“Visual Culture in India and the Museum” brown bag – Feb 10

Alison Byrnes, a member of the 2006 MSP cohort, recently returned from seven years teaching in India, where she initiated a new Museum Studies Program. She will discuss museums in India through the lens of visuality. There is a mismatch between the cultural signals regarding value and significance, determined by colonial Western influences, in the Museum, and those that exist elsewhere in India, such as the Temple. In her talk, Byrnes will re-examine Martin Jay’s theory of “scopic regimes” in terms of Indian visual culture, and discuss the role of museums in a place where rapid urban growth and globalizing influences are causing tension with the values of “tradition.”

Friday, February 10 at 12:00 pm

UM Museum of Art, Multi-Purpose Room (125)