Steven de Clercq

“The importance and value of your collections has been convincingly demonstrated; time has now come to formulate ambitions and draw up a strategy for the next 30 years”. Such were the encouraging, challenging and thought provoking words of António Nóvoa, Rector of the University of Lisbon, during the closing session of the UNIVERSEUM Meeting in Lisbon (July 2007). University museums and collections function on the triple point between the academic world, the museum world and society at large. These three elements – universities, the way they position themselves in society and how they perform and organise research and teaching (and the role therein of collections); the world of museums, to which university museums and collections belong ever since the Ashmolean Museum was established as the first official museum at the University of Oxford in 1683 with its triple mission: teaching, research and public display; and the society to which we belong – make out the three mayor elements determining and affecting the life and functioning of university museums. These worlds are in a process of transition, if not in a state of crisis. These transitions have a severe impact on what is expected from university museums and by consequence on their traditional roles: collections, research and teaching and public. Finally, the scope and range of what is generally understood as ‘academic heritage’ is broadening whilst university museums themselves are in a process of transition and re-orientation. 

Over the past decade, university museums and collections have witnessed an unprecedented attention. This is illustrated by the establishment of a growing number of advocacy groups, each with their own activities, conferences, workshops and publications, both at the national and the international level; at the latter level, UMAC and UNIVERSEUM are of particular significance. The Council of Europe adopted two important documents concerning university collections. The first document (1998–1375, Document 8111) focuses on the vulnerable position of ‘incidental collections’and recommends member countries to establish legislation and a general scheme to give assistance ‘[...]. when there is a demonstrated need for this’. The second document was a Recommendation, unanimously adopted by member-states (REC13–2005), addressing governments and university administrations on their responsibility regarding the governance and management of university heritage5; ‘heritage of universities’ is understood to encompass all tangible and intangible heritage related to higher education institutions.

These activities definitely contributed to a wider awareness and recognition of the scope and importance of the academic heritage. Simultaneously, those that are responsible for u-museums and collections become increasingly aware that they need to find answers on a range of questions related to the future of the basic missions of u-museums: care for collections, collection-based research and teaching and public display. These questions need to be dealt with taking into account the transitions within the professional world in which university museums perform their activities.

The aim of this paper is to identify these elements and to discuss the processes of change and adaptation to new requirements they are facing, leading to often purposely bleak, provocative and simplified, but essentially realistic assessments of their effects, as well as the possible consequences thereof for university museums and collections. I finally accept the challenge put forward by António Nóvoa, to point out some challenges and ambitions both universities and their museums may wish to develop.

“Greenwich on the river Tagus”: Reflections on the scientific, cultural and historical significance of Ajuda, the Astronomical Observatory of Lisbon

The University of Lisbon is currently reflecting on how the Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa [the Astronomical Observatory of Lisbon], located at the Tapada da Ajuda and which we will here simply designate by Ajuda Observatory, can be preserved for the future. The reflection encompasses pondering if a museological function can contribute to the preservation goal and, consequently, which museological approach delivers the best and most sustainable contribution1. Gradually, as almost all nineteenth century observatories in Europe ceased to be used for precise astronomical observations due to a variety of reasons, many were turned into offices for research and teaching activities no longer directly connected with instruments on site, thus loosing their original structure, character and function. Some were altogether abandoned or turned into a museum (e.g. the Observatories of Greenwich and Marseille). Ajuda, one of the two nineteenth century observatories owned by the University of Lisbon, stands out as a unique outstanding example of an observatory that has remained almost entirely unaltered: it has maintained the original setting up of a nineteenth-century research laboratory, with the instrumentation in situ and in working condition almost ready to resume its activity. Moreover, the site of the Observatory – including the library – remains in use by astronomers. This exceptional situation offers the context to move one step beyond the evident choice of converting Ajuda into a traditional museum of astronomy. This choice would not only disturb its authenticity and thus quality, but would also be a missed opportunity. In this paper, we argue that the principal element in musealization should be to bring the authentic spaces to life and to regard the ensemble as starting point. This implies a step further in scale from object to space, allowing a story-telling approach to astronomy, as well as to science as part of society and to the ways the ensemble reflects the intellectual, sociological, political and cultural environment, both nationally and internationally. This amounts to an ambitious and challenging concept, requiring a new museological perspective, as well as an interdisciplinary team. It is also a delicate process as it by definition demands that the space remains as it is: undisturbed, in situ.