Short Fuse Podcast #69: Talking About “The Museum of Other People”
By Elizabeth Howard
Episode Summary
In this conversation, Adam Kuper, a social anthropologist, and Elizabeth Howard, host of the Short Fuse, discuss his book The Museum of Other People: From Colonial Acquisitions to Cosmopolitan Exhibitions. Their talk ranges from considering the influence of African art on modern artists and the role of museums in archival history to the challenges of repatriation. Kuper also goes into the need for museums to reassess their role in a postcolonial world: he suggests the importance of temporary exhibitions and collaborative projects and defines what could be, in his mind, the “new, new museum.”
Episode Notes
Adam Kuper
Professor Adam Kuper is an anthropologist and public intellectual. He has held positions at a number of universities and is a recipient of the Huxley Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Kuper is the author or editor of 19 books and has published over 100 journal articles focusing on anthropological theory, the history of anthropology in the US and Britain, and southern African societies and cultures. He has made numerous appearances on BBC TV and radio, and reviewed regularly for the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Wall Street Journal.
In this deeply researched, immersive history, Adam Kuper tells the story of how foreign and prehistoric peoples and cultures were represented in Western museums of anthropology. Originally created as colonial enterprises, their halls were populated by displays of plundered art, artifacts, dioramas, bones, and relics. The book probes the politics behind the making of these museums in Germany, France, and England in the mid-19th century. Along the way, Kuper chronicles the dramatic trials and tribulations of the people who founded these institutions: colorful and eccentric collectors, curators, political figures, and high members of the church. He also details the creation of contemporary museums and exhibitions, including the Smithsonian, Harvard’s Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, and the famous 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which was inspired by the Paris World Fair of 1889.
The Short Fuse Podcast is hosted and produced by Elizabeth Howard. Her articles related to communication and marketing have appeared in European Communications, Investor Relations, Law Firm Marketing & Profit Report, Communication World, the Strategist, and the New York Law Journal, among others. Her books include Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Blackberry Pie, (Thornwillow Press, 2011), A Day with Bonefish Joe (David Godine, 2015), and Ned O’Gorman: A Glance Back (Easton Studio Press, 2016). She leads reading groups at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York. @elizh24 on InstagramLearn more at Elizabeth Howard.
“Artists are here to disturb the peace.” James Baldwin.
The Short Fuse is distributed through the Arts Fuse, an online journal of arts criticism and commentary.
This was an excellent conversation. Professor Kuper has an encyclopedic knowledge that he shares in very simple and strategic ways. His insights are spot on in so many ways.