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The Museums Association has introduced a new system of visiting researchers, known as Research Associates.
The MA has much to gain from close working relationships with individuals outside the organisation who wish to contribute to its research and policy development work.
Many MA members and supporters already contribute through membership of its Council and committees, advisory panels and project working groups, as well as more informally.
Research Associate status enables individuals to work more extensively with the MA on a specific project that will complement and help to further the MA's work.
What is a Research Associate?
Research Associates are unpaid and will be invited to work with the MA for a fixed period, on a specific project.
Researchers will not take on the kind of mainstream research and policy development work, which would normally be undertaken by MA staff. Their work will be additional and complementary to that carried out by staff, and will focus on a separate and clearly defined area to any in-house work.
Specific outputs will be agreed with each researcher on a case-by-case basis. Likely outputs include: contributions to MA research projects (e.g. the collections inquiry); Museums Journal and Museum Practice articles; contributions to MA events and Conference; content for the MA website.
If you are interested in becoming a Research Associate at the MA and feel like you have the skills and experience to complement the MA's current research and policy work, please contact Nikola Burdon, Policy Officer, MA.
Email: nikola@museumsassociation.org
Current Research Associate: Ken Arnold
Show business: the role and significance of exhibitions and events in museums and galleries
Many museums and galleries invest significant resources (both financial and human) in the production of either one-off or entire programmes of temporary exhibitions and live events.
They also form an important part of the intellectual agenda of many institutions, helping them achieve a resonance in academic circles, something of a media profile and the elusive repeat visits that are so vital to a successful venue.
And yet this crucial and expensive part of museum and gallery practice seems under-investigated.
I am therefore interested in finding out about the role and significance of temporary exhibitions and events. I want to know more about:
· their status and strategic importance within museums and galleries;
· the recent history of this phenomenon that has emerged during the last forty years or so;
· the claims made for the unique types of knowledge generated through exhibition and event curation (an aspect of museum work that potentially presents rich possibilities for collaborations with 3ry education institutions);
· the interdisciplinary working methods opened up through exhibition and event work;
· the impact of temporary programming on audiences;
· how these time based projects relate to potentially longer lasting resources such as publications and websites.
Ultimately, I am interested in whether further ways of more fully exploiting their potential might suggest themselves.
To get on with this research I will read much in various fields: museology, histories of art and science, cultural commentary, art criticism, design history and analysis, and so forth.
But seemingly rather little that is generally relevant has been written about these issues. So I will also be keen to talk to curators and other exhibition professionals, to historians and other academics, to designers and artists, to audiences, indeed to anyone with an informed interest in my research.
If this is you, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at the e-mail address below.
During 2009, I am hoping to convene some sort of one day conference on some aspects of these interests and I also aim to programme a session at the MA Conference in October 2009. I will update this entry when more details emerge.
Dr Ken Arnold, head of public programmes, Wellcome Collection
Email: ken.arnold@wellcome.ac.uk |
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