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About #MuseumsUnlocked, a captivating online curatorial endeavour during Covid-19 lockdowns

Nov 28, 2020

A great initiative instigated by Professor Dan Hicks during Lockdown 1 and Lockdown 2

#MuseumsUnlocked

First, a few words about about Professor Dan Hicks, the developer and instigator of this innovative 125-day Twitter lockdown project:

Dan Hicks (FSA, MCIfA) is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator of World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College, UK. He works on the material and visual culture of the modern, (post)colonial and contemporary world, and on the history of Archaeology and Anthropology. Current work is focused on the politics of European museum collections, and the material culture of the “refugee crisis”. Dan Hicks is also a Non-Executive Director and Trustee of Museum of London Archaeology. He has published eight books, amongst which the excellent The Brutish Museums: the Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence, and Cultural Restitution. He regularly appears on Radio and TV in the UK. Click here to find out more about Dan Hicks.



The project ran through the hashtag #MuseumsUnlocked on Twitter for 100 days initially, from April to July 2020. It was then resumed in the month of November with the 2nd lockdown. The project had themes - one for each day. Participants responded and posted images in response to preset themes, mainly to do with history, art and archeology. Interestingly, we were the only private art gallery in Ireland to take part in this great project. Although we were late comers to its first iteration, we participated daily in this "curatorial endeavour" when it resumed in November 2020.

Click here or (on the photo of the tweet above) to browse through our #MuseumsUnlocked posts on Twitter.

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