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<h2>Kurt Dewhurst</h2>
<p>Oral histories, fly fishing, post-Apartheid South Africa, folklore . . . these are just a few of the interests that command Kurt Dewhurst’s time and energy as director of the <a href="http://museum.msu.edu" target="_blank">Michigan State University Museum</a> and curator of the museum’s Folk Arts exhibits. As the head of the largest public museum of natural history and culture in the state, Dewhurst works to forge connections and bridge boundaries. In addition to bringing both new audiences and new exhibits to the MSU Museum, Dewhurst also devotes time to collaborating with artists and communities throughout the state, across the nation, and overseas to preserve their rich regional cultural histories. “Public humanities is an investment,” Dewhurst declares, “one that, although time-consuming, can provide important results.”<br />
<br />
By way of example, he cites the <a href="http://www.sanch.org/colloquia/instructors.html" target="_blank">South African National Cultural Heritage Project</a>. After apartheid, he explains, there was a need to rectify discrepancies in the accuracy and recognition of representations of South Africa’s many cultural and ethnic communities. Dewhurst participated in the Project by helping South African museums to archive and catalog items of culture and developing a training program for South African youth, to encourage them to consider careers in their nation’s cultural heritage sector. The MSU Museum reaped rewards from the collaboration, too: Dewhurst notes that his time there yielded ongoing relationships between the MSU Museum and museums and archives throughout South Africa.</p>
<p>You may wonder why the museum’s experts travel so far afield, but Dewhurst puts the question into perspective: “The issue confronting museums in this age of globalization is how to best protect regional cultures across the world.” Paradoxically, perhaps, arriving at solutions to seemingly local problems requires museums and other cultural preservation organizations to work together to share resources and build problem-solving communities, globally as well as locally. For Dewhurst, these efforts fuel his interest in cultural heritage policy work and what he calls “cultural democracy.” Federal and state policies, he explains, play a role in shaping how we understand specific cultures, and cultural workers – of all kinds – need to “find strategies that support and give voice to those parts of our society that do not have a conventional or established place at the table of cultural heritage . . . immigrant and refugee communities, for instance, that have only informal demonstrations of their heritage.” The point, he adds, is to level the playing field for groups who struggle to find outlets for exhibiting their heritage and traditions.</p>
<p>“Public humanities contributes to this work through scholarly-based community engagement,” says Dewhurst. That brings us back to the fly-fishing mentioned earlier. The Museum is currently engaged in the Au Sable River Culture Project, whose mission is to preserve the rich heritage embedded in the communities that have grown up along the Au Sable, one of the best fly-fishing rivers in America. The Project includes collecting the oral histories of older generations of river guides, documenting the boat-building traditions there, and studying the region’s classic boat-house architecture. “There is a particular connection between culture and place,” he notes, pointing out that recognizing such connections and valuing them not only sets up opportunities for countless audiences to share the experience of them, but also is critical to keeping cultural attachments to place alive for future generations. </p>
<p>That, ultimately, is why groups like the Public Humanities Collaborative are useful, says Dewhurst: “The public humanities have a great deal to say about our world as it is and the world we want to have.”</p>
<p><em>Editor’s Note: To learn about the MSU Museum’s permanent and changing exhibits, or to find out more information about visiting the museum or participating in its programs and events, please visit its Web site: </em><a href="http://museum.msu.edu" target="_blank">http://museum.msu.edu</a>.</p>
Kurt Dewhurst
Oral histories, fly fishing, post-Apartheid South Africa, folklore . . . these are just a few of the interests that command Kurt Dewhurst’s time and energy as director of the Michigan State University Museum and curator of the museum’s Folk Arts exhibits. As the head of the largest public museum of natural history and culture in the state, Dewhurst works to forge connections and bridge boundaries. In addition to bringing both new audiences and new exhibits to the MSU Museum, Dewhurst also devotes time to collaborating with artists and communities throughout the state, across the nation, and overseas to preserve their rich regional cultural histories. “Public humanities is an investment,” Dewhurst declares, “one that, although time-consuming, can provide important results.”
By way of example, he cites the South African National Cultural Heritage Project. After apartheid, he explains, there was a need to rectify discrepancies in the accuracy and recognition of representations of South Africa’s many cultural and ethnic communities. Dewhurst participated in the Project by helping South African museums to archive and catalog items of culture and developing a training program for South African youth, to encourage them to consider careers in their nation’s cultural heritage sector. The MSU Museum reaped rewards from the collaboration, too: Dewhurst notes that his time there yielded ongoing relationships between the MSU Museum and museums and archives throughout South Africa.
You may wonder why the museum’s experts travel so far afield, but Dewhurst puts the question into perspective: “The issue confronting museums in this age of globalization is how to best protect regional cultures across the world.” Paradoxically, perhaps, arriving at solutions to seemingly local problems requires museums and other cultural preservation organizations to work together to share resources and build problem-solving communities, globally as well as locally. For Dewhurst, these efforts fuel his interest in cultural heritage policy work and what he calls “cultural democracy.” Federal and state policies, he explains, play a role in shaping how we understand specific cultures, and cultural workers – of all kinds – need to “find strategies that support and give voice to those parts of our society that do not have a conventional or established place at the table of cultural heritage . . . immigrant and refugee communities, for instance, that have only informal demonstrations of their heritage.” The point, he adds, is to level the playing field for groups who struggle to find outlets for exhibiting their heritage and traditions.
“Public humanities contributes to this work through scholarly-based community engagement,” says Dewhurst. That brings us back to the fly-fishing mentioned earlier. The Museum is currently engaged in the Au Sable River Culture Project, whose mission is to preserve the rich heritage embedded in the communities that have grown up along the Au Sable, one of the best fly-fishing rivers in America. The Project includes collecting the oral histories of older generations of river guides, documenting the boat-building traditions there, and studying the region’s classic boat-house architecture. “There is a particular connection between culture and place,” he notes, pointing out that recognizing such connections and valuing them not only sets up opportunities for countless audiences to share the experience of them, but also is critical to keeping cultural attachments to place alive for future generations.
That, ultimately, is why groups like the Public Humanities Collaborative are useful, says Dewhurst: “The public humanities have a great deal to say about our world as it is and the world we want to have.”
Editor’s Note: To learn about the MSU Museum’s permanent and changing exhibits, or to find out more information about visiting the museum or participating in its programs and events, please visit its Web site: http://museum.msu.edu.
