Cut and Paste from the Past: The Period Room as Historical Encounter

Dr Mark Westgarth will be speaking at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) this April as part of Living Rooms, an initiative to present Mia's historic interiors and decorative arts collections in new ways.

In this multi-year initiative, Mia is reinvigorating its period rooms for today's visitors, placing the past in dialogue with the present, while simultaneously broadening the conversation to include other histories—of marginalised people, of the senses and even of time itself.

In his talk Cut and Paste from the Past: The Period Room as Historical Encounter, Dr Westgarth will investigate the nature of our encounters with the past through Period Rooms in museums. Collected in the 19th and 20th centuries, they are necessarily 'cut and paste' fragmentary encounters, begging the question of what is 'authentic' about them and why that is important for us as we understand Period Rooms in the 21st century.

Dr Mark Westgarth said:

"Though Period Rooms are often presented as a moment in historical time, they are products of a history of decisions made by successive inhabitants, antiques dealers, and finally museum curators based on personal tastes, current fashions and evolving knowledge about the past.

"The Period Room project is part of my broader research into the history of museums and the role of the art market in the construction of art's histories. Besides the talk at MIA the Period Room project will also result in an edited volume of essays based on the history, theory and practice of Period Rooms in museums — The Period Room: Museum, Material, Experience (2017)."

The talk takes place at the MIA on Sunday 3 April at 2pm. See here for more information.

Image: The MacFarlane Memorial Room, Minneapolis Institute of Art. Copyright Minneapolis Institute of Art 2015.