News

Museums improve urban spaces - we must ensure that their soft power isn’t used as a force for gentrification. Today there are somewhere between 50,000 and 80,000 museums in the world, depending on how you count them and what you count. There have been two main museum-building booms: the first, in the global north and west, occurred between 1780 and 1900, stim-ulated by nation-building and colonialism as royal col-lections were transformed into national museums. The second, which started in 1980 and is still going, is fuelled by urbanisation and rising urban real-estate values world-wide; in 2008 we became majority urban dwellers for the first time in history as the number of people living in cities surpassed 50 per cent.

For the concluding Cultural News of 2019, we share some of the highlights that made it a great year for our practice because so many clients and projects embraced diversity, creativity, youth empowerment, human rights and open minds. Looking ahead – the public trust in museums and the cultural sector depends on these values.

It’s fitting that America’s first true museum hotel is at one of America’s very best museums, and a longtime personal favorite of mine, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. If you haven’t been, go, and if you have been, go back - this was my fourth visit, and every time there are new exhibits and in many cases, entire new wings or buildings. Last year TripAdvisor users named it the nation’s third best museum behind only New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, and at Number One, the 9/11 Museum (also an amazing can’t miss experience).

Congratulations to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Lord Cultural Resources is so proud to have worked with you to develop your campus and your leaning strategies.

Check out this article on building livable communities through soft power by Gail Lord on page 26 at the current issue of Heritage Matters: Rethink. Revitalize.

In 11 years as executive director of the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, janera solomon changed more than just the prominence of that East Liberty performing-arts venue. She profoundly altered the Pittsburgh arts scene. “Supporting emerging artists, new ideas, no matter where they come from, is a critical part of keeping a city, and keeping an arts community viable,” she said.

Janera has worked with Lord Cultural Resources in several projects.

Session kicks off development of new strategic plan. FARMINGTON — Members of the public who attended a Dec. 11 meeting at the Farmington Museum at Gateway Park to help develop the facility's new strategic plan voiced a lot of appreciation for the museum. But they also expressed a desire to see the facility take a more diversified and daring approach to its programming. The meeting was one of the first steps in the creation of a new strategic plan designed to guide the museum for the next several years. The city has contracted with Lord Cultural Resources — a global consulting practice that offers specialized planning services in the museum, cultural and heritage sector — to facilitate the development of the plan. Two representatives of the firm's Toronto office — vice president Brad King and senior consultant Sarah Hill — were at the museum to lead the meeting, which was designed to solicit public input, and help King and Hill develop a better understanding of how residents view the facility.

One man is making it his mission to photograph the buildings and landmarks seen on currency from around the world, which brought him to Winnipeg to see the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on our $10 bill. 

Emaad Paracha has been through four countries photographing sites on currency.

Lord Cultural Resources has been involved with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights since the early stages, developing the Concept Plan, Master Plan, Architectural Competition Management and completing a cross-country Public Engagement. Most recently, Lord Cultural Resources was engaged by the CMHR to provide tour management services for the Mandela: A Struggle for Freedom traveling exhibition.

What can Canada learn from the museum building boom in China? It’s a question examined in the book Museum Development in China: Understanding the Building Boom, edited by Gail Dexter Lord, Guan Qiang, An Laishun, and Javier Jimenez. The anthology aims to discover how much East and West can learn from each other about museum roles, our publics, how we preserve, what we conserve and our future sustainability—even as we marvel at the accomplishments of China's museum building boom.

On November 27, the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, in partnership with the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy,  the Faculty of Information, and Lord Cultural Resources, hosted a book launch event and panel discussion at the George Ignatieff Theatre. 

ANN ARBOR • After an acclaimed first-phase opening in April, the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History has now completed its redevelopment, opening three major new galleries and two investigative labs to the public.

SANTA FE • Arts and culture can be the driver in addressing New Mexico’s most critical social and economic issues, said an agenda-setting group of culture-sector leaders at a public event this past October at the NM History Museum auditorium on the Historic Plaza of Santa Fe.