South East Asia Museum
The Museum has over 3,000 artefacts, some of which are on display in the museum. Many were purchased from local markets, acquired as gifts, or made especially for donors.
Celebrating tradition through a unique collection of regional craftsmanship
The artefacts demonstrate the rich diversity of everyday life in the region, reflecting both the traditions and changing face of contemporary Southeast Asian culture. The Museum is is open Monday to Friday on the First Floor of the Wilberforce Building in the Roy Bruton Room (next to Zucchini's Cafe).
| Collection opening times | |
|---|---|
| Seminars and meetings | 9:00am-1:00pm |
| Open to all students, staff and members of the public | 1:00pm-5:00pm |
The collection
- Costume and textiles batik, ikat, embroidered cloth, appliqué and beadwork
- Basketry and plaited ware
- Decorative silver and brassware
- Material culture related to livelihoods hunting, fishing, agriculture and crafts, markets and food
- Weaponry including Malay and Javanese keris
- Lacquerware
- Musical instruments
- Wooden sculptures associated with calendrical and life-cycle rituals, marriage and death
- Puppets wayang kulit, wayang golek, wayang wong), masks, dolls, toys and games
History of the collection
The Museum has occasional exhibitions, including:
Costumes of the Golden Triangle (1987–1989), a touring exhibition in the Humber region based on a donation of costumes from Dr Robert G. Cooper, a Hull graduate who spent two years carrying out field research (1973–1975) among the Hmong in northern Thailand and Laos.
Textiles and Embroidery of the Ethnic Minorities of South-west China (1991), an exhibition in the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull.
Art and Religion in Bali (1993), an exhibition in the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull
Sumatran Textiles (1990s and early 2000s), a display in the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull based on the collection made by Dr. Fiona Kerlogue.
Precious Cargo (2010–2011), made possible through funding as part of the Cultural Olympiad, which included a number of wayang shadow puppet shows and puppet-related performances and workshops, bringing in schools, drawing on puppets in the collection and involving the Department for Drama and Music at the University of Hull and local puppet companies in East Yorkshire.
Heroines, Heroes and Cosmic Power in Southeast Asia (2023), an exhibition in the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull supported by a grant from the Ferens Education Trust, featuring some of the work of the Borneo artist, Stephen Baya together with objects from the collection.
An exhibition is planned for 2025 on SE Asian textiles
From collection to museum
In 2007, the collection became a museum, when a substantial financial donation to the Centre from Dr Roy Bruton, who had research interests in Sarawak, enabled the collection to be relocated to a first-floor gallery in the Wilberforce Building. It is now the Southeast Asia Museum at the University of Hull. Previously, it had been displayed in cases along corridors and in seminar rooms, and some objects from the collection were also displayed for a time in Middleton Hall.
The museum is now a public-facing institution which aims to be accessible and relevant to a wider public in the Humber region, as well as being oriented towards research. The function of the museum as a teaching collection has become less important with the closure of the Centre for South-East Asian Studies in 2005, due to the decision to bring the three Asian Studies centres situated in Yorkshire together in Leeds, to form the White Rose East Asia Centre (WREAC), with Prof. Victor King as its Executive Director.
The curatorship of the museum
In 1972 Lewis Hill, Lecturer in the Social Anthropology of South-East Asia, became the curator of the collection and later the museum. He continued to serve in that position after his retirement in 2000, until 2022. Sadly, Lewis Hill died in March 2023, after many years of service, both on behalf of the study of South-East Asia at Hull and through his curatorship of the collection and then the museum.
The position of curator has since been taken over Dr Monica Janowski, who was awarded her MPhil at Cambridge and PhD from the London School of Economics under the supervision of the eminent French anthropologist Professor Maurice Émile Félix Bloch; she is a specialist in Borneo anthropology and has considerable expertise in material culture and museum studies.
Her deputy is Prof. Victor T. King, who had been supervised for his PhD in social anthropology at Hull by Mervyn Jaspan and who was Professor of South-East Asian Studies there from 1988 to 2005.
Curatorial consultants for the Museum are Dr Fiona Kerlogue and Dr Andy West.
Exhibitions and community interaction
The Museum has occasional exhibitions, including:
- Costumes of the Golden Triangle (1987–1989), a touring exhibition in the Humber region based on a donation of costumes from Dr Robert G. Cooper, a Hull graduate who spent two years carrying out field research (1973–1975) among the Hmong in northern Thailand and Laos
- Textiles and Embroidery of the Ethnic Minorities of South-west China (1991), an exhibition in the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull.
- Art and Religion in Bali (1993), an exhibition in the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull
- Sumatran Textiles (1990s and early 2000s), a display in the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull based on the collection made by Dr. Fiona Kerlogue.
- Precious Cargo (2010–2011), made possible through funding as part of the Cultural Olympiad, which included a number of wayang shadow puppet shows and puppet-related performances and workshops, bringing in schools, drawing on puppets in the collection and involving the Department for Drama and Music at the University of Hull and local puppet companies in East Yorkshire.
- Heroines, Heroes and Cosmic Power in Southeast Asia (2023), an exhibition in the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull supported by a grant from the Ferens Education Trust, featuring some of the work of the Borneo artist, Stephen Baya together with objects from the collection.
- An exhibition is planned for 2025 on SE Asian textiles