42 | 2022 - From Companies to Museums
Résumé
The ties between museums and companies are strong and longstanding, and have been heightened in recent years as certain sectors, especially luxury, industrial and food sectors, have sought to highlight their heritage and craft by opening their own museums. For many sectors, a museum serves as a window on their expertise and a creative space, a proven phenomenon which has shown that the relationship between museums and companies is not just a matter of the former preserving the latter’s products once they have become obsolete. This call for papers aims to understand the cultural, heritage and economic issues at stake in this meeting of two worlds, companies and museums.
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Under the direction of Isabelle Cousserand-Blin and Aziza Gril-Mariotte
Call for Papers for a Special Issue (n°42)
Museums and companies have long maintained a close relationship. This phenomenon dates back to royal factories and the museums that have been attached to them (Sèvres, Gobelins, the Paris Mint, etc). In the 19th century, these ties were escalated by industrial development and museums of decorative arts are often lasting proof of this. The Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs (Central Union for Decorative Arts) in France and the Victoria & Albert Museum in England serve to illustrate this relationship in which museums promote artisanal and industrial products. National exhibitions of the products of industry and then international universal exhibitions and the exhibition of manufactured goods are just a few examples of when industrial products have been presented in a museological scenography. Learned societies began to imagine how these instances could be made durable and chambers of commerce started to support the creation of museums, or even to create their own museums or support similar projects: the Musée des Tissus (Fabric Museum) in Lyon, the Musée de l’Impression sur l’Étoffe (Museum of Textile Printing) in Mulhouse, the Musée d’Art et d’Industrie (Museum of Art and Industry) in St Étienne are just a few examples of such ventures that survive today. Industrial museums, while they may not have always had the lifespan they intended, contributed to a narrative, or even a saga.
The history of the relationship between companies and museums bears reviewing, in which exhibition highlights production, and museums become part of a promotional strategy. A number of collections were compiled, either by an internal committee or a board of patrons, which led to a more or less permanent promotion of products for visitors. This can be in the form of a company seeking to constitute collections that are representative of their products, as is the case for Cartier. More often, it is a director that, passionate about something or other, creates his own exhibition space (for example, the Fondation Blachère for contemporary African art). While companies can make their way into museums, the opposite is also true, with museums and their material and immaterial collections making their way into companies. Artists residencies can take place in partnership with a “small museum”, such as the Studio Museum of the Feutre de Mouzon in partnership with a local factory, or within companies that can be turned into exhibition spaces.
Companies can promote their activity not only in museums but also by opening their own museum and exhibition spaces in which their products can be displayed. As a part of industrial tourism, these places, which are not always labeled as museums, can be perceived as a strong part of a region’s identity with the objective of preserving a certain type of memory (for the community, technical or artisanal, etc.) whether the field is in danger of disappearing, has already disappeared or is undergoing a transformation. These spaces can also be the product of a desire to highlight a certain type of production, to sublimate certain products to affirm or reassert the excellence, the uniqueness or the rarity of a certain kind of craftsmanship. Examples of this are legion, from the museum of hats to the museum of paper and the CNAM, from the museum of wallpaper to the numerous textile museums in existence. In these instances, industrial heritage is an important factor (Hachez-Leroy and André, 2011). Many social museums came to being or have since been associated with a specific sector, such as the MusVerre in Trelon. They function effectively as studio museums, that perform and display different means of production. While engineers’ points of view predominate for the explanation of these means, such as at the Académie François Bourdon, human and social approaches, in the best cases, can be mobilized to complete the tableau (Jacomy, 1990). The fields on show are numerous and widespread, from agriculture to automobiles, from wine and spirits to table service… Some of these places can also be more generic, based on one specific theme (Alimentarium in Vevey or the Lactopôle in Laval). Aimed at either the general public or a more specific set of visitors, these exhibitions spaces come in many shapes and sizes, as showrooms, VIP spaces, a company visit that includes a museographical display or even as companies that have become museums since their activity ceased.
For many sectors, the company museum is both a showcase for their expertise and a creative outlet, a phenomenon that is becoming more widespread in the fashion and manufactured goods industries, or in fields like Swiss watchmaking (Courvoisier, 2010). This is a practice that has been widely developed over the past decade, even if, as is the case for many companies, their museum does not necessarily satisfy all of the criteria laid out by ICOM (International Council of Museums), preserving studying, enriching and presenting a collection to the public. Isabelle Cousserand’s study has shown their heterogenous nature and the difficult of defining these spaces as museums (Cousserand, 2009). when it’s the company itself that creates a museum. This can be motivated by many different factors, such as the desire to preserve a certain type of memory or heritage, the necessity of preserving and advertising archives, collections and expertise, in conjunction with the desire to promote the history of an industry in the long run as a communicators strategy. Here as well we see links to staging and representation that call to mind the origins of museums (De la Broise, 1996 et Gellereau, 2005).
However, the relationship between museums and companies cannot simply be limited to the former preserving the latter’s products when they are no longer in production. Therein is the whole issue of the status acquired by a contemporary object becomes part of a museum’s collection through the art market or a donation by a company. The example of fashion museums and private foundations shows that collections are formed not only through the acquisition and gift of past models, but also through gifts by big fashion houses whose attractiveness is reinforced by their presence in a museum. The case of luxury brands is part of a double phenomenon: that of patrimonialization within specialized museums (of fashion or decorative arts) and more recently within the companies themselves that are creating conservation sites that have much in common with the world of museums. This example poses the problem of the role that museums can have as models for the management of a company’s heritage in a context in which its age is also a factor in its economic and social value. While the luxury sector is particularly sensitive to such issues (the Comité Colbert for example), other industrial sectors have also chosen to preserve their heritage both for economic reasons and as a marketing tool.
More recently, questions of audience and outreach have laid the groundwork for experiments that bear witness to relationship and influence between businesses and museums. The most visible consequence of this is the organization of group visits within companies that wish to make their activity known. The promotion of creative professions, of artisanal practices and industrial innovations, especially with the rage for products made in France, have favored these sorts of tours in which the tour of a company is paired with a visit to the local museum or even that belonging to the company itself. But museums are also criticized when they put on exhibitions devoted to a particular industry or company whose patronage tends to blur the line between an academic exhibition and a marketing strategy.
The quick overview of the relationship between museums and companies demonstrates numerous facets that bear closer examination in order to better understand the cultural, heritage and economic issues bound up in this meeting of the two sectors. This call for papers aims to solicit contributions from academics and those working in the field in line with three different lines of inquiry in order to explore the different modes and dimensions of these ties between museums and companies.
1. Collection for or with companies
Certain museums maintain close relationships companies, as can be the case for the enrichment of its collections which often implies ties with the world of business. Of special interest are museums of decorative arts, textiles and fashion, or more generally those preserving contemporary manufactured arts. Special attention should be given to the compiling of collections of specimens, samples, studio collections, at once displays and resources for companies, the medium for different forms of emulation and the creation of archival collections. How have companies and their representatives, industrialists and business owners, contributed to the birth of new museums since the beginning of the 19th century? For many decades now, the place of businesses in museums’ collections has changed profoundly, but how have museums changed their relationship with companies? How have these ties contributed to the enrichment of collections while at the same time contributing to the promotion of the history of these companies and their products? How are these collections managed? What heritage issues are at play?
2. Museographical Methods and Collections Presentation
As vectors of preservation and communication, company museums can give a hybrid impression whose existence it is of interest to study. Brought about to managers and sometimes employees, they seem to be spaces devoted to different forms of history, while sometimes being partnered with spaces for creation (ie: artists’ residences) that are the reflection of contemporary issues. While some focus immediately on the history of founders and directors, there are many examples of the conservation of machines or testimonies of former employees, especially when the museum deals with economic history, sometimes ongoing. When they partner with contemporary creators or artists, they perpetuate images of excellence. This line of inquiry is also interested in questioning modes of exhibition and communication through storytelling, taken as part of discursive strategy. If a company seeks to tell a story differently but how it would be done in a public museum, this can be perceived as a desire to control negative developments or as a necessary retelling within the context of increasingly incomprehensible context of work, tainted by urgency and crises (D’Almeida, 2001, D’Almeida and Andonova, 2006). Museographical and scenographic narratives that stage an industrial story are also of interest. How is a company’s story told? How can scientific discourse be articulated with a company’s communications needs?
3. Issues at stake in the company-museum relationship
The variety and richness of the ties upheld by companies with museums leads us to pose the question of the cultural and economic issues at stake when a company chooses to develop its own museum or when it becomes involved in a museum’s activity. Companies are particularly interested in supporting contemporary artists, by financing exhibitions or contemporary art foundations or collection contemporary pieces that could serve as the basis for a museum’s collection. What sorts of configurations are to be found in these collaborations?
In this case of company museums, they can be aimed at either the general public or a more specific set of visitors, and these exhibitions spaces come in many shapes and sizes, as showrooms, VIP spaces, a company visit that includes a museographical display or even as companies that have become museums since their activity ceased. What are their values? What human and financial means are dedicated to these spaces by companies? What role is assigned to heritage professionals in such spaces? How are history, innovation, creation dealt with in these spaces? What material or immaterial approaches are used as foundations? What role do regions play in the creation or the support of these projects?
In the case of supporting artists both in France and abroad, there are numerous examples that display a real investment on the part of companies which contributes both to a form of speculation and to the emergence of new cultural sites for the general public. Whether a company is included in academic discussions in museums, or academics with a vested interest participate in such discussions, this muddling of boundaries still bears questioning. It is not so much that artistic discourse might be influence, but that it might aim to promote heritage differently. Culture, as a scientific field, is always seeking out new audiences and exhibitions dedicated to an important brand name or company can be an effective way of attracting new visitors to museums. What legitimacy is gained by companies whose products are displayed as works of art? Where does critical history come into play in an exhibition financed entirely by one company?
In any case, issues of the promotion of companies and their activities, expertise, products and brand being turned into heritage within museums are up for analysis.
These lines of inquiry as outlined are merely themes that can be developed, enriched and further elaborated as each author sees fit to do so through case studies and with different approaches. Examples and analyses of the situation outside of France are also welcome. If they wish to adopt a more critical approach, authors should not feel constrained by a certain editorial line, this special issue is aimed at bringing together a variety of viewpoints, and even if they are contradictory we leave it up to readers to decide for themselves.
The goal of this special issue is to show how collecting practices within museums have a played a part in the evolution of museums, and how some products have become heritage items thanks to museums, without neglecting the problems posed by these processes.
Authors are invited to submit proposals for comparative studies, with case studies being accepted only insofar as they are part of a wider conception of the issues brought up in this call for papers.
Bibliography
Andonova (Yanita), D’Almeida (Nicole). 2006. « La communication des organisations », in Sciences de l’information et de la communication, Olivesi (Stéphane) (dir.), Presses universitaires de Grenoble, pp. 129-143
Bourdieu (Pierre), Barbel (Alain). 1969. L’amour de l’art, les musées d’art européens et leur public. Paris : Ed. de Minuit.
Courvoisier (Françoise et François). 2010. « Le musée d’entreprise horlogère, instrument de communication des marques ». La Lettre de l’OCIM, Musées, Patrimoine et Culture scientifiques et techniques, 127, http://ocim.revues.org/190
Cousserand (Isabelle). 2009. « Musées d’entreprise : un genre composite ». Communication et organisation, 35, p. 192-213.
D’Almeida (Nicole). 2001. Les promesses de la communication, Paris : PUF.
Davallon (Jean). 1992. « Le musée est-il vraiment un média ? ». Culture & Musées, 2, p. 88-123.
De la Broise (Patrice), Gellereau (Michelle). 2005. « De l’atelier à l’atelier : la friche industrielle comme lieu de médiation artistique, in « Les médiations de l’art contemporain », Culture & Musées, vol. 4, p. 19-35
De la Broise (Patrice). 1996. « Protection et valorisation du patrimoine industriel : signes de reconnaissance pour l'entreprise », in Recherches en Communication, La reconnaissance médiatisée, vol. 6, p. 85-103.
Hachez-Leroy (Florence) et André (Louis). (dir.). 2011. Musées et collections d’entreprises, Archéologie industrielle en France, n° 28, Paris, juin 2011.
Hachez-Leroy (Florence). 2011. « Les musées d’entreprises en France, Enquête réalisée par les étudiants du Master 1 Mise en valeur du Patrimoine, Université d’Artois, promotion 2009-2010 », Musées et collections d’entreprises, Archéologie industrielle en France, n° 28, Paris, juin 2011.
Jacomy (Bruno). 1990. Une histoire des techniques. Paris : Seuil.
Pomian (Krzysztof). 2020. Le musée, Une histoire mondiale, volume 1, Du trésor au musée. Paris : Gallimard.
Poulot (Dominique). 1997. Musée, nation, patrimoine, 1789-1815. Paris : Gallimard.
Renaud (Lise), Marchis-Mouren (Laure). 2018. « La communication des musées d’entreprise en Provence et la construction de la provençialité », Recherches en communication, n° 45, p. 79-97.
Tobelem (Jean-Michel). 2005. Le nouvel âge des musées. Les institutions culturelles au défi de la gestion. Paris : Armand Colin.
Guest editors
Isabelle Cousserand-Blin, Lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences, is the director the IUT Bordeaux Montaigne.
She is a member of the laboratory Médiation, Information, Communication, Arts (MICA – EA 4426), in the Communication, Organisation, Sociétés (COS) group at the University of Bordeaux Montaigne. Her research interests are focused on relations to memory and the utilization of the past within organizations, the means of legitimacy and professional identity.
Aziza Gril-Mariotte is a lecturer in history of art at the University of Haute-Alsace and a researcher at the CRESAT (UR 3436). She works on creation and innovation in industrial arts in the 18th and 19th centuries, in particular with relation to textiles, and the success of museums of industrial art in the 19th century. In 2021, she defended her Habilitation à diriger les recherches, with Dominique Poulot as sponsor, entitled “Une histoire des étoffes imprimées, des arts industriels au patrimoine (XVIIIe-XXIe siècle), créations, collections, musées” at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Sending proposals
Please send in proposals (5,000 to 7,000 characters) by email before September 30th, 2022 to:
Isabelle Cousserand-Blin: isabelle.cousserand@iut.u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr
Aziza Gril-Mariotte: aziza.gril-mariotte@uha.fr
CC : culturedominique@gmail.com and pauline.grison@univ-avignon.fr
Formatting for proposals
- 5,000 to 7,000 characters including spaces
- The .docx document should be named as follows: CM-42-PC-Author’s last name (or principal author if more than one).
- The document should be written in 12-point Times New Roman justified.
In order, it should have the following:
- LAST and first name of author 1
- Email address
- Status: Position and institution (university, research lab)
- Title
- Biography (maximum 600 characters)
The same goes for any other authors of the proposals.
- Proposal title
- The body of the proposal should include details of the disciplinary or interdisciplinary approach adopted, the issues at stake, the field or corpus studied, the methodology employed and preliminary projection of results.
- 5 keywords
- 5 references used in the article.
Timeline:
September 30th, 2022: Deadline for proposals
October 15th, 2022: Acceptances and refusals are sent to contributors
January 31st, 2023: Deadline for finished articles
February, 2023: Double-blind peer-review
March, 2023: Peer-reviews returned to authors
June 20th, 2023: Deadline for final changes including metadata
December, 2023: Issue publication
Contacts
Isabelle Cousserand-Blin
IUT Bordeaux Montaigne
isabelle.cousserand@iut.u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr
Aziza Gril-Mariotte
Université de Haute-Alsace - CRESAT (UR 3436)
Culture & Musées, the Journal
Culture & Musées is a double-blind peer-reviewed bi-annual journal devoted to publishing new research on cultural institutions, audiences and mediations. It aims at a wide readership of researchers, students as well as museum and cultural heritage professionals.
Culture & Musées is a recognized journal in the field of Information and Communication Sciences (71st CNU section).
The journal is supported by Avignon University et UGA Éditions. It is published with the support of France’s Ministry of Culture, the Région Sud, the Institute of Human and Social Sciences at the CNRS and the Centre Norbert Elias (CNE).
The journal is indexed by the INIST and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index and Current Contents/Arts Humanities (Thomas Reuters), Mir@bel - Isidore.science - Web of science – Scimago - Scopus.
Culture & Musées is open access and published on OpenEdition: https://journals.openedition.org/culturemusees/
Heads of Publication
Publication Directors : Isabelle Brianso & Éric Triquet (Avignon University)
Editors-in-Chief : Dominique Poulot (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) & Éric Triquet (Avignon University)
Assistant Editors-in-Chief : Florence Andreacola (University of Grenoble-Alpes) & Gaëlle Crenn (University of Lorraine)
Editorial Board
Pascale Ancel, Grenoble Alpes University
Florence Andreacola, Grenoble Alpes University
Isabelle Brianso, Avignon University
Marie-Charlotte Calafat, Mucem
Marie Cambone, Grenoble Alpes University
Gaëlle Crenn, University of Lorraine
Jacqueline Eidelman, École du Louvre
Daniel Jacobi, Avignon University
Emmanuelle Lallement, University of Paris 8
Joëlle Le Marec, Sorbonne University
Jean-Marc Leveratto, University of Lorraine
François Mairesse, Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 University
Anik Meunier, Université of Quebec in Montréal
Marie-Sylvie Poli, Avignon University
Dominique Poulot, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Vincent Poussou, Outreach and digital direction, Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais
Lise Renaud, Avignon University
Eva Sandri, Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 University
Olivier Thévenin, Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 University
Eric Triquet, Avignon University
Jean-Christophe Vilatte, University of Lorraine
Yves Winkin, University of Liège





