Commissioning for purpose: investigating commissioning as a collecting strategy for municipal museums and galleries 2000-present

The use of the ‘commission-accession’ principle as a mechanism for sustainable collecting in public museums and galleries has been significantly under-researched, only recently soliciting attention from national funding bodies in the United Kingdom (UK). This research has assessed an unfolding situation and provided a body of current evaluative evidence for commission-based acquisitions and a model for curators to use in future contemporary art purchases. ‘Commission-accession’ is a practice increasingly used by European and American museums yet has seen little uptake in the UK. Very recent examples demonstrate that new works produced via commissioning which then enter permanent collections, have significant financial and audience benefits that UK museums could harness, by drawing on the expertise of local and national commissioning organisations. Very little evaluative information is available on inter-institutional precedents in the United States (US) or ‘achat par commande’ in France. Neither is there yet literature that investigates the ambition for and viability of such models in the UK. This thesis addresses both of these areas, and provides evaluative case studies that will be of particular value to curators who seek sustainable ways to build their contemporary art collections. It draws on a survey of 82 museums and galleries across the UK conducted for this research, which provide a picture of where and how ‘commission-accession’ has been applied, and demonstrates its impacts as a strategy. In addition interviews with artists and curators in the UK, US and France on the social, economic and cultural implications of ‘commission-accession’ processes were undertaken. These have shed new light on issues inherent to the commissioning of contemporary art such as communication, trust, and risk as well as drawing attention to the benefits and challenges involved in commissioning as of yet unmade works of art.

Hybridity, communism and the avant-garde: Irena Blühová and Tina Modotti

This investigation compares the work of Irena Blühová and Tina Modotti between 1924 and 1936 based on ideas of cultural hybridity, photographic theory and social and Marxist art history. Centred on the premise that they worked in similar socio- political environments, shared common biographical points and were some of the first modernist women photographers in their region, a number of aspects relating to their work are examined in relation to their socio-political background. Selected works by Blühová and Modotti are analysed and compared, making apparent that, whilst they start photographing with different ulterior motives, thematically their work is moving into a similar direction from around 1926. Partly, this is due to their involvement with the communist party and the links between politics and photography on an international scale; partly to the fact that they share a concern for the culture of the countries they worked in. These concerns are expanded upon by the fact that both Blühová and Modotti intermediate between the national and the international, the aesthetic, social and the political within their local contexts, which forms distinct similarities in their work.

The builder's complete assistant, or, A library of arts and sciences, absolutely necessary to be understood by builders and workmen in general : viz. I. Arithmetick, vulgar and decimal, in whole numbers and fractions. II. Geometry, lineal, superficial, and solid. III. Architecture, universal. IV. Mensuration. V. Plain trigonometry. VI. Surveying of land, &c. VII. Mechanick powers. VIII. Hydrostaticks : illustrated by above thirteen hundred examples of lines, superficies, solids, mouldings, pedestals, columns, pilasters, entablatures, pediments, imposts, block cornices, rustick quoins, frontispieces, arcades, porticos, &c. : proportioned by modules and minutes, according to Andrea Palladio, and by equal parts : likewise great varieties of trussed roofs, timber bridges, centerings, arches, groins, twisted rails, compartments, obelisks, vases, pedestals for bustos, sun-dials, fonts, &c. and methods for raising heavy bodies by the force of levers, pulleys, axes in peritrochio, screws, and wedges, as also water, by the common pump, crane, etc. : wherein the properties, and pressure of the air on water, &c. are explained : the whole exemplified by 77 large quarto copper-plates /

All of the numbered plates in the atlas are double plates, and thus are counted twice in the adjusted plate count.

Metallurgic chymistry : being a system of minerology in general, and of all the arts arising from this science ... In two parts /

Mode of access: Internet.

The laboratory, or, School of arts : containing a large collection of valuable secrets, experiments, and manual operations in arts and manufactures : highly useful to gilders, jewelers, enamellers, goldsmiths, dyers, cutlers, pewterers, joiners, japanners, book binders, plasterers, artists, and to the workers in metals in general, and in plaster of paris, wood, ivory, bone, horn, and other materials /

Mode of access: Internet.

The literary arts in Hume's science of the fancy

Philosophers have long disagreed about whether poetry, drama, and other literary arts are important to philosophy; and among those who believe that they are important, explanations of that importance have differed greatly. This paper aims to explain and illustrate some of the reasons why Hume found literature to be an important topic for philosophy and philosophers. Philosophy, he holds, can help to explain general and specific literary phenomena, to ground the science of criticism, and to suggest and justify ";principles of art,"; while at the same time literature can provide valuable ";experiments"; for philosophical theorizing and provide it with a model for the science of morals and (in some ways) for philosophy itself. Moreover, the literary arts can not only help one to write better philosophy, in Hume's view; they can also help one to write philosophy better.

Etudes sur les Beaux-Arts en general /

Mode of access: Internet.

Etudes sur les Beaux-Arts en general /

Mode of access: Internet.

De la popularité du roman des Quatre fils Aymon, et de ses causes. Introduction: [On the influence of romance in general during the middle ages.

In Actes de l'Académie de sciences, belles-lettres et arts au Bordeaux, (v. 4, 1842, p. 53-126)

Anecdotes of painting in England; with some account of the principal artists; and incidental notes on other arts;

Bookplate of W. S. Appleton.

A long-range plan for the arts in South Carolina, 2011-2020

This new 10-year plan includes outcomes identified by the public and objectives that will mark progress toward these priorities. The outcomes and objectives in this new plan are deliberately broad-outlining general areas where the arts have real opportunities to make progress and generate value in the next decade. This long-range plan was created based on input from the public and the arts community as a guide for the arts community as it serves the public. With collaboration, partnerships and shared purpose, much in this plan can be accomplished to ensure that the arts flourish and benefit all South Carolinians.

Applying the results of a systematic review in general practice

Objective: To assess how general practitioners might interpret and apply the results of a systematic review relevant to general practice. Design: Cross-sectional postal survey of general practitioners in August 1997. Participants: 51 general practitioners in the Southern Division of General Practice in Adelaide and 11 professors or heads of departments of general practice. Main outcome measures:Extent to which comments on the implications for practice and implications for research coincided with the evidence presented in a systematic review of antibiotics for the treatment of acute otitis media in children; and reported probability that respondents would prescribe antibiotics in three brief case scenarios. Results: There was considerable variation in the comments made by general practitioners on the implications of the review for clinical practice. After reading the review, respondents with training in critical appraisal were more likely to state that children with acute otitis media would usually recover spontaneously and reported a lower probability of prescribing antibiotics in two of the three case scenarios. Conclusions: Providing systematic reviews is not sufficient for the results of such evidence to be translated:into clinical practice. There is an association between critical appraisal skills and the application of evidence-based practice.