Jewish presences and presents in the museum: Jewish museologies and the politics of display

Venue:
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane
Leeds LS2 9JT

As political and social upheavals in and beyond Europe are transforming the meanings of cultural diversity and notions of heritage, a two-day international symposium will explore the critical debates about Jewish museums, museologies and Jewish presences in non-Jewish museums.

Organised by the Centre for Jewish Studies, this conference takes place on 13 & 14 March 2016 at the University of Leeds. It will include panels on current museum developments in and beyond Europe, including new and resurgent museums previously beyond the ‘Iron Curtain’.

The event will host two roundtables on international and UK debates around the role and future of Jewish museums and Jewish presences in the museum sphere. Themes discussed and debated will include Europe and migration/mobility; memory and trauma; the role of the object in the virtual age; the politics of display; multiple and layered identities; the role of visitors and communities.

Invited speakers include:

Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, former chief curator at the Jewish Museum, Vienna; and Director of the professional training programme “Keter: Understanding and Caring for Judaica Collections in Ukrainian Museums”

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Programme Director of the Core Exhibition for POLIN, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw

Cilly Kugelmann, programme director and vice director of the Jewish Museum Berlin

Joanne Rosenthal, Curator, Exhibitions and Projects at the Jewish Museum London

The event will be of interest to museum professionals, museum studies students of all levels, heritage groups and museum visitors.

For booking information and further details, email Eva Frojmovic: clsef@leeds.ac.uk

This event is supported by an EAJS (European Association for Jewish Studies) conference grant.

The Centre for Jewish Studies is a trans-disciplinary research centre at the University of Leeds, including academics from the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies. It was set up in 1995 to continue the Jewish Studies legacy of the Department of Semitic Studies, and to build bridges with a number of Arts disciplines by means of the interdisciplinary Montague Burton Fellow in Jewish Studies.

Image: Northern School of Dance, Chapeltown Synagogue. Photo: Ruth Baumberg