Museums and emotion: making history personal

March 22, 2007

A public lecture at the University of New England will examine the extent to which a visit to a museum can – and should – be an emotional experience.

Sophie Jensen (pictured here), a Senior Curator at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, will present the 11th Annual Maurice Kelly Lecture at UNE on Wednesday 28 March. Ms Jensen will discuss an approach to history at the National Museum that seeks to engage visitors emotionally in the lives of individuals.

The lecture, titled "Fear and Loathing in Public Spaces: Museums and Emotion", will be in UNE's Education Building (Room 111) at 5.30 pm following refreshments at 5 pm. Ms Jensen said she would be asking questions such as: "Can a museum be a place of passion?", "Can exhibitions use fear to promote understanding of history?", and "Is there a way in which visitors to a museum can honestly place themselves, their lives and their experiences within the museum context?" In answer to the last question, her lecture will include a number of short films, made by people during their visits the National Museum, in which the museum serves as a context for them to relive their own experiences.

"Museums are among the key institutions through which members of the public come to an understanding of the concept of history and their place within it," she explained. "Our 'empathic' approach at the National Museum aims to illuminate the lives of real people – both famous and obscure – and thus create an understanding of history in which visitors can see their own stories not just as occurring at the same time as history, but as a crucial part of history itself."

Sophie Jensen was part of the team that curated Eternity: Stories from the Emotional Heart of Australia, one of the five permanent galleries developed for the opening of the National Museum in 2001. This gallery examines Australian people and, through their stories, looks at concepts of identity, memory and history.

The Committee of UNE's Museum of Antiquities established the Maurice Kelly Lecture series in 1997. Each year the Committee invites a distinguished speaker to deliver a lecture that relates to some aspect of museum work or museum collections. The lectures are published.

Dr Maurice Kelly came to UNE in 1954 as a lecturer in Classics, and established the Museum of Antiquities in 1959. Dr and Mrs Kelly live in Armidale.

For more information on the 11th Annual Maurice Kelly Lecture, contact John Harris at UNE on (02) 6773 2628.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at March 22, 2007 01:06 PM