Volume 5, Issue 1

The historically underrepresented Pacific Colombian Coast is known for its social injustice and poverty. However, in this adverse environment, a group of artists called School and Workshop Watercolorists of San Cipriano, created in the decade of 1990s, decided to use art as the means to express both their individual and collective concerns. The artists are watercolorists, photographers, painters, and sculptors who tell their stories through their work. The pieces of four San Cipriano artists have been displayed in Buenaventura’s local venues and at the National Museum of Colombia. In addition, these artists are helping in the assemblage of the permanent museum’s hall, Strength, Faith, and Substance, which is a joint effort of the grassroots artists, anthropologists, and archaeologists, to display Colombian spirituality. The following is a transcription of an Explorers event with the watercolorists and the museum professionals involved in the hall’s display.

Of the six Latin American Holocaust Museums, the one in Guatemala deserves special attention. The other five in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica also remember the Jewish victims of WWII, but in Guatemala there is an emphasis on the so-called “Holocaust by bullets.” At the Holocaust Museum Guatemala, its founders and director devote special attention to the executions by bullets using auditive and visual effects causing a long-lasting impact on the public. Another highlight of this institution is the efforts made by its educative team to inform the audience not only about the Holocaust but also the genocide committed against the Guatemalan native population during the 1980s.

In 2019, an Extraordinary General Assembly International Council of Museums (ICOM) met in Kyoto, Japan to vote on a new museum definition. Among other things, the controversial proposal described museums as “democratising, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and the futures” that should also aim “to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary wellbeing.” The motion to postpone the vote, which was supported by a large majority in Kyoto, caused a crisis in the most important international organization for museums and museum professionals. In the years since, ICOM Define led an elaborate consultation process resulting in a newly revised museum definition to be voted on at ICOM’s Extraordinary General Assembly in Prague in August 2022. In this conversation, several prominent members of ICOM who have been deeply involved in the debates about a new museum definition take a critical look at the consultation process before Kyoto, the reasons for postponing the vote, the work of ICOM Define, and also share their expectations for Prague.

In the last few years, the notion of applied history has seen a notable rise in interest among historians. Arising out of questions related to contemporary concerns, such as political extremism and Covid-19, several projects have taken up the challenge to address these questions and other issues by looking to the past, thereby furthering the idea that applied history warrants the attention of professional (academic) historians. The concept of applied history itself is, however, not new, begging questions of how these new projects use the term and how this usage relates to older definitions and methods associated with the term. This article shows that much of the most recent ‘wave’ of applied history has tended to present itself as closely related to history and policy, distinguishing itself by either drawing a hard line between public and applied history or by ignoring public history altogether. On the other hand, some have defined applied history as an approach or sub-field of public history, sometimes leading public historians to assume that these new groups are merely, and unhelpfully, putting a new logo on an old brand. This article offers a thorough overview of these contending developments and argues that the current conceptual and methodological confusion about applied history is detrimental to anyone relying on the term. Essentially, when a non-historian seeks the assistance of an applied historian and asks the logical question “and what do you do, exactly?,” the current uncertainty can result in major and off-putting confusion about what the term actually means.

Approaching the case study of Hungary as one in historical revisionism, this article focuses on new museums, revamped public squares, and popular historical walks which either reinforce or contest the contemporary project of right-wing hegemony. The author compares two major historical museums which both aim to address the recent past and opened in the early years of the twenty-first century; zooms in on two post-2010 initiatives to reshape major public squares in downtown Budapest; and retraces two types of walking tours that foster new awareness via historical spaces. Through these parallel case studies, the author aims to demonstrate that the ongoing project of building right-wing hegemony has produced several notable results; however, right-wing hegemony has remained contested by innovative projects that foster more inclusive visions.

This brief review of non-English public history textbooks provides an overview of key themes, emerging trends and contextual differences in the theories and practice of public history in Brazil, China, Japan, and Germany. These books reflect both the international growth in public history and the global recognition of its transformative impact on societies. The books highlight how public history is situated within national epistemological and cultural frameworks. Critically it is these frameworks and the application of localized and socially engaged approaches that enables public history to impact diverse communities.