Professor, O Cavalheiro Anthony Alan Shelton
BA (Hull), MLitt (Oxon), DPhil (Oxon), FCMA
Interviews
Conversation with Dr. Laura Osorio Sunnucks, Arts of Resistance: Politics and the Past in Latin America, MOA Minds Series | 2021
Visiting curators play a special role in diversifying what museums collect and exhibit. In this episode of MOA Minds Dr. Anthony Shelton and Dr. Laura Osorio Sunnucks discuss their collaboration on their 2018 exhibit Arts of Resistance: Politics and the Past in Latin America.
In this January 4th conversation, they share their reflections and discuss the ways objects can embody important historical and cultural memories and have the potential to influence the ways Latin American art and culture are showcased in museums and galleries.
Conversation with Titilope Salami, A Change in Direction: Who Do Museums Stand With? MOA Minds Series | 2020
What happens when the planning of an African art exhibition is forced to respond to our shared collective outrage against the brutal legacy of racism and systematic violence against Black people and people of African descent? Who do museums stand with? What do they stand against? How are some museums transforming themselves into new platforms to engage in the struggle for social and environmental justice? (November, 19th, 2020)
David Simpson Interview, University of Hull Alumni Association | 2020
Anthony Shelton having graduated from the University of Hull in 1976 with a BA Hons in Sociology and Anthropology, has worked at a variety of institutions across the globe including the British Museum, Royal Pavilion Art Gallery and Museum, University College London, and University of Coimbra, Portugal. He is an expert in critical museology, visual cultures, and the history of collecting. In this January 28th interview, we find out how Hull helped open up the world to him, and what are some of the challenges and pleasures of working in museums. Read more here
Conversation with Marc Johnson on Museum, Museology and Diplomacy | 2019
Anthony Shelton in conversation with Marc Johnson at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia on the traditional, ancestral and unceded land of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people, July 5, 2019.
This video is part of a research project initiated by the French artist Marc Johnson, commissioned by the Vancouver Biennale and supported by the Cultural and Scientific Service of the Embassy of France to Canada and the Museum of Anthropology.
Makiko Hara Interview on Museums and Museology (in Japanese) | 2018
Talk on Northwest Coast Art, UBC Faculty of Arts | 2017
In November 2016, the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology received one of the largest donations ever from the estate of Elspeth McConnell consisting of more than 200 pieces of Northwest Coast art. Anthony Shelton shares his thoughts on two objects from the collection. (March 28th, 2017)
Anne Watson Interview, New Show of Portuguese Popular Art Takes Viewers from Heaven to Hell | 2015
Interview in the Vancouver Observer with Anne Watson. "Exceptional, finely detailed exhibition of Portuguese Popular Art opens at MOA. It's playful, smart, and gorgeous." Read more here
Simon Yee Interview, Portuguese Religion and Politics Converge at MOA, Source Newspaper | 2015
Interview with the La Source Newspaper highlighting Portuguese religion, history and politics as told in MOA’s exhibition Heaven, Hell and Somewhere In-Between: Portuguese Popular Art. “What we’ve tried to do is create a poetic rendition of Portugal with its own traditions, which are quite unique from the rest of Europe, traditions which continue to be alive and use images of the past to understand and make sense out of the present,” says Anthony Shelton, MOA’s director and curator of the exhibit. (June 9, 2015) Read more here
Interview with Holly Vestad, in Montecristo Magazine. "“Europe is a piling up of history,” Dr. Anthony Shelton explains, “and here we are presenting another angle.” Shelton is referencing the Museum of Anthropology’s newest exhibit, “Heaven, Hell, and Somewhere In Between: Portuguese Popular Art”, his most recent exhibition. The project began with modest intentions, meant to take up a month during his year-long sabbatical in Portugal. But Shelton quickly discovered that Portuguese folk art has many stories to tell, and the project burgeoned into a five-year journey of research, travel, and curation." (May 11th, 2015) Read more here.
Elaine Avila Interview, Exhibit: Heaven, Hell and Somewhere in Between: Portuguese Popular Art – Interview with Anthony Shelton, Portuguese American Journal | 2015
Heaven, Hell and Somewhere in Between: Portuguese Popular Art was an art exhibition curated by Professor Anthony Shelton, of over 300 Portuguese folk artworks at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada from May 12-October 12, 2015. Elain Avila asks about the inspiration for the exhibit, and his approach to the design and curation as well as the process of completing the book, Heaven and Hell and Somewhere in Between: Portuguese Popular Art. Read more here.
Negotiating New Visions: An Interview with Anthony Shelton by Gustaaf Houtman, In Athropology Today | 2009
In this interview, Anthony Shelton reflects on his past 25 years working in museums and universities and the changing relationship between anthropology and ethnographic exhibitions and museum practices. He explicitly talks about critical museology, a term he introduced and theorized in the 1990s, and its implications for a multi-million dollar capital refurbishment and expansion project at the UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver. ‘A Partnership of Peoples’ which is due to open in January of 2010. (November, 2009) Read More Here
Cracks in the Mask film directed by Frances Calvert | 1997
"Reveals a story about museums and about objects - about what museums do and about their rationale for continuing to hold such objects, and about the meaning of these objects for Torres Strait Islanders today... A moving, often poignant representation of issues surrounding the return of such collections to the descendants of their original owners. The discussions about the relationship between objects, culture, memory, history, identity, and cultural reclamation all converge to provoke reflection and thought about these issues."- Martin Nakata, University of South Australia, for The Contemporary Pacific.
A Short Film About Cultures - Jonny Shipp | 1993
Jonny Shipp read anthropology and film studies at the University of Sussex and suggested producing a documentary film on the planning, consultative process, design, and curation of the new Cultures Gallery. Shelton gave him and his assistants access to all meetings on the funding, planning and design of the gallery which are recounted in: A Short Film About Cultures. The film includes visitor's perceptions of what anthropology/ethnography is and explains why the exhibition team substituted the term culture in place of its former academic designation as ethnography.