This week the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge was delighted to welcome Mrs Xiao Rong, Board director of Qinghai Spring Medicinal Resources Technology Co., Ltd to officially inaugurate her company's support for the MAA Digital Lab, which will support a number of specific research initiatives, including:
- Comparative cultures of wine and alcohol, exploring material cultures of alcohol consumption, ceremony, trade and social history
- Material cultures of tea drinking
- The documentation and digitisation of collections of Chinese art and material culture, including Chinese diaspora collections
The Digital Lab is an exciting new venture that seeks to expand and diversify digital engagement with, and access to, the collections of global heritage the museum cares for, and the stories they tell. Through collaborative research, a range of online outputs and workshops, the Lab will work to highlight artefacts, histories and relationships from the collections at MAA, tell new stories in partnership with diverse voices locally and Internationally, and establish new connections between the Museum and other international institutions.
Mrs Xiao and Dr Mark Elliott, Senior Curator in Anthropology at MAA, signed a Memorandum of Record to inaugurate this new relationship at a ceremony in the Andrews Gallery of World Archaeology at the Museum on Tuesday 26 July. The ceremony followers a tour of two new exhibitions - Colour: Art, Science and Power, and Spotlight on Stores Move, showcasing the breadth of research and collections practice at MAA and across the University of Cambridge Museums. Both exhibitions present models and platforms for future work in collaboration with the Digital Lab.
The Project will begin in September 2022 and launch online in November 2022.