Bradford's National Museum: Methods for re-founding 'inter/national' museums translocally

将博物馆命名为“国家”意味着许多事情：地位和意义;对藏品如何落入学科界限（艺术，历史，科学）的固定观点;与游客作为公民的某些类型的关系;特定形式的治理和资金结构;以及与公民和国家的概念联系。然而，支撑“国家博物馆”的政治和认识论解决方案在所有这些方面都面临压力，资金大幅削减，跨学科创新以及跨越国界的人员，货物，资本和思想的全球流动。布拉德福德国家博物馆项目将以一个已经经历了如此多的过程的城市为基础，将部署“跨地区”的想法-一个突出特定地方地区的人们之间的联系而不是民族国家和首都城市之间的联系的概念-作为重新构建博物馆政治地理的一种方式。“布拉德福德国家博物馆”项目-与国家媒体博物馆（NMeM），科学博物馆集团（SMG）的一部分构思-将以三种方式部署“translocality”作为研究方法（多个地点的工作链，将布拉德福德与当地其他地方联系起来），作为一种方法（布拉德福德的社区网络建设以及布拉德福德与其他国家其他地方的联系，特别是巴基斯坦、印度、孟加拉国，多米尼加联邦和波兰）和作为一个概念（支持在博物馆的背景下发展新的国际/国家的阅读）。NMeM成立于1983年，作为国家摄影，电影和电视博物馆，在布拉德福德的乐观时刻。然而，在20世纪90年代和21世纪初，城市的不同特征变得更加强硬，三十年的国家媒体和政策言论的影响，试图代表和解释“布拉德福德的问题”。NMeM既受到布拉德福德这些国家叙事的影响，也是其中的一员。自成立以来，该博物馆经常被引用为在旅游和商业搬迁活动中来到布拉德福德的原因。然而，NMeM在其使命中发现了一种紧张关系，即在当地参与和在国际摄影、电影和电视同行网络中保持高地位之间。最近关于NMeM可持续性的公开辩论已经表明，布拉德福德拥有国家博物馆的地位的愿望和对地方问责制的同样强烈的愿望之间存在着紧张关系。布拉德福德的国家博物馆项目将探讨NMeM和更广泛的SMG以及生活在布拉德福德的不同社区的政治地理，作为解决国际/国家博物馆在吸引当地观众方面所面临的紧张局势的一种手段。该项目将与布拉德福德的想法，而不是作为一个“全球城市”，但作为省级和连接translocally和地方对话与NMeM的重点放在“科学和文化的声音和视觉技术”。研究问题将通过系统的行动研究，使我们能够建立一个“工作画面”的NMeM目前发挥的作用，并利用这一点来确定块以及生产力变化的途径。在第一阶段，它将与当地居民共同制作跨地区的故事，以“将布拉德福德写入NMeM”。在第二阶段，该项目将确定有针对性的干预措施，将“写入布拉德福德的NMeM”，重新定义的“国家”的NMeM translocally。在第三阶段，该项目将通过与NMeM SMG姐妹博物馆NRM和MOSI合作，通过与国际上其他博物馆-史密森学会（美国）和Beaconhouse国立大学（巴基斯坦）-建立交流，并通过实践者和政策制定者研讨会确定研究在英国背景下的影响，确保更广泛的适用性。

The designation of a museum as 'national' implies a number of things: status and significance; a settled view of how collections fall within disciplinary boundaries (art, history, science); certain types of relations with visitors as citizens; specific forms of governance and funding structures; and a conceptual affiliation to the civic and the state. Yet the political and epistemic settlement that has underpinned the 'national museum' is under pressure on all of these fronts, with significant funding cuts, trans-disciplinary innovations and global flows of people, goods, capital and ideas that transcend national borders. Based in a city that has come to exemplify so many of these processes, 'Bradford's National Museum' project will deploy ideas of 'translocality' - a concept which foregrounds the connections between people in specific local areas rather than between national states and capital cities - as a way of re-framing the political geographies of museums. The 'Bradford's National Museum' project - conceived with the National Media Museum (NMeM), part of the Science Museum Group (SMG) - will deploy 'translocality' in three ways, as a research method (with strands of work which are multi-sited and link Bradford with other local places), as an approach (of community network building in Bradford and through the connections Bradford has to other local places in other countries specifically Pakistan, Indian, Bangladesh, Commonwealth of Dominica and Poland) and as a concept (to support the development of new readings of inter/national in the context of museums).The NMeM was founded as the National Museum for Photography, Film and Television in 1983, at a moment of optimism for Bradford. However, in the 1990s and 2000s different characterizations of the city hardened, the effect of three decades of national media and policy rhetoric which had sought to represent and account for 'what's wrong with Bradford'. The NMeM has been both affected by, and a player in, these national narratives of Bradford. Since its establishment, the museum has often been cited as a reason to come to Bradford in tourism and business relocation campaigns. Yet the NMeM has found a tension in its mission between being locally-engaged and maintaining a high-status role in international photography, film and television peer networks. Recent public debates concerning the sustainability of the NMeM have made visible a tension between the desire for the status that comes from Bradford having a national museum and an equally strong desire for local accountability. The Bradford's National Museum project will explore the political geographies of the NMeM and wider SMG and of the different communities who live in Bradford as a means of addressing the tensions facing inter/national museums in engaging their local audiences. The project will work with the idea of Bradford not as a 'global city', but as provincial and connected translocally and place this in dialogue with the NMeM's focus on the 'science and culture of sound and vision technologies'. The research questions will be addressed through systemic action research allowing us to build a 'working picture' of the role the NMeM currently plays and use this to identify blocks as well as pathways for productive change. In Phase 1 it will use co-producing translocal stories with people who live locally to 'Write Bradford into the NMeM'. In Phase 2, the project will identify targeted interventions that will 'Write the NMeM into Bradford', refounding the 'national' in the NMeM translocally. In Phase 3, the project will ensure wider applicability through working with the NMeM SMG sister museums NRM and MOSI, by building exchanges with other museums internationally - the Smithsonian Institution (US) and via Beaconhouse National University (Pakistan) - and through identifying the implications of the research in a UK context through practitioner and policy-maker workshops.