I went yesterday evening to East 15 acting school’s play: Losing Marbles.

I’m not sure what I expected the play to be like – but it definitely wasn’t like any of the ideas I had in my mind. It was at the same time different & far better than what I had expected. As it still has one more night to show (at a different theatre) I won’t reveal the plot – but I can say that it is hilariously funny, ingeniously performed & well worth watching – whether or not you are interested in the story of the Parthenon Marbles.

As I mentioned before, there is one last chance to see it – in Colchester, Essex this Friday Night.

From:
University of Essex

11 December 2009
Losing Marbles and The Tart With a Heart

Performance Time: 19:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

Joining TAS on the second night of Snow White: The Tart With a Heart, East 15 acting school present Losing Marbles, a tale of ancient grievance.

When a Greek immigrant attempts to singlehandedly return the Elgin Marbles to Athens, an epic struggle unfolds – hurtling from the Parthenon to the bowels of the British Museum and beyond. A startlingly profound musical satire on the nature of love and posession.

Tickets:
Full: £7.00, Conc: £5.00, UoE Students: £3.00

Booking information:
Ticket Hotline: 01206 573948
Book Online: http://www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/artson5
In person: University Gallery, Square 5
Monday – Friday 11 – 5, Saturday 12 – 4

East 15 Acting School are performing a play about the Elgin Marbles in London next week.

The play is on Tuesday 8 December & Wednesday 9 December 2009 at 20:00 in the Drill Hall, 16 Chenies Street, London WC1E 7EX. This is conveniently located in central London, only a few minutes walk from the British Museum. Tickets can be booked at the website address below.

From:
the Drill Hall

Losing Marbles
East 15 Acting School Showcase

Losing Marbles is an epic cinemascope blockbuster Christmas show made with the help of sticky back plastic, cardboard tubes and spaghetti.

A high speed chase across the new Europe to discover who owns the past.
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The annual lecture of the Irish Museums Association is this year being presented by Dimitrios Pantermalis, director of the New Acropolis Museum, on the topic: Collections present and absent at the New Acropolis Museum.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday 18th November – further details below.

From:
Irish Museums Association

MUSEUM NEWS – IMA EVENTS
[...]

2009 (November) – IMA Annual Lecture: Held in memory of Dr James White. Collections present and absent at the New Acropolis Museum, Athens will be presented by Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis Director, New Acropolis Museum in the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, Kildare Street, Dublin 2 on Wednesday 18 November 2009 at 6.30pm. See our poster for details, admission is free but booking is essential. To book a place contact Ms Carla Marrinan, IMA Administrator at +353-1-4120939 or office@irishmuseums.org

[...]

You can view the poster for the lecture here.

Next week’s episode of The Agenda, a programme presented by Yvonne Ridley on Press TV is on the subject of Treasure: Who really owns stolen and looted artefacts?. I am appearing on the show, along with three other guests, to discuss various aspects of this issue. The programme isn’t specifically about the Parthenon Sculptures, but covers them along with many other similar cases.

The programme is on Friday 13th at 19:05 GMT for 55 minutes. If you are in the UK, Press TV is available on Sky Channel 515. It should also be available on satellite or cable in most other English speaking countries.

You can watch the channel live online here. You can also watch it after the show has been broadcast on this archive page for the programme.

Submissions are invited for abstracts for a conference on Museums & Restitution to be held at the University of Manchester on 8th & 9th July 2010. Any abstracts should be submitted by 11th December 2009.

From:
Kostas Arvanitis (by email)

Call for papers
Museums and Restitution
International Conference
8-9 July 2010, University of Manchester

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/museumsandrestitution/

Museums and Restitution is a two-day international conference organised by the Centre for Museology and The Manchester Museum at the University of Manchester. The conference examines the issue of restitution in relation to the changing role and authority of the museum, focussing on new ways in which these institutions are addressing the subject.
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This week, the University of Tennessee is using a regular discussion programme to talk about the Parthenon Sculptures and other restitution claims.

From:
The Daily Beacon (University of Tennessee)

Beacon Bits
Staff Reports
Thursday, September 17, 2009 issue

Global Hour evaluates antiquities trade

This week’s Global Hour, a weekly discussion of current events, will address how nations are dealing with antiquities such as the Elgin Marbles. Removed from Greece to be displayed in the British Museum, the collection of marble sculptures are one example of a nation’s heritage that has been displaced. Global Hour will be held Thursday at the I-House from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

[...]

During the summer of 2009, the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square has been occupied by various people as part of a project organised by the sculpture Antony Gormley.

This Saturday, Sofka Smales, a student from Calderdale will be using her sixty minutes on the plinth to raise awareness for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Athens. Here time on the plinth will start at 11:00pm.

From:
Halifax Courier

Wednesday, 9th September 2009
‘Send them back’ call: Elgin Marbles plea of our plinth ‘goddess’
By Colin Drury

AN art student will dress as a Greek goddess when she becomes the latest Calderdale person to take to the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London
Sofka Smales, 19, will use her hour on the stone stand to campaign for the Elgin Marbles to be returned from London to Athens.

She was selected at random from more than 30,000 applicants to appear on the plinth as part of Antony Gormley’s One & Other project which sees a different person take to the plinth every 60 minutes for 100 days.
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Submissions are invited for a special edition of Critical Interventions on Africa’s cultural heritage in the museums of the West.

From:
Kwame Opoku (by email)

Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture – Fall 2010
By Kwame Opoku
WHO OWNS AFRICA’S CULTURAL PATRIMONY?

Critical Interventions invites submissions for a special issue on the question of Africa’s cultural patrimony in Western museums, especially in the context of recent international debates about repatriation of historical artworks relocated from one culture to another through conquest, colonization or looting. In the first decade of the 21st Century, demands by various countries for repatriations of significant artworks and cultural objects have shaken up established ideas about the ownership and location of historical cultural objects. While many Western museums have been willing to reach agreements about repatriating or compensating for culturally important artworks in their collections claimed by other Western countries, there has been no acknowledgement of the right of Africans to ownership of African artworks looted from Africa during colonialism, which are now held in the so-called “Universal Museums” of the West. Read the rest of this entry »

Bernard Tschumi, the architect who designed the New Acropolis Museum will be a keynote speaker at the annual Latsis University Prizes Ceremony at the University of Geneva.

He is giving this talk at 18:00 on Monday 5th October.

BBC1’s current affairs programme; The Big Question will be discussing the ethical debate surrounding the return of disputed artefacts in next Sunday’s episode (tying in with the opening of the New Acropolis Museum the previous day).

More details about the programe can be found on the BBC’s website.

Finally after many years of speculation, disputes & delays, an official date has been given for the opening of the New Acropolis Museum. Parts of the building have been open for some time, but no public access has not yet been allowed to any of the museum’s main permanent exhibition spaces. The date set is 20th June 2009.

From:
International Herald Tribune

Greece to open new Acropolis museum in June
The Associated Press
Published: February 13, 2009

ATHENS, Greece: Greek officials say a new museum showcasing masterpieces from the Acropolis will be inaugurated this summer after long delays.

Culture Minister Antonis Samaras said Friday the opening ceremony will be on June 20. Initially, Greece had planned to open the museum ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics.
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Author Sharon Waxman is giving a talk at the University of North Florida about who owns ancient treasures.

Waxman has recently generated a lot of interest in the issue with her book: Loot.

Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
Author: Sharon Waxman
Publisher: Times Books
ISBN: 0805086536

From:
The Florida Times-Union

Ownership of ancient treasures focus of talk
Western museums are facing a fight for many centuries-old objects.
* By Jessie-Lynne Kerr
* Story updated at 6:13 AM on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009

The battle over who owns ancient treasures will be the subject of a lecture by author and award-winning journalist Sharon Waxman at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the University of North Florida’s University Center.

The event is sponsored by UNF and the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville.
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