Cultures of the Countryside examines the relationship between the museum and the micro-cultures of the countryside. Offering an exploration of museums and heritage projects in the UK that have attempted to introduce new ways of engagement between localities, objects, and people, this book considers how museums, heritage initiatives, and art projects have dealt with pressing local and global socio-political issues relating to the environment and rural life, including changing demographics and rural practices, local environmental concerns, and global climate activism.
Providing a thorough examination of the representation of competing histories, visions and politics, Sekules asks whether museums and heritage projects can engage actively in shaping cultures, as well as reflecting them. At the core of the analysis is an examination of the findings from a project in the UK’s East Anglia, ‘The Culture of the Countryside’, from which emerged themes closely bound to different countryside landscapes, peoples and heritage.
Aimed at practitioners and students alike, Cultures of the Countryside provides a unique insight into the roles of the museum and heritage projects in rural and environmental issues in the recent past, whilst also offering perspectives and recommendations for the future.
By:
Veronica Sekules
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9780367879372
ISBN 10: 0367879379
Pages: 298
Publication Date: 12 December 2019
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction Chapter 1: Countrification Country and City From Preservation to Protection to Campaigning for the Countryside World Down to Earth Protecting the Local Moving to the Country What does the Countryside Mean to You? Not the Middle of Nowhere? Chapter 2: Nostalgia, Art, and Folk Life Museum and Mechanisation Collections and Audiences Nostalgia for the Working Horse Folk-like in the Museum Folk Culture: Survival and Revival Artefacts and Folk Chapter 3: Heritagisation and the ‘Open Air’ Public-Private Stewardship of Nature-Culture Open Air Heritage and Democratisation Landscape and Heritagisation Interpretation In the Field Little Ouse Headwaters Project Stewardship and the Working Landscape Chapter 4: Education and the Countryside The School in the Countryside Children’s Countryside Knowledge Environment Education and the Countryside The Museum and Countryside Education Outdoor Learning in the Countryside Harmony and Subversion in the Forest Education and Artists in the Countryside Chapter 5: Global Village BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) Cultural Politics in the Countryside Norfolk, Suffolk, and Papua New Guinea Another Way of Learning Middlesbrough Haka Artist as Ethnographer Globalising Village Connections From ‘Cosmopolitan Contamination’ to Invasive Alien Species Chapter 6: At the Edge of the Farm Diversity of Farms On the Edge of the Farm Calamities and Creative Consequences ‘More about Human Intellect than Human Muscle’ Images of Farming The Farm and the Artist-Ethnographer The Museum
Veronica Sekules was formerly Deputy Director and Head of Education and Research at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, UK, after an early career start in the environment movement and as a curator and writer. She is now Director of GroundWork Gallery in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, a new space dedicated to art and the environment.
