“Welcome to the art study room, which is one of our three study rooms! The art study room is a resource for research as well as for education – and aims to give students practical experience of and close contact with art objects and what one can learn from them. In addition, students learn how to handle old and fragile objects. For example, you can only use a pencil, never an ink pen, when working in the collections,” says Mikael Ahlund and notes with appreciation the reporter’s pencil.
Caption: Fake or genuine? Original or copy? What is it made of? These are some of the questions you might ask when you see this statuette based on the Laocoön Group from Ancient Rome. This specimen was probably made in Bakelite, the plastic material of the 1950s, but it’s difficult to determine what the material is even when you feel the sculpture. The original is the grand marble sculpture in the Vatican. Countless copies of this culture have been made in various sizes and in various materials – as souvenirs and travel memories from different periods.
Assist teaching and learning
The study rooms are important for making the collections available for research and education. In recent years, Gustavianum has focused on developing the possibilities of an approach to teaching and learning that uses these objects, sometimes referred to as ‘teaching with objects’. For example, it means that the students learn how to handled and study the art objects at close quarters.
“One of our most important tasks as a university museum is to make our collections available for research and teaching. We want to be useful to our University and with our study rooms we offer an important complement to regular teaching in lecture halls and seminar rooms.”
Although it might be easy to imagine that the study rooms and objects are only aimed at students in a rather narrow area, such as art historians for the art study room, that is not the case. The collections can be used in a wide range of courses and study programmes with various themes and approaches.
“We have had students and researchers from a variety of subject areas at the University studying objects in our collections. For natural scientists, it may be interesting to discuss things like physical age determination, material analysis or other technical aspects of the artworks. Besides natural scientist, various departments in the field of economics for example have long shown an interest in our Coin Cabinet, where yet another of our study rooms is located.”
Caption: “It’s also important to examine the reverse side,” says Mikael Ahlund. “In this case, you can see that the work was painted on a copper plate. This is unusual, and occurred primarily during the 17th century alongside wooden boards or canvases.”
Unique foundations
Uppsala University, with its huge collections of art, coins and historical objects, naturally has excellent foundations for expanding its teaching and learning with physical objects. The collections are curated by Gustavianum and therefore they have three study rooms: one for the historical collections, one for the coin collection, and one for the art collections. The study rooms are used when researchers want to study objects from the collections, but also by groups of students as part of their courses and study programmes.
“Our collections represent an exclusive advantage for our students. At Gustavianum, we are working to define our role in how our collections can be used as a complement to regular teaching. This is happening in many parts of the world, where university museums are working to expand their activities to include teaching with objects. We have had a lot of contact with our sister museums at Yale, Harvard and Oxford universities regarding this, to learn from each other.”
Aids memory
When you hold the objects, you can feel their weight, experience their smell that has accumulated over centuries, and feel the material itself.
“It can be almost an emotional experience when you hold a Russian icon from the 1550s that has sat in a monastery in Moscow for example. It can certainly be a highly charged experience when you examine and hold the object yourself, and that makes you remember it better.”
Caption: This drawing was done in the 18th century in red chalk. The drawing has a stamp which shows that it has been used for teaching purposes in the University’s Ritsal (art class room) Since the 17th century, the University has had a director of drawing (ritmästare) who previously took care of the University’s artworks and taught art and drawing. Today, the director of drawing and the Department of Art History holds classes in life-drawing and drawing for employees and students. During the pandemic, these classes have been conducted online and using photographs.
Only small study groups are permitted in the study rooms because the original objects handled there are valuable.
“Smaller groups also means it is more informal and it is easier for everyone to share their observations.”
Enhanced employability
It’s also about enhancing the employability of the University’s students, perhaps in particular in the humanities. Among those who are studying art history, museology or archaeology, for example, a number will most likely work with various kinds of collections in the future.
“It can be difficult for museums to find staff who have practical experience of handling art. Not many people are used to handling very old objects. How do you hold an old painting, a thousand-year-old bowl or a fragile statuette, for example?” asks Mikael Ahlund rhetorically.
Each year, Gustavianum also offers a number of placements for Master’s students in its collections.
“It’s important for the students to get practical experience as well as documentation that they have worked in the collections. And we know that our placements have helped students to get employment after their studies.”
Why pencils?
When studying and handling the museum’s objects in the study rooms, you must sit down around the table and use thin white gloves.
“When you hand an object on to the next person around the table, you don’t pass the object through the air. Instead, you place it on the table in breach of the next person who can pick it up themself,” says Mikael Ahlund and demonstrates with his gloved hands.
Caption: “It’s also important to examine the reverse side,” says Mikael Ahlund. “In this case, you can see that the work was painted on a copper plate. This is unusual, and occurred primarily during the 17th century alongside wooden boards or canvases.” And the pencil? The reason for this is that spots of ink can easily get on your hands. Spots that can easily be transferred to the objects and are then extremely difficult or impossible to remove.
Have there been any mishaps in your showings?
“No, so far, things have gone well. It’s clear that the students experience this as very special and they are very careful to follow the instructions. But obviously there is always a risk and we try to select objects that aren’t too fragile.”
Everyone welcome
Mikael Ahlund concludes the visit with an invitation to all courses and study programmes in all the different subject areas at the University to contact him to begin a collaboration.
“All study programmes that want to visit will be warmly welcomed to our study rooms. At the moment due to the pandemic, this is difficult of course, but why not contact us now to discuss future possibilities? How can we and the collections contribute to your teaching? And there is no extra charge for the University’s courses and study programmes,” says Mikael Ahlund with a smile.