An exhibition titled “No Rain without Clouds: Preserving Vietnamese Art & Culture for the Future” kicked off the Vietnam Festival of Creativity & Design 2020 on November 7 at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum in Hanoi.

Photo: RMIT

It is open to the public both virtually via the Kunstmatrix digital platform and physically at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum in Hanoi from November 7 to 15. Comprising 30 works curated by RMIT University lecturers Dr. Emma Duester and Ms. Michal Teague, the exhibition will be the first to bring the RMIT collection outside the university’s campuses.

The exhibition is supported by a program of events, including a national art review competition and a panel discussion. The panel will feature an artist from the RMIT Contemporary Art Collection, as well as the curators of the collection and the No Rain without Clouds exhibition. 

The Collection is a typical example of art digitization in Vietnam. Most of the collection is already accessible digitally on RMIT’s website with 3D scanning.

The university’s long-term goal is to make this collection reach the widest audience possible, in order to raise public awareness of the significance, quality, and richness of contemporary art in Vietnam. It is also one motivation behind the exhibition.

Digitizing art, culture in Vietnam

Photo: RMIT

Over the past four months, RMIT University lecturers have been researching how art and culture professionals in Hanoi are harnessing digital technology to develop the creative industries. The focus has been on how institutions are digitizing their collections, as well as the challenges they are facing in this process.

So far, the two researchers have interviewed 20 people and explored two creative hubs in particular, namely the Matca Space for Photography and the Vietnamese Women’s Museum. The findings have shown that the collections of many arts and cultural institutions in Hanoi are, in fact not yet publicly displayed on a digital platform, as the sector has been only starting to digitize collections.

“The common challenges for Hanoi institutions – and we believe for other institutions across the country as well – are a lack of human resources in terms of time and capacity, lack of capital investment and technical equipment like 3D scanners in order to properly digitize cultural objects,” said RMIT Professional Communication Lecturer Dr. Emma Duester.

“These issues are hindering the ability of the art and culture sector to create international connections or engage with a wider audience in Vietnam,” Dr. Duester said.