Juan Velasco

“[T]his article revisits the historical development of state archival systems to examine the programmatic placement of state archives agencies within broader state governmental structures and the implications of these desig¬nations.” Read Elizabeth Joffrion’s new article in #AmericanArchivist. https://ow.ly/BZx650XWYfo

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✨Check out the first issue of the year! 📙Heritage, Volume 9, Issue 1 (January 2026): 🔗https://brnw.ch/21wZExJ 📔The cover story of this issue discusses how #glaze effects, once considered technical flaws, are now deliberately valued for their expressive potential in modern and contemporary ceramics. These complex surfaces, with irregular textures with inclusions, craters, or crack networks, are particularly vulnerable to #deterioration. 🔬Addressing these issues requires #conservation assessments grounded in a solid understanding of materials and techniques, increasingly supported by analytical studies and #TechnicalArtHistory. 🔍This approach is especially relevant for #azulejos, where historical reproductions are often used to reintegrate losses in tile panels. To support the conservation assessment of #ContemporaryTiles and comparable works, this study investigates the materials and techniques involved through a multi-analytical methodology combined with experimental glaze reproductions. 📖Read the whole paper here: https://brnw.ch/21wZExI

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✍️This microreview, conducted by #interdisciplinary teams, examines complex heritage material systems, such as #medieval_colors and modern and contemporary #artworks. 📑 https://brnw.ch/21wRRqj 🏛️The authors conduct a #multi-analytical approach. The #conservation of works of art is their shared goal, as it ensures their accessibility and the transfer of cultural heritage to future generations. 🔬Authors seek to interpret the damage, usefulness, and innovation of the experimental design in this context. Complementing micro- or sub-micro-sampling with the appropriate analytical methods is crucial, as exemplified in medieval, modern, and contemporary collections studies. Finally, a novel perspective for exploring the information contained in the multiscale heterogeneity of organic historical materials is envisaged, and it includes UV/Visible #photoluminescence spectral imaging using a low-intensity ultraviolet synchrotron beam.

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In the age of infinite, algorithmic knowledge—are museums still relevant? This Thursday, Bluecadet's founder and CEO Josh Goldblum is leading a Futurespaces session for anyone working at the intersection of museums, design, and technology: Museums in the Age of AI Museums were once the central gatekeepers of culture and trusted knowledge. But with AI reshaping how people access and interpret information, the question becomes: What unique value can museums provide in a digital-first world? How should they justify their physical and financial presence? What new principles must they embrace to remain vital? Josh will share insights from Bluecadet’s work with leading museums and open the floor for a community conversation. If you’re a museum professional, designer, technologist—or simply curious about the future of cultural institutions—this session is for you. Join us as we reimagine what museums can and must be in the AI era. RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/gvWuz3na

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Redaction in archival work (obscuring or removing sensitive information from records) has become a central concern in contemporary archival ethics. As archives increasingly acquire born-digital records and digitize historical collections for online access, archivists must grapple with data privacy, access, transparency, and potential harm. While redaction has long been used in government and legal records, its role in archival practice is evolving in ways that reflect broader shifts in how archivists view their moral responsibilities to the public and the individuals represented in their collections. https://lnkd.in/eS35uBsF

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#ArtnetNews: U.S. museums could potentially operate more efficiently if they offered free general admission. That is one of the main findings of a new report from Bentonville, Arkansas-based museum think tank Remuseum, which published its second report today. The study, titled “Access, Scale, and Market Share,” presented new findings in its analysis of American art museums and proposals about how they can maximize resources and practices to widen their reach to the public. Despite the fact that nearly all U.S. museums center the public in their mission statements, they typically share limited data about their public impact. Remuseum sought to improve that by building the first nonproprietary database on operations and impact at over 150 major institutions. It uses the data to demonstrate how they can better serve the public. Read more: https://bit.ly/4inV2sU Article by Eileen Kinsella _______ Pictured: A view of the Metropolitan Museum of Art building in New York City, United States on July 15, 2024. Photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images.

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Museums are not being shaken by technology alone. They are under pressure from a number of factors: shrinking public funding, shifting political agendas, restitution debates, post-pandemic exhaustion and the accelerating erosion of institutional trust. Technology is not the cause, but the conductor, of this pressure. It reveals the structural fragility of a model built on stability in an era defined by turbulence. Rather than a single art world migrating online, what we see emerging is an archipelago of art worlds unfolding in parallel. Digital platforms, blockchains, algorithmic feeds and AI infrastructures are circulating images, artefacts and meanings beyond curatorial control. Authority splinters. Museums no longer occupy the gravitational centre of cultural life by default; they are now participants in a wider, more volatile ecosystem — sometimes catalysts, often bypassed. AI intensifies this reconfiguration. It unsettles the coordinates of authorship, originality, and ownership — the very ideals that sustained the museum's epistemic order. When creation becomes distributed, assisted or co-composed, the old myths of genius and mastery become less relevant. This is not the end of artistic agency, but rather a mutation: a demand for institutions to rearticulate why certain works matter and according to which ethics of attribution. Meanwhile, immersive cultural spaces, where spectacle fuses with sensory experience, draw the crowds that once defined museum success. Such spaces are often dismissed as mere entertainment, yet their popularity reveals a shift in collective attention. Attendance does not equal depth, but an absence of audiences signifies disconnection. The question is no longer whether museums should compete with these formats, but whether they can remain relevant without understanding why emotion and presence have migrated elsewhere. For too long, museums have sought refuge in the rhetoric of neutrality. This approach is no longer convincing. Funding sources, urban agendas and the political uses of culture are now transparent to all. In such circumstances, silence is perceived as complicity and detachment as evasion. Credibility today does not rest on distance, but on a declared position. Institutions must choose between inertia and metamorphosis, not between seriousness and popularity. A museum that insists on fixity becomes merely ceremonial, offering continuity without vitality. However, one that allows its forms, durations and methods of address to evolve can continue to serve as a civic organ of reflection, rather than becoming a shrine to settled heritage. The future of the museum depends on its ability to become permeable: a living interface where publics, tools, images, conflicts and meanings intersect without resolution being guaranteed. Its task is not to preserve the past as a certainty, but to repeatedly test its power to illuminate the unstable present. https://shorturl.at/LSkHa

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Designing with #librarians and #archivists, not just for them. 🤝 In JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services, research revealed two ways stewards work: targeted bulk edits and context-rich bulk cataloguing. That insight led to a full-width editor, all metadata fields visible by default, and item thumbnails that keep context in view. Read how listening and evidence shaped the experience: https://bit.ly/4n7BWZu

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How COUNTER Metrics and CLOCKSS Work Together for Smarter Preservation Librarians know the importance of preserving access to scholarly content—especially the materials most in demand. A recent webinar from CLOCKSS and COUNTER highlighted how usage data and digital preservation services can work hand in hand: • COUNTER-compliant metrics help identify high-use content • CLOCKSS ensures that content is preserved securely and becomes open access if needed • Together, they provide a reliable, data-driven approach to protecting the scholarly record This collaboration supports collection development, risk management, and long-term access strategies. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ejZGzAXg #AcademicLibraries #DigitalPreservation #COUNTER #CLOCKSS #ScholarlyCommunication #LibraryCollections

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