Unique collaboration culminates in exhibition

When the exhibition Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind & Spirit opens at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on March 15, 2003, it will be the product of an unprecedented collaboration between the AMNH and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi. The institutions share a common mission of studying, preserving, and interpreting culture, and their collaboration provides an ideal opportunity to reveal the richness of Vietnamese culture to an American audience.

Vietnam and the United States share a difficult and complex history. Perhaps because the two countries did not resume full diplomatic recognition until 1995, Vietnam is still largely misunderstood by Americans whose knowledge often is limited to memories of the war. Vietnam is, in fact, an incredibly diverse country, with more than 50 ethnic groups. Showcasing Vietnamese culture, with its melding and juxtaposition of the traditional and the contemporary, the exhibition provides American audiences an unprecedented opportunity to experience life in Vietnam in the 21st century. Such an exhibition would not have been possible without the partnership of two museums on opposite sides of the world.

The AMNH has a significant history of scientific and scholarly work in Vietnam, beginning with zoological expeditions in the early 20th century. More recently, in 1997, the AMNH's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC)initiated a biodiversity project in Vietnam in conjunction with the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources in Hanoi, and the Vietnam National University, Hanoi. As the project developed, it became clear that the study of an ecosystem was incomplete without information about the people who lived and worked there.

The AMNH and the VME had begun a relationship in the early 1990s when Nguyen Van Huy, Director of the VME, and Laurel Kendall, Curator of Asian Ethnographic Collections at the AMNH, traveled to each other's institutions to discuss future projects. In 1998, the VME became the local sponsor of the ethnographic component of the CBC's Vietnam project. In 1999, plans for a major collaborative exhibition on Vietnamese culture took shape, with Drs. Kendall and Huy as co-curators.

As the relationship has developed, each institution has benefited from the experience and expertise of the other. The VME has provided many objects in the exhibition and the scholarly expertise to interpret them. The AMNH has lent its conservation and curatorial expertise and years of experience in developing exhibitions. AMNH staff members have held training workshops in Hanoi on textile and object conservation, ethnographic field methods, collection cataloging, and curation, and, in turn, have learned from VME staff about Vietnam and its material culture. As plans for the exhibition have stepped up, five professionals from the VME have served residencies at the AMNH conserving objects and helping AMNH curators interpret and describe the artifacts to be exhibited. Three more have traveled to the AMNH to help prepare for the exhibition's March 15 opening.

Just as the exhibition focuses on the notion of journeys, the collaboration itself can be seen as a journey--of two countries with a complex and difficult past moving toward a future of understanding and friendship. According to Dr. Kendall, "An encounter with Vietnam in the 21 st century is an important step toward healing."

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