Honorary Board member:

 

Marion Bertin

Marion Bertin holds a doctorate in anthropology (La Rochelle University) and a degree in art history and museology (École du Louvre). Her research focuses on the history of collections of Oceanian objects and their circulation. Through the prism of circulation, Marion addresses the different meanings and values of these objects in the context of the art market, private collections, and museums worldwide from a diachronic and synchronic perspective. She is also interested in the networks and relationships created around the objects and the emotions they can evoke. Her dissertation mobilized various trans-oceanic examples, including, in particular, the projects carried out around “dispersed Kanak heritage” in New Caledonia: the Inventory of Dispersed Kanak Heritage (IPKD) and the program of temporary returns of “ambassador objects” of Kanak culture in Nouméa. Marion is pursuing research on these projects, through which she is questioning the patrimonialization and decolonization of museum practices as well as the restitution and return of objects to their territory of origin.

Marion was hosted for several months as part of her thesis research at the Museum of New Caledonia, the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center, and the Department of Culture of the South Province of New Caledonia in Nouméa. Winner of an Immersion grant from the LabEx Création Arts Patrimoines in 2020, she was also a research fellow at the Musée National Picasso-Paris. She worked on the provenance of the collections of African and Oceanian objects collected by the artist and now kept at the museum. Marion is currently a temporary teaching and research assistant (ATER) in museology at the University of Avignon and a researcher at the Norbert Elias Centre (UMR 8562). She previously taught art and anthropology of Oceania at the École du Louvre.
Marion is a member of several collectives and research projects, including the international project Le travail décolonial dans les collections muséales (Europe et Afrique subsaharienne). Local Histories and Global Circulations; in this context, she is co-editor, with Martin Hullebroeck, of a glossary on the study of collections from colonial contexts that will be published in 2023. Marion also helped found the CASOAR association: aiming to promote Oceanic cultures to a broad audience, the association offers online articles (URL: https://casoar.org/) and a podcast (WAVES, URL: https://casoar.org/waves-podcast/). In 2022, CASOAR was the laureate association of the INHALab grant and was hosted in residence at the National Institute of Art History (INHA) in Paris.

Within ICOFOM, Marion initially served as a volunteer, managing communication with committee members via email and supporting the organization of the annual symposia. Elected to the Board of Directors in 2019, she became the principal secretary and continued those two missions. She was also involved in the scientific committee of the international research project Decolonising museology (2019-2022), which involved several partners worldwide and was led by Bruno Brulon Soares, and in the working group on the new definition of the museum formed within ICOFOM. Since November 2022, she has been co-vice-chair of ICOFOM and co-leads with Jamie Brown the working group on organizing conferences.

 

Luciana M. de Carvalho

PhD holder and Master in Museology and Heritage from PPG-PMUS UNIRIO/MAST Luciana Menezes de Carvalho has over 15 years of experience in Museology, both in theory and practice.

As a museologist, she currently serves at the School of Museology at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro – UNIRIO. She lends her expertise and professional training to Museology students, offering technical support across various activities. In 2023, she spearheaded a community participation project at the same university to establish a museum for the institution. She also served as the director (2011-2021) and museologist (2008-2021) of the Museum of Memory and Heritage of the Federal University of Alfenas – MMP-UNIFAL-MG, overseeing the creation and implementation of this university museum.

Together with a team of museologists and museum professionals, she co-founded the GENMA collective – Gestação e Nutrição Museal (Museum Gestation and Nutrition), a non-profit association dedicated to pioneering innovative approaches in museology. Their mission is to challenge traditional museological models and address social vulnerabilities. The collective also promotes the inception, creation, and community nurturing of museums and museological initiatives, prioritizing collaborations with institutions and projects that operate on the fringes of the country’s cultural hubs and face challenges such as limited access to resources and understaffing.

Parallel to her professional endeavors, Luciana’s academic research at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels has centered on museology, its history, and its evolution as an academic discipline. During her undergraduate studies, she emphasized the significance of ICOFOM’s contributions to museology. Her master’s research highlighted the importance of ICOFOM LAC’s work, while her PhD explored the journey of establishing Museology as a university/academic discipline, both globally and in Brazil.

Luciana currently holds significant positions both nationally and internationally. On the global stage, she sits on the board of directors of the International Committee for Museology (ICOFOM) and presides over the ICOFOM Regional Subcommittee for Latin America and the Caribbean (ICOFOM LAC). In Brazil, she recently took on the role of General Director for the International Council of Museums Brazil delegation (ICOM BR) and is an active member of the Kilombola Museology Network, a community of Black students and professionals in Brazilian museology.

 

Bruno Brulon Soares

Bruno Brulon Soares is a museologist and anthropologist from Brazil, and his research interests have focused on community museums, ethnographic museums and the decolonisation of museum theory and practice. His previous works focused on the history of museums and the development of the new museology movement. His edited book “A History of Museology”, published by ICOFOM in 2019, is currently adopted as a core reading in several training programs worldwide. It has recently been translated into Chinese and published by the Zhejiang University Press. He also coordinated the international research project Decolonising museology (2019-2022), involving several global partners. His current book project, entitled The Anticolonial Museum explores the rhetoric of decolonisation in museum theory and its political and material consequences in Europe and Latin America.

Since 2013, Bruno has taught museology and heritage studies at Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), in Brazil, where he founded the Laboratory of Experimental Museology in 2017, working closely with community-based museums and minority groups. He is currently a Museum and Heritage Studies Lecturer in the School of Art History, and co-Director of the Museums, Galleries and Collections Institute (MGCI) at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.

From 2019 to 2022, he was Chair of the ICOM International Committee for Museology (ICOFOM) and co-Chair of the Standing Committee for the Museum Definition (ICOM Define). In these positions, he undertook a global participatory research project based on consultation and international exchange, seeking to reach a proposal for the new museum definition to be adopted worldwide. On 24 August 2022, the proposed definition was approved with 92,4% of the votes from ICOM representatives, being adopted in its statutes.

As a former ICOFOM chair, Bruno is now part of the new board as an honorary board member supporting the newly elected chair Karen Brown and board members in ICOFOM’s management. Bruno is leading the working group on ethics together with Supreo Chanda and is part of the working group on publications led by Elizabeth Weiser.

 

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We will be gradually adding the presentation texts for our board members as we are going to present them in our news digest.