National collaboration

An example from practice

ETNOCOLL, the platform of Belgian institutions with non-Western collections, focuses on issues such as the restitution, visibility and conservation of collections, collaboration with source communities and research and training projects.

From 23 to 30 August 2017, ETNOCOLL and the University of Antwerp organised a seven-day international summer school on the preservation and restoration of ethnographic objects. The MAS served as a practical example. The students visited the depot where the collections Africa, Oceania, America and Asia& are stored. They were given a guided tour of the MAS exhibitions, looking at the presentation of non-Western heritage. This summer school was facilitated by FARO and the King Baudouin Foundation.

See also: http://www.faronet.be/vrije-tags/summer-school-ethnographic-collections-0

Treatment of a polychrome Nkanu panel from the MAS collection during the first edition of the Summer School.
Photo: UAntwerpen Faculty of Design Sciences (Vincent Jauniaux), August 2016

Important national partners of the MAS include:

• The Department of Arts and Heritage Flanders;
• Et(h)nocoll, the Belgian platform for non-Western ethnographic heritage;
• FARO: Flemish Interface Centre for Cultural Heritage;
• ICOM Flanders;
• KADOC Documentation and Research Centre for Religion, Culture and Society;
• LECA Expertise Centre for Everyday Culture;
• The Olbrechts Society, which awards prizes for ethnological research;
• The Platform for Intangible Heritage;
• Tapis plein. Cultural Heritage Expertise Centre;
• Flanders Marine Institute;
• Water Heritage Flanders;
• University of Ghent, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning and Institute for Public History;
• Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Archive Sciences

Initiation panel of the Nkanu (Dem. Rep. Congo)
Donation: Congregatie Broeders OLV-Lourdes (Oostakker)
2016 MAS.0170.051