Still Them and Us - a Look at the Drawings of the Time Exhibit

Originally published February 25, 2010 | Al-Ahram Weekly Online | by Gamal Nkrumah | Gamal Nkrumah's reaction and analysis of Drawings of the Time: Impressions of Edfu Temple exhibit. An excerpt:

Drawings of the Time: Impressions from Edfu Temple is an exhibition that displays colourful and engaging portraits of high priests of ancient Egyptian Temples. Gamal Nkrumah discovers they tend to be at odds with contemporary art in many respects. These striking images are definitely not the stuff of daily life in the closing years of the Pharaonic era. They have a broader and more aspiring canvas.

The exquisite works of Andalusian artists Asuncion Jodar Minarro and Ricardo Marin Viadel ornament the Egyptian Museum and offer a timely lesson in Mediterranean camaraderie. The exhibition focuses on the miscellaneous aspects of the high priests of the Ptolemaic Period. The focus of this show is art rather than history. And yet the images have quite a tale to tell.

What a difference a couple of millennia make. Two thousand years ago, these images were adored as the very likeness of the living gods. Or those destined to serve the gods. Today they are admired as imaginative and ingenious interpretations of an art of an age bygone. They were worshipped then, and they are viewed with wonder now.

Opening the Children’s Exhibit at the Cairo Museum

Originally published February 12, 2010 | Zahi Hawass' Blog | by Dr. Hawass | The recent opening of the Children's Exhibit at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo has resulted in many great things, according to Zahi Hawass. He is very pleased that children of Egypt and around the world have an ancient Egyptian exhibit they can relate to, one that features famous Egyptian icons in LEGO form. There is also a workshop for children that teaches them about the Egyptian heritage and has graduated a thousand students. Read his blog post for a more detailed look at Dr. Hawass' reactions to this permanent exhibit.

Remaking History’s Shelves: SCA's Plan for New Museums

Accessed February 14, 2010 | Egypt Today | by Michael Kaput | This article is an overview of the SCA's ongoing and future plans to develop and restore museums to create better areas for housing the nation's antiquities, which have been in dire need of an appropriate and safe environment to be showcased. Here is an excerpt:

The building that houses the office in charge of the nation’s museums at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) downtown is grand but half-finished. With some work, it could be truly magnificent. Whether that work gets done anytime soon is anyone’s guess. The same could be said about the SCA’s colossal undertaking to give the country’s staggering collection of artifacts a new showcase.

Flush with ticket revenue from international exhibitions and local tourist sites, the SCA is in the midst of a project that will see 20 new museums covering every governorate, and long-closed favorites re-opening to the public over the next five years. More than just cash cows feeding on tourist dollars, however, the new museums are also hope to reconnect Egyptians with their own heritage, in their own neighborhoods.

...

Part of the SCA’s plan is to air out the museum, transferring more than 20 percent of the objects, including the famed royal mummies, to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in El Fustat, due to open in two years. King Tutankhamun’s treasures will be moved to the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) being built at the Giza Plateau, which the Museum Sector head confirms is on schedule to open in five years.

Exhibit - Interpretations of Edfu

Originally published February 9, 2010 | Al-Masry Al-Yourn | by Andrew Bossone | A new contemporary exhibit, entitled Drawings of the time: Impressions From the Edfu Temple, will be showcased at the Egyptian Museum until April 8. It is a modern interpretation of ancient artwork and features drawings from the western staircase in Edfu temple by artists and professors Assunción Jódar Miñarro and Ricardo Marín Viadel. This article divulges the inspiration and development of the exhibit and includes exhibition information at the bottom. Pictures are also included to give you a peek at the beautiful interpretive artwork.

Two Granada Artists at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

Originally published January 29, 2010 | Amigos de los Egiptología | An excerpt in its original Spanish (click on the above link to access this article, translated to English; click here to read the article in Spanish):

Dos granadinos serán los primeros pintores contemporáneos en exponer su obra en el Museo Egipcio de El Cairo, y lo harán gracias al trabajo de investigación y reproducción de las treinta y una figuras de los sacerdotes portainsignias de la escalera Oeste del templo Horus en Edfú (Egipto). Asunción Jódar y Ricardo Marín han realizado más de 400 dibujos, la mayoría de ellos a gran escala, de esos sacerdotes, que serán expuestos en el Museo Egipcio de El Cairo a partir del 8 de febrero y, en Granada, a partir del 27 de abril.

Impresiones del templo de Edfú es una muestra de dibujos monumentales que Jódar y Marín llevaban realizando desde el año 2005. La idea de reproducir en pintura los dibujos de los relieves de los sacerdotes surgió, según explicó Asunción Jódar, cuando la pareja de artistas visitaba el templo de Edfú. "Vimos entonces la escalera oeste del templo y me pareció muy especial, sobre todo las 31 figuras que la decoraban. Aquellos sacerdotes me llamaron la atención y pensamos en la posibilidad de dibujar sus imágenes".

Exhibit - Ippolito Rosellini and the Dawn of Egyptology

Accessed January 19, 2010 | ANSAmed | An excerpt:

Drawings, watercolours and unpublished manuscripts that show the beginnings of Egyptology will be exhibited for the first time in Cairo from January 26 to the end of the February in an exhibition entitled 'Ippolito Rosellini and the Dawn of Egyptology'. [...] The exhibition recounts the Franco-Tuscan expedition to Egypt, led by Jean-Francois Champollion [sic] and Pisan Ippolito Rossellini in 1828-29, which signalled one of the founding moments of Egyptology and the first section of the exhibition is in fact dedicated to the birth of the undertaking and the team which conducted it.

The exhibit runs from January 27 - February 23, 2010 at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the admission free (you can't get much better than that!)

Cairo Museum Offers Blind Tours

Originally published January 5, 2010 | Telstra BigPond News |

The Cairo Museum reflects the efforts German museums have put forth to give children with visual impairments the same experiences as those with none, going so far as to employ blind tour guides. Who better to give tours to people with blindness than people with blindness, no doubt to ensure an enriching and appropriate experience?