Museum of Cultures, Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland Having realised that I’d not written about the Museum of Ancient Art, I also realised that I’d not written about the excellent Museum of Cultures. Silly me. The museum has its origins in the 1840s, when artworks and artefacts collected by travellers and merchants were donated to the city. Over the years,…
Sun, Moon and Stars Exhibition, Museum of Culture, Basel, Switzerland The excellent Museum of Culture regularly holds exhibitions which help to highlight certain themes within its collection. When I visited, they had an interesting exhibition which looked at the way the universe shapes people on earth – from the way we create calendars, to the gods we worship. Because of the…
Ethnographic Museum, Etnografiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden What is interesting about going to Ethnographic Museums in different countries is that they all have a slightly different emphasis: some, like the Museum of Culture in Basel, have a lot of objects from Papua New Guinea; the Ethnographic Museum in Zurich has an extraordinary Chinese collection. Each reflects the interests of the people…
Ethnographic Museum, Musée d’ethnographie de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland You never quite know what you’re going to get with museums in Switzerland. Sometimes they are surprisingly fascinating. Sometimes they’re pretty good. Very rarely are they without any redeeming features, especially if they’re about ethnology. I think it’s probably a bit mean to say that there were no redeeming features in Neuchatel’s…
Confluence Museum, Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France When planning a trip to Lyon, you will be struck by the hype for the Museum of the Confluence. It’s a striking new glass building, opened in 2014, perched on an island on the Rhone, and it has a glossy modernity that promises an attractive museum-going experience. In France, where so many museums…
Museum of Siamese Art, Museo d’arte Siamese ‘Stefano Cardu’, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy In a city like Cagliari you might not expect to discover an Asian art collection, but in fact it has an excellent one: it’s small, perhaps not immediately appealing to most people (judging by the fact that we were alone in there), but it really is a delightful…
Museum of the Orient, Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, Portugal When creating a list of museums to visit in Lisbon, I wasn’t that bothered about getting to the Museum of the Orient. There were other priorities. On our last day in the city, I decided to go here first, spend a few hours, and hop on to another place nearby. We stayed…
Ethnographic Museum, Museo Etnografico Regionale – Collezione Cocco, Cagliari, Sardinia Due to its position in the Mediterranean, Sardinia has a unique and interesting culture. Life along the coast is different to life in the rugged interior of the island, and through everyday items it’s easy to see the tastes and preoccupations of Sardinians across the island. This collection on show…
Rupe Ethnographic Museum, Etnografski muzej u Dubrovniku, Dubrovnik, Croatia I’m a sucker for Ethnographic Museums and I’m a sucker for traditional costumes so I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, there was a NO PHOTO rule which was hysterically implemented, so this is quite a picture-empty post, which is a shame, not least because it would be nice…