Museum Critical Review | Brief and instructions
Your task in this assessment is to write a 500 word review of one room or gallery in the British Museum, London, for the Center for Cultural Heritage and Environment website.
THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON | https://www.britishmuseum.org/
Cropped color photograph of the Great Court in the British Museum, London. Image from Max Pixel.
To complete this task please visit (physically or virtually) the galleries of the British Museum, London, which display cultural objects and remains of Egyptian and Near Eastern origin.
In developing your review, you will need to analyse and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your chosen room/s from the British Museum, because you need to explain why equitable and accessible representation in museums is important for contemporary archaeology AND for Indigenous communities.
Explore and write your critical review based on your analysis of ONE (1) of the galleries listed below:
Egyptian Sculpture | Room 4
Egyptian Life and Death | Room 61
Egyptian death and afterlife: mummies | Rooms 62-63
Early Egypt | Room 64
Sudan, Egypt and Nubia | Room 65
Ethiopia and Coptic Egypt | Room 66
GUIDELINES
The review for the Center for Cultural Heritage and Environment website should provide a critical analysis of the representations, aims, and limits of the choices made by the curators in your chosen room/s and refer to the required resources listed below. Please consider the following structure and word limits for your submission:
PART 1 | The Museum context? (roughly 200 words)
Present an account of: the rooms’ location in relation to other exhibits in the museum; how the heritage from Egypt and the Near East is separated and/or organized in the museum; what kinds of objects are displayed in the room, as well as referring to the spatial layout of the room. Refer to this map of the British Museum to locate each of the rooms listed above.
PART 2 | Whose voices and stories? (roughly 100 words)
Present an analysis of: the theme, voices and/or stories told in the room and, if applicable, which “experts” are quoted to explain the overall narrative.
PART 3 | What information is included and excluded? (roughly 100 words)
Present an interpretation of: what information is included or omitted (e.g. consider if information about the provenance of the objects on display is provided); and what stereotypes are reproduced or challenged in your chosen display.
Part 4 | Concluding remarks (roughly 100 words)
In your conclusion, based on your analysis in Parts 1-3 above, account for: whose past is represented and for whom?
Required Resources
– Thompson, E.L., “Museums Should Consider Why They’ve Become Targets of Attack and Protest.“ Hyperallergic. 11 June 2018. Accessed 15 March 2022. <https://hyperallergic.com/446082/museum-protests-attacks-op-ed/>.
– Kassim, S., “The Museum Will Not Be Decolonised“, Media Diversified. 15 November 2017. Accessed 15 March 2022. <https://mediadiversified.org/2017/11/15/the-museum-will-not-be-decolonised/>.
– Wajid, S., & Kasmani, S., “How Can You Decolonise Musems?“, museumnext.com. 2 June 2020. Accessed 15 March 2022. <https://www.museumnext.com/article/decolonising-museums/>.
