About the part that art plays in a globalising society

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Research Center for Material Culture (RCMC)

Research Center for Material Culture (RCMC)

The Research Center for Material Culture (RCMC) is a flagship research institute within the Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam), Museum Volkenkunde (Leiden), the Afrika Museum (Berg en Dal) and the Wereldmuseum (Rotterdam) that serves as a focal point for research on ethnographic collections in the Netherlands.

RCMC‘s interdisciplinary research focused on its internationally renowned collections, which comprise over 376.000 objects and almost 1.000.000 photographs cataloguing the diversity of world cultures. Research projects and programs address the historical and contemporary meanings of these collections, the national and global histories of which they are a part, and the contemporary societal questions around issues of heritage, cultural identity and belonging that these objects raise.

RCMC fosters innovation and critical approaches to understanding; interpreting and displaying its collection, and ethnographic collections more generally; encourage the development of new strategies for their proper care and preservation; contributes to the development of state-of-the-art approaches to engaging various local and international audiences through collections-based research and programming.