Hull Hands on History Museum

In November 2013 it was announced that Hull would be the UK City of Culture in 2017, beating Leicester, Dundee and Swansea Bay (see BBC News; DCMS Press Release). The news story reminded us:

Phil Redmond added that the panel was "particularly impressed with Hull's evidence of community and creative engagement, their links to the private sector and their focus on legacy, including a commitment to enhance funding beyond 2017".

Hull's Council Leader, Stephen Brady was also quoted:

"It will give Hull a platform to tell the world what this great city has to offer, transform perceptions and accelerate our journey to make Hull a prime visitor destination."

However, five months on, Hull City Council has decided that it will close the Hands on History Museum housed in the Old Grammar School with its associations with William Wilberforce (see Hull City Council website). The Hull Daily Mail has more details.

Those concerned about the removal of this museum from the portfolio of the UK City of Culture 2017 should consider signing the online petition (here). What message is Hull City Council "telling the world"?

For some of the objects from the museum see here.

Comments

Anonymous said…

This is a very bad news. Despite today's technology letting us explore museums digitally, like ArtGuru, actual museums are still essential!

16 April 2014 at 02:16

Anonymous said…

Nice article. Please also check out the mobile app that has advanced artificial intelligence and can learn your taste. It can suggest art galleries and events to watch in a new city or in the weekend. It's called ArtGuru. They have a trial version available at their site. Do check it out.

16 April 2014 at 02:18

The scale of the returns to Italy

I have been busy working on an overview, "Returning Archaeological Objects to Italy". The scale of the returns to Italy from North American collections and galleries is staggering: in excess of 350 objects. This is clearly the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the material that has surfaced on the market without a history that can be traced back to the period before 1970.

I will provide more information in due course, but the researcher is a reminder that we need to take due diligence seriously when it comes to making acquisitions.

Stele returns to Greece

The Hellenic Ministry of Culture has announced (Saturday 8 September 2018) that a stele that had been due to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London in June 2017 has been returned to Greece (Friday 7 September 2018). The identification had been made by Cambridge-based forensic archaeologist Dr Christos Tsirogiannis.

It appeared that the stele had been supplied with a falsified history as its presence with Becchina until 1990 contradicted the published sale catalogue entry. It then moved into the hands of George Ortiz.

A year ago it was suggested that Sotheby's should contact the Greek authorities. Those negotiations appear to have concluded successfully.

The 4th century BC stele fragment, with the personal name, Hestiaios, will be displayed in the Epigraphic Museum in Athens. It appears to have come from a cemetery in Attica.

"Beating sites to death"

Policy decisions for protecting archaeological sites need to be informed by carefully argued positions based on data. Dr Sam Hardy has produced an important study, “Metal detecting for cultural objects until ‘there is nothing left’: The potential and limits of digital data, netnographic data and market data for analysis”. Arts 7, 3 (2018) [online]. This builds on Hardy's earlier research.

Readers should note Hardy's conclusion about his findings: "they corroborate the detecting community’s own perception that they are ‘beat[ing these sites] to death’".

Pieterjan Deckers, Andres Dobat, Natasha Ferguson, Stijn Heeren, Michael Lewis, and Suzie Thomas may wish to reflect on whether or not their own position is endangering the finite archaeological record.

Abstract
This methodological study assesses the potential for automatically generated data, netnographic data and market data on metal-detecting to advance cultural property criminology. The method comprises the analysi…

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