18 February

• Taiyuan Museum of Art - China - Preston Scott Cohen
  The winning competition proposal for the Taiyuan Museum of Art represents a new approach for establishing relationships between place, technology and artistic culture, past and present. The building's form is analogous to the extraordinary agricultural landscapes native to the Shanxi Province. Just as the landscapes of curved terraces in Shanxi respond to the laws of irrigation and topography, the curved and tessellated surfaces of the Taiyuan Museum of Art respond to contemporary technologies for controlling natural and artificial light. The spatial effect recalls the multiple perspectives of traditional Chinese landscape paintings. As opposed to the Western tradition of framed one point perspectives, the curved and angled forms of the Taiyuan Museum of Art produce unanticipated spatial layers, sequences of light and shade, continuities and discontinuities, all in an immersive environment that appears to be unbound.
  More information: http://pscohen.com/ty.html

17 February

• Pilot database Construction on Art and Technology Museums to be launched with VJEdu
  Julio Costa, a Phd student at the Universidad Federal DO Río Grande DO Sul (Brasil), will be working at the LAMIC during the month of February, while he is doing his research on his project VJEdu-Educational Jockey Video, a study of performance for the simultaneous presentation in several mass media. In the framework of the collaboration agreement CRI-LAMIC, he is specifically working on the creation of a pilot database on Art and Technology Museum, to be launched with VJEdu.
  More information in French: http://www.lamic.ulaval.ca/

16 February

• Remembrance and Education in the national stadium of Chile: “An open museum, a place of remembrance and homage.” (Chile-France)
  Among the many interesting topics encompassed by the Latin-American Media library (AMSuD) and the audio-visual files pertaining to the research (AAR- ESCom), that undertaken into and diffusion of the information unearthed about the past, present and future of human rights in Latin America stands out. In the case of Chile, we open an initial forum to discuss this issue with the launch of a project dedicated to the creation of a centre of remembrance and education in the national stadium of Chile: The “Open Museum, a place of remembrance and homage”.
  More information in Spanish: http://www.archivesaudiovisuelles.fr/EN/Event.asp?id=1860&url=/1860/home.asp

12 February

• Iran's National Museum Drops Ties with British Museum
  Iran's National Museum on Saturday cut ties with the British Museum in protest at the delayed implementation of an agreement held earlier between the two sides on sending the Cyrus Cylinder to Iran. "Now Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) (as supervisor of Iran's National Museum) makes this official announcement that it will have no relations with the British Museum as of Sunday," Iranian Vice-President and ICHHTO Head Hamid Baqaei said in a press conference here in Tehran this afternoon.
  More information: http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8811171637

• Haitian Libraries and Archives Spared from Earthquake Damage
  The following letter comes from Brooke Wooldridge of the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC). A cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean, dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical, and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections. There has been significant confusion as to the state of the four main patrimonial libraries in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake on January 12, 2010. Based on information that I have received from the Digital Library of the Caribbean partner libraries in Haiti, all four of the following library buildings are standing:
  • Archives nationales d’Haïti
  • Bibliothèque haïtienne des Pères du Saint-Esprit / San Martial [though the collection will need to be evacuated, as the building cannot be salvaged]
  • Bibliothèque haïtienne des Frères de l’Instruction Chrétienne / Saint Louis de Gonzague
  • Bibliothèque nationale d’Haïti

  Importantly, the library at Saint Louis de Gonzague (FIC) was NOT destroyed. The reporter that stated the library had fallen was incorrect.
  More information: http://www.collegeart.org/news/2010/02/01/haitian-libraries-and-archives-spared-from-earthquake-damage/

• Thripunithura Hill Palace Museum. Kerala (India)
  If you are keen on visiting the largest archaeological museum in Kerala, then come to the Thripunithura Hill palace. The palace built in 1865 was the former residence of the Kochi Royal family and is situated close to the city of Kochi on the Kochi-Chottanikkara route. The palace was taken over by the Department Of Archaeology in 1980 and later converted into a museum. It was opened to the public in 1986. This elegant looking palace built in the traditional architecture of Kerala comprises 49 units and is on a 52-acre land noted for its terraced landscape dotted with ponds, fountains and lawns. The palace currently houses a full-fledged ethno-archaeological museum and also Kerala's first ever heritage museum.
  More information: http://www.keralatourism.org/kerala-article/197/thripunithura-hill-palace-kochi.php

• Historic bottles and cermanics
  Historic bottles and ceramics help archaeologists unlock information about how people lived in the past. These relics lose their significance if removed from their original location - even those found under water. If you do come across historic bottles and ceramics, then contact us on 03 8644 8800 or archaeology.admin@dpcd.vic.gov.au
  More information: http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/Archaeology/Protecting.aspx

• Fougères Biblioteque / Tétrarc Architects
  The Fougères Biblioteque follows the contemporary approach to libraries as meeting spaces, rather than just book storage. Due to the public function of the building,it expresses itself to the city trough the facade details. The program is distributed in two levels. The building is seen as a compact mass, with excavations to bring light and green into the building.
  More information: http://www.archdaily.com/47969/

11 February

• Discover Love Through Art on Europeana
  Lovers embracing. Romantic poems. Couples walking hand in hand. These are a few of the symbols associated with Valentine's Day, a festival of love celebrated for hundreds of years, and they can all be explored through the paintings, images, sounds and texts of Europe’s cultural heritage, available on Europeana. A 15th century copy of the classic medieval poem Roman de la Rose is among the more ornate depictions of love in Europeana’s collection. It tells the story of a Lover’s quest for the Rose – a symbol for his lady’s affection. Held by the British Library, this handwritten copy is illustrated by richly decorated miniature paintings. In one of the paintings, the Lover is led to the walled garden, where he must find his Rose. Inside the courtyard, ladies are reclining under fruit trees and being serenaded by musicians.
  More information: http://app.e2ma.net/campaign/1403149.f49341f322ebfe7da1c348e3901f390b

9 February

• Last operational World War II motor boats saved for the nation (United Kingdom)
  Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust, which manages several of the attractions within Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, has acquired a pair of rare World War Two motorboats with the help of £580,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.One of the boats, MGB 81, was active during the US landing at Omaha Beach during D-Day and received the battle honour ‘Normandy 1944’. The other, HSL 102, is the only surviving example of the 100-class high-speed launch and was stationed at RAF Calshot during the Battle of Britain, retrieving shot down airmen from the sea.
  More information: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history+%26+heritage/
  war+%26+conflict/world+war+two/art75866

8 February

• We want your feedback: documentation and endangered collections
  UNESCO and ICCROM, together with other partners, have prepared a draft practical guide for basic documentation of collections in small museums and would like your help in improving it. If you work for a museum which has between 5,000 and 8,000 objects and your responsibilities include the inventory and documentation of collections, we welcome your feedback.
  More information: http://www.iccrom.org/eng/news_en/2010_en/events_en/
  02_02feebackPreventiveConservation_en.shtml