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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 October 2000 Issue No. 504 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 October 2000 Issue No. 504
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Palestine International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Travel Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Plain Talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
I have just received issue 206 of UNESCO's Museum International magazine. This latest issue is devoted to university museums and contains articles from several different countries.
It brought back memories of the first time I visited a museum started by a university and situated within its campus. That was in the late 1980s when Mrs Jihan El-Sadat invited me to accompany her on her visit to the State University of Memphis, Tennessee, where she was to inaugurate the Egyptian section of the university museum.
I was impressed by the museum's displays of artefacts from different cultures. The Egyptian section included quite a number of Pharaonic curios donated by collectors. The names of the donors were carved on the entrance of the museum.
Four years ago I also visited the museum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The building itself is very impressive. It is one of Philadelphia's major museums, renowned for its modern art collections. It also includes a large Egyptian section with an array of Pharaonic statues and other artefacts. The museum also houses the Bonfils collection of 1300 photographs of late 19th century Greece, Egypt and Near East. A rather small selection of this collection has been published by the American University in Cairo Press under the title In Arab Lands.
What is a university museum and what is its function? Peter Stanbury, a leading expert on museums explains this in his article in Museum International. In his introduction he talks about the great Library of Alexandria which he describes as the first university library. It was the proudest achievement of Ptolemy I Soter and his heirs and was situated in the Mouseion, the Temple of the Muses.
The Great Library contained rare texts and housed scholars as well as books. A university cum research centre it was described as "the ancient equivalent of a think tank." Euclid completed his famous Elements -- dedicated to Ptolemy I Soter -- in that library. Other scholars at the Mouseion mapped and measured the earth and produced great works of astronomy, physics and anatomy.
In other articles we learn that there are 120 such museums in Brazil, including historical and anthropological museums as well as art galleries. The university of Sao Paolo alone claims 33 museums, including one devoted to contemporary art. The museums are open to the general public, thus connecting the university to the community.
Mexico, too, has many university museums. The Independent National University of Mexico has the Museum of Sciences and Arts which, according to an article in the magazine, gives priority to contemporary art as a means of expression.
The question is, where are we in all of this? As far as I know the concept of a university museum does not exist in Egypt. And yet it can be easily realised. Of course there has to be a modest start and here I would like to venture a few suggestions. Such museums could be attempted in any of our four main universities; Cairo, Ain Shams, Alexandria or Assiut. The stores of the Ministry of Culture -- which contain a vast number of unexhibited artefacts -- can supply this museum with plenty of material to display. Failing this, the Centre for Recording Monuments could supply replicas of seminal pieces, which it produces to perfection.
Together with these ancient Egyptian pieces there can be added collections of paintings and other works of art, acquired by the Ministry of Culture over the years. Many of these are also lying idle in stores. I remember when I was under secretary of state for culture, how I opened up the Ministry's stores of modern art to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Newly posted ambassadors used to come to the Ministry and choose art works to display at their embassies. The same thing can happen now with the universities, and, hopefully, we may soon witness the first Egyptian university museum.
