Wednesday 6 October
Conference 2010: sessions, keynotes and events
Delegate registration desk 08:00 - 16:00
Conference sessions 09:15 - 16:00
Exhibition 09:30 - 16:00
0915-1030
Concurrent sessions
More popular than Blackpool?
Exchange Auditorium
Is the quality of experience in our museums and galleries being compromised by the crush of the crowd?
This session explores the notion of the blockbuster. What are the advantages and dangers of creating a juggernaut of a show?
What role do these grand displays play in constructing stories about nationality and power?
Can collections play a key role in constructing ‘must see’ shows and how comfortable do museums feel when they are more popular than Blackpool pleasure beach?
Chair:
Stephen Snoddy, Director, New Art Gallery Walsall
Speakers:
Sally Manuireva, Director of public programmes, National Museums of Scotland
Vikki Wood, Head of media and public relations, Historic Royal Palaces
Kathleen Soriano, Director of exhibitions, Royal Academy of Arts
Effective Collections
Charter 3
How do you make collections effective? The STICK project, funded by the Effective Collections programme, aims to make collaborative decisions about domestic technology collections across Scotland including what to keep, what to dispose of and what stories to tell. Hear about the work and get tips about reviewing collections and thinking of alternative uses for objects.
Chair:
Sally Colvin, Collections coordinator, MA
Speakers:
Rowan Brown, Director, Scottish Mining Museum
Jilly Burns, National partnerships manager, National Museums Scotland
Accreditation: the new standard
Charter 2
The MLA’s Accreditation scheme is changing. After a year of consultation the revised scheme will be unveiled at the conference. Has the review dared to challenge the obsession with documentation backlogs and what conclusions has it reached on whether museums are doing enough for their visitors? Find out the answers to these questions and more.
Chair:
Claire McDade, Director, Norton Priory Museum and Gardens
Speakers:
Isabel Wilson, Project manager, quality and standards, MLA
Jane Hubbard, Museum service manager, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
Simon Davies, Regional accreditation officer, Renaissance East Midlands
Prevention or cure
Charter 1
As spaces of inspiration and learning, museums are well positioned to promote health and well-being, but can they work therapeutically to improve recovery?
This session looks at how museums are reaching their potential as therapeutic spaces, playing a role in creating healthy communities and using collections to promote recovery.
Chair:
Guy Kilminster, Head of health and wellbeing, Cheshire East Council
Speakers:
Anne Lanceley, Institute for Women’s Health, UCL
John Pollard, Mental health project officer, Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service
Hold the front page: the big conversation about the big society
Exchange 1
Felicity Heywood, the associate editor of Museums Journal, in conversation with Phil Redmond, the chairman of the NML, Charlotte Smith, the head of learning and access at the IWM North, Alan Leighton, the national secretary of Prospect and Bill Ferris, from the Association of Independent Museums.
Future quest
Exchange 2 & 4
What will museums be like in 20, 30 or 40 years time if they are truly sustainable? Embedded in communities, treading lightly on the planet and financially thriving? We don’t know yet, but this interactive session will get you thinking about some of the questions your museum will need to consider if it is not just to survive, but to truly thrive.
Chairs:
Maurice Davies, Head of policy and communication, MA
Gaby Porter, Consultant
Speaker:
Steve Connor, Chief executive officer, Creative Concern
1030-1100
Keynote
Alan Davey
Exchange Auditorium
Alan Davey has been the chief executive of Arts Council England since November 2007.
He was the director for culture at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport from 2003 to 2006.
In an earlier stint at the then Department of National Heritage he was responsible for designing the National Lottery.
He has been a visiting Fulbright/Helen Hamlyn Scholar at the University of Maryland and has degrees from the universities of Birmingham, Oxford and London.
Chair:
Mark Taylor, Director, MA
1200-1315
Concurrent sessions
Survival of the fittest
Exchange Auditorium
A panel discussion surveying the new landscape (post-election, post-recession and mid-public sector spending squeeze).
Panellists will consider how museums and galleries can survive and what the future holds.
Chair:
Sharon Heal, Head of publications, MA
Speakers:
David Fleming, Director, NML
Sam Mullins, Director, London Transport Museum
Michael Dixon, Director, Natural History Museum
Rita McLean, Head of museums and heritage services, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Artist rooms
Charter 3
The Artist Rooms collection and touring programme is a model partnership: every element – conservation, display, funding, marketing, press and learning – is collaborative. Explore the logistics and ambitions with both project and associate gallery staff, and hear about future plans as the collection continues to be shared.
Chairs:
Lucy Askew, Managing curator, Artist Rooms
Christopher Ganley, Learning coordinator, Artist Rooms
Speakers:
Zoë Lippett, Art collections curator, Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Sarah Philip, Head of programmes, the Art Fund Carol Dunbar, Education officer, Pier Arts Centre
Charlotte Wood, Youth advocate, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
Who owns our collections?
Charter 2
The ownership of collections remains complex and contentious. This session explores the progress museums have made in working with requests from communities overseas for return, and at the continuing challenges facing museums. It will also look at the cases of the Lindow Man and the Lewis Chessman and the growing trend for regional requests from communities in the UK.
Chair:
Maurice Davies, Head of policy and communication, MA
Speakers:
Bryan Sitch, Head of human cultures, Manchester Museum
Gordon Rintoul, Director, National Museums Scotland
Konstantinos Arvanitis, Programme Director MA Art Gallery & Museum Studies, University of Manchester
Pop culture
Charter 1
What are the challenges of trying to capture or interpret popular culture in museums? Does the static experience of a museum flatten out the ‘real’ experience of performance? This session looks at new ways that popular culture can be interpreted by museums.
Chair:
Marion Leonard, Senior lecturer, Institute of Popular Music
Speakers:
Kevin Moore, Director, National Football Museum
Paul Lilley, Curator, British Music Experience
Paul Gallagher, Curator of contemporary collecting, Museum of Liverpool
Not bovvered! Including a new generation
Exchange 1
Book lovers may flinch at celebrity autobiographies, but literacy experts argue such titles are often pathways to reading. So how can museums get young people off the sofa and away from the screen long enough to visit them? This session taps into the expertise of a range of professionals involved in promotion to young people and looks at what draws them in and what brings them back.
Chair:
Alison Baverstock, Co-author of titles on parenting and course leader, MA publishing, Kingston University
Speakers:
Ruth Harrison, Senior project manager, Reading Agency
Des de Moor, Senior everyday walking officer, Ramblers
Anne Plenderleith, Education producer, Clwyd Theatr Cymru
Andrea Winn, Curator of community exhibitions, Manchester Museum
1430-1530
Concurrent sessions
A piece of the action
Exchange Auditorium
Following a NMDC report earlier this year, national museums are working to improve and develop their partnerships with non-national museums. How strategic and successful has this initiative been? What else needs to change, on both sides, to make partnership working easier and more effective? And whose responsibility it is to make this happen?
Chair:
John Orna-Ornstein, Head of London and national programmes, British Museum
Speakers:
Iain Watson, Acting director, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Jilly Burns, National partnerships manager, National Museums Scotland
Judy Lindsay, Head of museum, Central Saint Martins Museum and Study Collection
Hedley Swain, Director of programme delivery, MLA
1430-1530
Concurrent sessions
Whatever happened to the working class?
Charter 2
Does the reopening of the People’s History Museum in Manchester this year, and the opening of the Museum of Liverpool next year, represent a renewed interest in the history of ‘ordinary people’? This session looks at how working-class history is collected and portrayed in museums.
Chair:
Steve Caunce, Senior lecturer in history, University of Central Lancashire
Speakers:
Janet Dugdale, Director of urban history, Museum of Liverpool
Steph Mastoris, Head, National Waterfront Museum
Nick Mansfield, Senior research fellow in history, University of Central Lancashire
Making the case for museums – what the MA does for you
Charter 3
The political and economic landscape is changing and with this will come fresh challenges for the UK’s museums. What can the MA do in these times to make the case for museums and champion their work? What should the sector’s priorities be for the next few years? This session explores the MA’s post-election policy priorities and gives delegates the chance to contribute to shaping its future work.
Chair:
Maurice Davies, Head of policy and communication, MA
Speakers:
Vanessa Trevelyan, Head, Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service
From the frying pan into the fire?
Charter 1
If you are contemplating the transition to trust status, what conditions need to be met for you to avoid jumping out of the local authority frying pan into the independent fire? The Association of Independent Museums presents an overview of the key factors in deciding on trust status and the lessons from three case studies where charitable trusts have been created out of local authority museums.
Chair:
Sam Mullins, Director, London Transport Museum
Speakers:
Jo Whooley, Development and sustainability manager, MLA
Keith Merrin, Director, Woodhorn Trust
Maggie Appleton, Chief executive, Luton Cultural Services Trust
1530-1600
Keynote
In conversation with Alex Poots
Exchange Auditorium
Taking radical risks
Will the spending squeeze mean that museums and galleries play it safe with collections and temporary exhibition programming?
Alex Poots, the Manchester International Festival director, talks about commissioning new work, mixed economies, leadership and his festival’s aspirations to be an outward-looking international event that is embedded in its city and communities.
Alex Poots is committed to enabling a wide range of leading artists to create and present ambitious new work across art forms. Since 1996, he has programmed and provided artistic direction for organisations including the Barbican, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the BBC, the English National Opera, C4, Somerset House and in 2004 was appointed the inaugural Manchester International Festival director.
Chair:
Maria Balshaw, Director, Whitworth Art Gallery
To download a conference guide, please click here (pdf)
Delegate registration desk 08:00 - 16:00
Conference sessions 09:15 - 16:00
Exhibition 09:30 - 16:00
0915-1030
Concurrent sessions
More popular than Blackpool?
Exchange Auditorium
Is the quality of experience in our museums and galleries being compromised by the crush of the crowd?
This session explores the notion of the blockbuster. What are the advantages and dangers of creating a juggernaut of a show?
What role do these grand displays play in constructing stories about nationality and power?
Can collections play a key role in constructing ‘must see’ shows and how comfortable do museums feel when they are more popular than Blackpool pleasure beach?
Chair:
Stephen Snoddy, Director, New Art Gallery Walsall
Speakers:
Sally Manuireva, Director of public programmes, National Museums of Scotland
Vikki Wood, Head of media and public relations, Historic Royal Palaces
Kathleen Soriano, Director of exhibitions, Royal Academy of Arts
Effective Collections
Charter 3
How do you make collections effective? The STICK project, funded by the Effective Collections programme, aims to make collaborative decisions about domestic technology collections across Scotland including what to keep, what to dispose of and what stories to tell. Hear about the work and get tips about reviewing collections and thinking of alternative uses for objects.
Chair:
Sally Colvin, Collections coordinator, MA
Speakers:
Rowan Brown, Director, Scottish Mining Museum
Jilly Burns, National partnerships manager, National Museums Scotland
Accreditation: the new standard
Charter 2
The MLA’s Accreditation scheme is changing. After a year of consultation the revised scheme will be unveiled at the conference. Has the review dared to challenge the obsession with documentation backlogs and what conclusions has it reached on whether museums are doing enough for their visitors? Find out the answers to these questions and more.
Chair:
Claire McDade, Director, Norton Priory Museum and Gardens
Speakers:
Isabel Wilson, Project manager, quality and standards, MLA
Jane Hubbard, Museum service manager, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
Simon Davies, Regional accreditation officer, Renaissance East Midlands
Prevention or cure
Charter 1
As spaces of inspiration and learning, museums are well positioned to promote health and well-being, but can they work therapeutically to improve recovery?
This session looks at how museums are reaching their potential as therapeutic spaces, playing a role in creating healthy communities and using collections to promote recovery.
Chair:
Guy Kilminster, Head of health and wellbeing, Cheshire East Council
Speakers:
Anne Lanceley, Institute for Women’s Health, UCL
John Pollard, Mental health project officer, Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service
Hold the front page: the big conversation about the big society
Exchange 1
Felicity Heywood, the associate editor of Museums Journal, in conversation with Phil Redmond, the chairman of the NML, Charlotte Smith, the head of learning and access at the IWM North, Alan Leighton, the national secretary of Prospect and Bill Ferris, from the Association of Independent Museums.
Future quest
Exchange 2 & 4
What will museums be like in 20, 30 or 40 years time if they are truly sustainable? Embedded in communities, treading lightly on the planet and financially thriving? We don’t know yet, but this interactive session will get you thinking about some of the questions your museum will need to consider if it is not just to survive, but to truly thrive.
Chairs:
Maurice Davies, Head of policy and communication, MA
Gaby Porter, Consultant
Speaker:
Steve Connor, Chief executive officer, Creative Concern
1030-1100
Keynote
Alan Davey
Exchange Auditorium
Alan Davey has been the chief executive of Arts Council England since November 2007.
He was the director for culture at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport from 2003 to 2006.
In an earlier stint at the then Department of National Heritage he was responsible for designing the National Lottery.
He has been a visiting Fulbright/Helen Hamlyn Scholar at the University of Maryland and has degrees from the universities of Birmingham, Oxford and London.
Chair:
Mark Taylor, Director, MA
1200-1315
Concurrent sessions
Survival of the fittest
Exchange Auditorium
A panel discussion surveying the new landscape (post-election, post-recession and mid-public sector spending squeeze).
Panellists will consider how museums and galleries can survive and what the future holds.
Chair:
Sharon Heal, Head of publications, MA
Speakers:
David Fleming, Director, NML
Sam Mullins, Director, London Transport Museum
Michael Dixon, Director, Natural History Museum
Rita McLean, Head of museums and heritage services, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Artist rooms
Charter 3
The Artist Rooms collection and touring programme is a model partnership: every element – conservation, display, funding, marketing, press and learning – is collaborative. Explore the logistics and ambitions with both project and associate gallery staff, and hear about future plans as the collection continues to be shared.
Chairs:
Lucy Askew, Managing curator, Artist Rooms
Christopher Ganley, Learning coordinator, Artist Rooms
Speakers:
Zoë Lippett, Art collections curator, Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Sarah Philip, Head of programmes, the Art Fund Carol Dunbar, Education officer, Pier Arts Centre
Charlotte Wood, Youth advocate, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
Who owns our collections?
Charter 2
The ownership of collections remains complex and contentious. This session explores the progress museums have made in working with requests from communities overseas for return, and at the continuing challenges facing museums. It will also look at the cases of the Lindow Man and the Lewis Chessman and the growing trend for regional requests from communities in the UK.
Chair:
Maurice Davies, Head of policy and communication, MA
Speakers:
Bryan Sitch, Head of human cultures, Manchester Museum
Gordon Rintoul, Director, National Museums Scotland
Konstantinos Arvanitis, Programme Director MA Art Gallery & Museum Studies, University of Manchester
Pop culture
Charter 1
What are the challenges of trying to capture or interpret popular culture in museums? Does the static experience of a museum flatten out the ‘real’ experience of performance? This session looks at new ways that popular culture can be interpreted by museums.
Chair:
Marion Leonard, Senior lecturer, Institute of Popular Music
Speakers:
Kevin Moore, Director, National Football Museum
Paul Lilley, Curator, British Music Experience
Paul Gallagher, Curator of contemporary collecting, Museum of Liverpool
Not bovvered! Including a new generation
Exchange 1
Book lovers may flinch at celebrity autobiographies, but literacy experts argue such titles are often pathways to reading. So how can museums get young people off the sofa and away from the screen long enough to visit them? This session taps into the expertise of a range of professionals involved in promotion to young people and looks at what draws them in and what brings them back.
Chair:
Alison Baverstock, Co-author of titles on parenting and course leader, MA publishing, Kingston University
Speakers:
Ruth Harrison, Senior project manager, Reading Agency
Des de Moor, Senior everyday walking officer, Ramblers
Anne Plenderleith, Education producer, Clwyd Theatr Cymru
Andrea Winn, Curator of community exhibitions, Manchester Museum
1430-1530
Concurrent sessions
A piece of the action
Exchange Auditorium
Following a NMDC report earlier this year, national museums are working to improve and develop their partnerships with non-national museums. How strategic and successful has this initiative been? What else needs to change, on both sides, to make partnership working easier and more effective? And whose responsibility it is to make this happen?
Chair:
John Orna-Ornstein, Head of London and national programmes, British Museum
Speakers:
Iain Watson, Acting director, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Jilly Burns, National partnerships manager, National Museums Scotland
Judy Lindsay, Head of museum, Central Saint Martins Museum and Study Collection
Hedley Swain, Director of programme delivery, MLA
1430-1530
Concurrent sessions
Whatever happened to the working class?
Charter 2
Does the reopening of the People’s History Museum in Manchester this year, and the opening of the Museum of Liverpool next year, represent a renewed interest in the history of ‘ordinary people’? This session looks at how working-class history is collected and portrayed in museums.
Chair:
Steve Caunce, Senior lecturer in history, University of Central Lancashire
Speakers:
Janet Dugdale, Director of urban history, Museum of Liverpool
Steph Mastoris, Head, National Waterfront Museum
Nick Mansfield, Senior research fellow in history, University of Central Lancashire
Making the case for museums – what the MA does for you
Charter 3
The political and economic landscape is changing and with this will come fresh challenges for the UK’s museums. What can the MA do in these times to make the case for museums and champion their work? What should the sector’s priorities be for the next few years? This session explores the MA’s post-election policy priorities and gives delegates the chance to contribute to shaping its future work.
Chair:
Maurice Davies, Head of policy and communication, MA
Speakers:
Vanessa Trevelyan, Head, Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service
From the frying pan into the fire?
Charter 1
If you are contemplating the transition to trust status, what conditions need to be met for you to avoid jumping out of the local authority frying pan into the independent fire? The Association of Independent Museums presents an overview of the key factors in deciding on trust status and the lessons from three case studies where charitable trusts have been created out of local authority museums.
Chair:
Sam Mullins, Director, London Transport Museum
Speakers:
Jo Whooley, Development and sustainability manager, MLA
Keith Merrin, Director, Woodhorn Trust
Maggie Appleton, Chief executive, Luton Cultural Services Trust
1530-1600
Keynote
In conversation with Alex Poots
Exchange Auditorium
Taking radical risks
Will the spending squeeze mean that museums and galleries play it safe with collections and temporary exhibition programming?
Alex Poots, the Manchester International Festival director, talks about commissioning new work, mixed economies, leadership and his festival’s aspirations to be an outward-looking international event that is embedded in its city and communities.
Alex Poots is committed to enabling a wide range of leading artists to create and present ambitious new work across art forms. Since 1996, he has programmed and provided artistic direction for organisations including the Barbican, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the BBC, the English National Opera, C4, Somerset House and in 2004 was appointed the inaugural Manchester International Festival director.
Chair:
Maria Balshaw, Director, Whitworth Art Gallery
To download a conference guide, please click here (pdf)
