Unpacking the Dryad 'Handicrafts' collection: toward a global network of relationships for Leicester

揭开树妖“手工艺品”系列的面纱：为莱斯特建立全球关系网络

• 批准号: 2435353
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Leicester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2435353
• 关键词: Unpacking; Dryad; Handicrafts; collection; toward

My practice-based PhD explores the objects and archives of Leicester Museum and Art Gallery's Dryad 'Handicrafts' collection, with the aim to illuminate what linkages with the global and imperial context this new material culture history can reveal, and how it relates to museum studies and practice today. The collection is extremely diverse in manufacture and global in scope, ranging from basketry to textiles, carved wooden objects, and raw materials, and comes from ex British colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, as well as from Eastern Europe. It was purchased by Harry Peach of Leicester between 1918 and 1936 in missionary exhibitions, Empire expositions, international shows, and from his substantial network of relationships of field collectors. The rationale of the collection was educational: to provide good examples of 'handicrafts' from the world for the local School of Art, and to develop practice-based education by circulating the objects and related instructional leaflets in classes around Britain. With this end, the idea was to improve the educational system in the country, encouraging the formation of a new generation of designers capable to consider objects of foreign cultures in raw materials for a better national trade. For these reasons, the collection represents a case study to examine global and colonial collecting at the beginning of the twentieth century, and how contemporary exhibitions fostered European imperial culture and concepts of nationalism."Unpacking the Dryad 'Handicrafts' collection" seeks to generate substantial new research to explore what the Dryad collection reveals about the linkages between Leicester and Empire, and about changing understandings of Empire over the twentieth century. With a networking approach, my scope is to investigate collecting strategies and practices for the Dryad 'Handicrafts' collection: why and how the collector gathered specific objects? What is their provenance and manufacture? What do their past curation and display say about changing post-colonial environments and relationships?The project will contribute to three key areas of historical enquiry. First, it will offer a new material culture history of the British Empire, through analysis of a little-known but voluminous and important global and colonial collection of objects (ca2,000 items). Second, it will offer a means of changing current meanings and interpretations of the Dryad objects, by foregrounding the history of Empire in their development and interpretation. Third, it will build on and contribute to the dynamic field of global material culture history and histories of imperial collecting and display, by tracking a diverse and understudied collection through its hitherto unused set of archives.As part of my research, I work with the collections department at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery. New insights will bring a different perspective on the use and interpretation of the Dryad objects today, encouraging good practice based on the history of the collection, and considering matters of mission and cultural value within the institution. The aim is to give new light and life to the objects, which are kept in storage. The final outcome will be not only the thesis, but also an exhibition on - and with - the Dryad collection of basketry, emphasising aspects related to the global and imperial context in local collecting.

我以实践为基础的博士研究了莱斯特博物馆和艺术画廊的“手工艺品”收藏的物品和档案，目的是阐明这种新的物质文化史与全球和帝国背景的联系，以及它与今天的博物馆研究和实践的关系。该系列在制造和全球范围内极为多样化，从篮子到纺织品，雕刻木制品和原材料，来自非洲，亚洲和太平洋的前英国殖民地以及东欧。它是由莱斯特的哈里·皮奇在1918年至1936年间在传教展览、帝国博览会、国际展览以及他的现场收藏家关系网络中购买的。收藏的基本原理是教育：为当地的艺术学校提供来自世界各地的“手工艺品”的好例子，并通过在英国各地的课堂上分发物品和相关的教学传单来发展基于实践的教育。为此目的，其想法是改善该国的教育制度，鼓励新一代设计师的形成，他们能够在原材料中考虑外国文化的对象，以促进更好的国家贸易。由于这些原因，这些收藏代表了一个案例研究，以研究20世纪初的全球和殖民收藏，以及当代展览如何促进欧洲帝国文化和民族主义概念。“拆封森林女神的手工艺品”旨在产生大量的新研究，以探索森林女神的收藏品揭示了莱斯特和帝国之间的联系，以及20世纪对帝国的理解的变化。通过网络方法，我的研究范围是调查仙女木“手工艺品”收藏的收集策略和实践：收藏家为什么以及如何收集特定的物品？它们的来源和制造是什么？他们过去的策展和展示说明了后殖民时代环境和关系的变化？该项目将有助于历史研究的三个关键领域。首先，它将提供一个新的大英帝国的物质文化史，通过分析一个鲜为人知，但数量庞大，重要的全球和殖民时期的物品收藏（约2000件）。其次，它将提供一种手段，改变当前的意义和解释的森林女神的对象，在他们的发展和解释的帝国的历史前景。第三，它将建立并促进全球物质文化史和帝国收藏和展示史的动态领域，通过迄今未使用的档案追踪多样化和未充分研究的收藏。作为我研究的一部分，我在莱斯特博物馆和艺术画廊的收藏部门工作。新的见解将为今天的森林女神的使用和解释带来不同的视角，鼓励基于收藏历史的良好实践，并考虑机构内部的使命和文化价值问题。其目的是给保存在仓库中的物品带来新的光明和生命。最终的结果将不仅是论文，而且是一个关于森林女神的篮子收藏的展览，强调在当地收藏中与全球和帝国背景相关的方面。