September | 2018 | Luba Nurse

Tags

mountmaking, museum reopening, permanent exhibition, preventive conservation, Weltmuseum Wien, Worldmuseum Vienna

together with Renèe Riedler we are presenting some aspects of the recent project of reopening a permanent exhibition at the Worldmuseum Vienna at the 6th International Mountmakers Forum. The forum’s program looks fantastic !

We are grateful to the organisers for the opportunity to present our work, and to Plowden & Smith Ltd for the travel bursary to attend the forum.

Luba Nurse & Renèe Riedler

REOPENING OF THE WORLDMUSEUM VIENNA, AUSTRIA: EXPANDING THE ROLE OF MOUNTS IN THE PRESERVATION AND INTERPRETATION OF ARTEFACTS.

Worldmuseum Vienna: project background.
In October 2017 a new permanent exhibition was opened to the public at the Worldmuseum Vienna. The museum’s roots go back to 1806 when the Imperial and Royal Ethnographic Collection was established as part of the Imperial Natural History Cabinet after the partial acquisition of the Cook Collection. The museum has been housed in the Neue Burg wing of the Hofburg Palace since 1928. The project began in 2013 with the decision to create a new permanent exhibition (10+years). The deinstallation of the previous display began in 1997. In the interim, the museum held temporary exhibitions and was actively loaning the collection to institutions in Austria and abroad. Following an international open competition, Ralph Appelbaum Associates in collaboration with Hoskins Architects were appointed to redevelop exhibition and visitor facilities. The 7,500m2 redevelopment includes 2,400m2 permanent exhibition and 1,400m2 temporary exhibition spaces. More than 3000 artefacts were selected to represent the collection in 14 galleries. The museum presents itself as ‘a venue for connecting cultures and people… the museum is dedicated to the cultural diversity of humankind and strives to document the diverse historical ties between Austria and the world in its collections from all around the globe’.

The conservation team previously focused on short-term exhibitions, loans, and redevelopment of storage. A project of such scale required a new approach.