can also book a place). Me and Malika Kraamer will be presenting a paper – ‘Unplaced heritage: Making identity through fashion’ – on Wednesday, 20th April, which is based on the chapter we’re…
What makes a good museum? The Art Fund knows
Some time ago I was commissioned by The Conversation to write a short article on the Art Fund prize. Thanks to The Conversation’s open access policy and use of Creative Commons licenses, I am free to republish the article here (originally published July 11, 2014). Image: Yorkshire Sculpture Park (the winner of the 2014 Museum of the…
Academic activities: an update
In the last week I’ve: been on four trains; visited London and Sheffield; given two presentations; re-evaluated my future career plans; and eaten some fantastic food courtesy of the AHRC. Last Monday I travelled down to the British Library once more (but hopefully not for the last time) to hand over the final version of the catalogue…
The British Library’s Collection of Chinese Propaganda Posters: An Overview
My third and final blog post for the British Library’s Asia and Africa blog has been posted. In it I provide an overview of the Library’s collection of Chinese propaganda posters and describe the culmination of my cataloging efforts. It features images from two sets of public information posters that went out of copyright on…
‘Japanese Saris: Dress, Globalisation and Multiple Migrants’
The paper that Malika Kraamer and myself recently published in Textile History is finally available online [requires institutional access]. Based on primary research undertaken for the Cultural Olympiad exhibition, ‘Suits and Saris’, the paper looks at: … the phenomenon of Japanese saris — fashion-forward synthetic saris manufactured in Japan — and Leicester sari shop owners’ role in…
Revolutionary nian hua at the British Library
On a suitably ‘new year’ theme,* my blogpost about a set of revolutionary nian hua prints from 1950 has been posted to the British Library’s Asia and Africa blog. The image is a detail from Jian zheng huan xuan hao ren (建政懽選好人), ‘Good people happily select a government’, by ‘Wulejibatu’ (烏勒吉巴图) of Inner Mongolia (Neimeng, 内蒙]). Revolutionary nian…
Chinese propaganda posters and the thorny issue of copyright
Just popping by to mention that BICC has published a blog post by me on the thorny issue of Chinese propaganda posters and copyright, based on research I have been doing during my three month postdoc at the British Library. I was surprised by the advice we were given with reference to digitisation and public…
Book Update
Time for an update on the old book. I have to admit that I’m really starting to get bored of this manuscript now. I’m spending far too much time with it. But, having said that, I continue to make good progress despite regular bouts of procrastination, and I’m getting close to being able to ‘sign…
Narrating Objects, Collecting Stories…
…has been published and is now available to buy in hardback. A Kindle ebook will follow shortly. Amazon currently have it on sale for nearly £18 cheaper than the RRP. Though I note that someone is already trying to flog a second hand copy at £82.45!