Related Papers
ICOM CAMOC ANNUAL BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS
CAIRO CITY MUSEUM: THE ASSUMPTION FOR THE FIRST CITY MUSEUM IN EGYPT
2021 •
Manar Mazhar, MA
Museum International
The Museums of Egypt after the 2011 Revolution
2015 •
Mohamed Gamal Rashed
AbstractNot only are Egyptian museums an asset in developing the country's economy, but they also play a pivotal social role in developing community-based activities and fostering dialogue. This role was emphasised after the 2011 revolution. Although museums in Egypt faced several threats and challenges during and after the revolution, the social change that it brought about highlighted the importance of museums. Museums encounter many opportunities that restore and strengthen their relationship with diverse Egyptian communities. This paper describes and documents the changes happening in Egypt's museums. As forums in which social matters can be discussed, museums play a foremost part in the promotion of social change and development. This is particularly true of museums in countries that have seen the rise and fall of great ancient civilisations, such as Egypt.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349506656_Museums_and_Cultural_Heritage_in_Post-Revolution_Egypt_Transformation_and_Transmission
Museums and Cultural Heritage in Post-Revolution Egypt
2017 •
Shadia Mahmoud
Over the past five years, Egypt has undergone critical changes to its political system as a result of two anti-government protests, which have also had decisive influence on its cultural heritage. Young Egyptians initiated this movement through social media platforms. The movement grew to include different segments of the Egyptian people with varied ideological backgrounds, gender, and age. 1 They called for a peaceful revolution to request bread, freedom, and social justice. Despite other revolutions producing unprecedented threats to cultural heritage, including widespread looting of archaeological sites, unregulated demolition of historic buildings and ideologically-motivated destruction of museums, 2 this was not the case in Egypt. In contrast, on January 28, 2011, the peaceful revolutionists formed a human chain around the Cairo Museum to protect it from theft. Looting, damage, and illegal digging of Egypt's cultural heritage had already persisted over a long period pre-revolution; after the revolution, it was exaggerated, but as a result of a domestic of disorder rather than revolutionary strategies of protest. Museums and cultural heritage in Egypt faced many challenges and obstacles, amongst them the need for fundamental transformation of cultural heritage management policy within the broader framework of current philosophy and practice worldwide. The revolution did not itself the deterioration and the smuggling of Egyptian cultural heritage, but instead, drew our attention to years of negligence, in which the preservation management of cultural heritage has been held 1
THE EGYPTIAN WORLD HERITAGE CITIES: THE SEARCH FOR A RELEVANT CONTEXT
2012 •
Ayman G. Abdel Tawab
Abdel Tawab, Ayman G. (2012): “THE EGYPTIAN WORLD HERITAGE CITIES: THE SEARCH FOR A RELEVANT CONTEXT” in Martinsson-Wallin, Helene and Karlström, Anna (ed): WORLD HERITAGE AND IDENTITY: THREE WORLDS MEET, A workshop arranged during the VII International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific, Migration, Identity, and Cultural Heritage, August 20 – 25, 2007 Visby. Visby: Gotland University Press, pp. 71–89. Abstract: World Heritage Cities, WHCs, the well-established and well-represented form of World Heritage Sites, WHSs, seem to largely share the complexity of the world heritage phenomenon. The complexity and the challenges associated with the world heritage experience have been the focus of the workshop that has accompanied the "VII International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific", which has been entitled “World Heritage and Identity: Three Worlds Meet”. The main aim of this study was to unearth the similar features and the common challenges that might interlink the Egyptian WHCs with the three properties that have been the focus of the workshop. The workshop has been mainly concerned with the three World Heritage Sites of "Hanseatic Town of Visby", "Rapa Nui National Park" and "Stone Town of Zanzibar". Only two of the previous three properties represent WHCs and can be considered relevant to the Egyptian WHCs. These two properties are the "Hanseatic Town of Visby" and the "Stone Town of Zanzibar". The Egyptian WHCs that were addressed through this study involved "Historic Cairo" WHS, "Historic quarters and monuments of Rosetta/Rachid" potential WHS, and "Alexandria, ancient remains and the new library" potential WHS. The study revealed many common features, themes and challenges that link the Egyptian WHCs with the other properties discussed during the workshop. The most significant common features involve the governments' limited efforts concerning the management of WHSs and the lack of adequate connection between the institutions involved with the management of these properties. The inefficient control of the new urban development introduced inside most of these properties, the need for further developed heritage laws, and the dependence on tourism as a major source of income are other common themes. Nevertheless, the study has revealed other unique challenges and themes limited to the Egyptian WHCs. The frozen rents problem, the dominance of rundown overcrowded residential areas and the limited accessibility to heritage ownership seem to represent some of such unique challenges. Notice: The paper that has been published in the proceedings of the workshop did not include an abstract since the instructions for the authors to the workshop proceedings preferred if the submitted studies would have not include abstracts. The previous abstract has been prepared based on the introduction of the published study and its final conclusions.
Challenging the Museum Narrative of Ancient Egypt
Jennifer Miller
Given the growing awareness of the museum field's foundation in white colonial power, museums have started to take action, utilizing the word "decolonize" to expand community partnerships and removing sculptures that celebrate white domination while reanalyzing their own past/present collection practices. On the surface, public-facing façade, we have seen a movement toward change, with more inclusive language, accessibility, and programming, while acknowledging that our field has much more work ahead. However, if museums are to truly understand and acknowledge their colonial history and connection, this self-examination must go beyond how they received their collections and explore how they continue to interpret them. This essay examines how museums perpetuate a colonial mindset in interpreting their collections. Specifically, by looking at ancient Egyptian collections, I will examine how museums have participated in creating a Western-based narrative that has appropriated ancient Egyptian history, thereby fragmenting Egyptian history, culture, and identity, and thus creating an incomplete and simplified narrative. The impact of this incomplete and simplified narrative can be seen in the over-valuing of ancient Egypt over modern Egypt, which in turn has real-world implications on tourism and even civic planning.
The Egyptian Cultural Heritage Now
The Sustainable Role of Regional Museums in Preserving Egypt’s Intangible Cultural Heritage
2023 •
Mennah Aly
As a country famous for its long history, Egypt is well-known for its rich and diverse cultural heritage, which is not only attested in the form of tangible sites, monuments and artefacts displayed in numerous museums, but also in the form of the intangible vivid oral traditions, festive celebrations, social customs as well as traditional arts and crafts. The importance of this intangible cultural heritage is that it represents the preserved identity of the Egyptian civilization and its traditions, -passed on from one generation to the next. Unfortunately, Egyptian intangible cultural heritage is endangered due to broad cultural globalization, and demographic and/or economic issues leading to weakened practices by local communities. Due to their role in preserving, interpreting, and promoting the natural and cultural heritage of humanity, and as knowledge-sharing institutions that operate for the benefit of communities, the regional museums in Egypt could in fact play an active role in the preservation of Egyptian intangible cultural heritage and its sustainable dissemination to future generations. This paper highlights the role of regional museums in the preservation of Egypt’s cultural identity through communication of its rich and diverse cultural heritage to the local communities. It also sheds light on these institutions’ role in bridging the gap between intangible cultural heritage, exemplified in traditional practices, arts and crafts, and the museums’ physical collections. As the sustainable preservation of intangible cultural heritage depends mainly on the practicing communities, this research sheds light on the idea of involving the rural communities in museum activities and public events. Furthermore, the paper discusses the participation of the private sector and stakeholders in supporting the role of the local museums in the rural communities’ development and in the preservation of Egypt’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
Grand Projects: Urban Legacies of the Late 20th Century
The Great Egyptian Museum: contemporary architecture as an argument for the repatriation of collections
2021 •
Bianca Lupo
The Great Egyptian Museum (GME) can be considered a "pharaonic" architecture located on the outskirts of the Giza Pyramids. The idea of building a Great Museum for Egyptology, which occupies an internal area of 90,000m², derivers from discussions started in the mid-1990s. In 2002, the Irish office Heneghan Peng Architects won an international architecture competition that included more than 1,500 proposals from architects around the world. Commonly called as "the fourth pyramid of Giza", the GME´s construction started in 2005 and now is almost completed. The built of this mega museum structure aims to contribute to Egypt´s unique positioning as a first-class tourist destination considering the globalization processes. Furthermore, the GME must also be considered within a big strategy of building and renovating of nineteen museums in Egypt that includes, for example, the projects of the Nubian Museum in Aswan and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. This strategy was undertaken by the worldwide famous archaeologist Zahi Hawass, then Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt. The construction of a mega museum architecture has been mobilized as an important argument for requesting the repatriation of Egyptian collections illegally removed from the country. Since 2010, Egypt has expressed interest in the return (or at least the loan) of some archeological antiques such as the Bust of Nefertiti and the Rosetta´s Stone. Even without being successful in these international negotiations, the architectural design assumes prominence for questioning one of the main arguments used to deny the repatriation requests: the lack of infrastructure for safeguarding and researching collections. The GME suggests the reflection about new challenges between global-local cultures that emerge in contemporaneity.
Journal of Ancient Civilizations
‛A New Concept and Exhibition Program for the Egyptian Museum in Cairo’
2018 •
Mohamed Gamal Rashed
This article presents a new concept for the future permanent display of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and discusses different practical ideas and concepts. Throughout the discussion, recent challenges and opportunities are considered, particularly the conflicts and duplication among the three major museums in Greater Cairo, the Egyptian Museum (EMC), the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC). Different ideas are introduced, while selected options are then discussed. The author argues his suggestion to develop a concept that combines archaeological fieldwork, masterpieces, and visible storage in a presentation that varies from aesthetic, contextual and systematic display. This comes from the author's understanding of the expected audiences, their interests, the strengths of the collection, the exhibition space, and EMC's mission.
International Journal of Heritage and Museum Studies
Tracing the History of Museums in Egypt from the Ptolemaic Period to the Fall of Mohamed Ali’s Dynasty (323 BC – AD 1952)
2020 •
Noha Shalaby
forming material egypt Proceedings of the International Conference, London, 20-21 May, 2013
Museum collections and moving objects in Egypt: an approach to amend the current situation
2013 •
Maher Eissa
Defining museum, collection, institution or “heritage” are key questions in museum studies and practice: even the term “museum object” hides the idea that the museum is the place not only to shelter objects, but principally to trans- form things into objects. Such fundamental questions are still not adequately considered by the authorities for antiq- uities and museums in Egypt. One example to be highlighted here concerns the practice and procedures of moving objects. In Egypt as elsewhere, museums lack shared guidelines for moving objects. Examples are given here of the physical damage and loss of information that resulted from repeated moves, often in the context of founding new museums without clear rationale. T hese risks highlight the need for national authorities in Egypt, and elsewhere, to reconsider a common collection policy, both for moving museum objects and for establishing new museums.
