The 2022 AUA Academic Conference on Co-Curating Flipped Museums for Asian Civilization: A Blended Research and Teaching Approach was held online from February 15 to 17.

As one of several themed activities for the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Asian Universities Alliance (AUA), the conference was organized by the Universiti Malaya, who holds the Executive Presidency of the AUA from 2021 to 2022.

Dato’ Mohd Hamdi Abd Shukor, Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Malaya, said at the opening ceremony that University museums are becoming gateways in terms of educational and research resources, using conventional and emerging digital platforms.

He said the conference, as the first event of the UM-AUA Month, will highlight efforts to promote stronger interactions between science, technology, art and humanities studies from the context of museum-based teaching and learning, as well as research and outreach.

Du Pengfei, Executive Deputy Director of the Tsinghua University Art Museum, and Fan Aihong, Assistant Director of the Tsinghua University Science Museum, shared Tsinghua’s concepts and practice of using museum resources to serve talent training and raise the quality of public cultural offerings.

In his speech, Du said the Tsinghua University Art Museum (TAM) officially opened in the fall of 2016. In the past 5 years, TAM has welcomed over 2.3 million visitors and presented over 260 academic and educational activities.

“By harnessing the arts and humanities disciplines at Tsinghua University, TAM is committed to strengthening the intersection and integration between the major disciplines at the university, including science and engineering,” Du said.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, digital engagement has emerged as a new trend at TAM. Several series of digital activities have been developed to reach audiences in a safe and broad manner during this time, Du said, adding that students can easily access TAM’s website and view most exhibitions through its Digital Exhibitions section.

Fan introduced the Tsinghua University Science Museum’s mission, reviewed research on “flipped museums”, and shared four innovative examples.

The examples of collaboration with Tsinghua University Academy of Arts & Design, School of Journalism and Communication, School of Architecture and Department of Electronic Engineering show that museum exhibition resources can be embedded into the curricula of academic departments, making it possible to further enhance students’ experience and also help build a scientific and cultural education platform.

The conference is the first university museum exchange activity organized by AUA. At the event, a museum working group mechanism was proposed to exchange and share resources regularly.

Nearly 20 scholars addressed the meeting, including Andrew Simpson, Vice-Chair of the International Council of Museums Committee for University Museums and Collections (UMAC), Yoshihiro Nishiaki, Director of the University Museum, the University of Tokyo, Abd AzizBin Addul Rashid, Head Curator of the Museum of Asian Art Universiti Malaya & Conference Chair, and Siddharta Perez, Curator of the National University of Singapore (NUS) Museum.

The AUA was initiated by Tsinghua University and established by 15 member universities from 14 Asian countries and regions. It was established in Beijing on April 29, 2017. Qiu Yong, president of Tsinghua University, served as the founding president of the alliance.

Editor: Li Han