Titled “The History of Representation of Cultures in Museums and Cultural Centers," the virtual webinar was hosted by Dr. Paul Michael Taylor, Research Anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Director of the Museum’s Asian Cultural History, European and Middle Eastern Cultures and Director of the Asian Cultural History Program and curator of Asian, European and Middle Eastern Ethnology.

 

The webinar targeted employees of the National Museum, employees of public and private museums, employees of private art galleries, employees of cultural agencies and administrative divisions that fall under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, in addition to tourism students from Sultan Qaboos University and Oman College Tourism.

 

Dr. Taylor will also present three additional lectures this year addressing a range of topics: “Virtual Exhibitions and Other Museums Uses of the Web”, “Program Development: Development of Dynamic Programs and Visitor Participation”, and “Activities of Museums or Cultural Centers” Modern: Prosperity in the Twenty-first Century.” In addition to a sixth lecture on “Exhibition Development: A Case Study of Money as Material Culture: Acquisitions and Organization in the American Museum of Money,” by Douglas Mudd of the Colorado Museum of Money in the United States.

 

The support for this series of lectures comes from the Embassy of the United States in the Sultanate. The lectures focus on a range of museum management topics and highlight the strong partnership between the foremost museum institutions in Oman and the United States. The embassy has provided similar training opportunities by sending specialists from the National Museum and the Documentation Authority Archives, and the Ministry of Heritage and Culture (formerly) to the United States of America for the International Visitor Leadership Program for several weeks.