Museum Essentials - Museums Association

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Conference 2024: The Joy of Museums booking open now – Book before 31 March 2024 for a 10% discount

Museum Essentials

Confidence and competence for all

Our Museum Essentials online learning programme will build your confidence and competence in key areas of museum practice.

The courses are free and available to all individual members of the Museums Association. Through a combination of content and exercises, you can complete each module at your own pace, at a time and place that suits you.

Our first seven courses are now online: Taking Action on Climate JusticeIntroducing Decolonisation in Museums, Supporting Anti-racism, Working with the Learning and Engagement Manifesto, Working Ethically, Working with Collections and Working with Community Partners. Further courses will be added in future.

Sharon Heal talks about the Museum Essentials modules

Each course has been designed by experts and draws upon a range of Museums Association publications and other resources and content.

They are a perfect introduction to new staff, students, volunteers, freelancers and recent entrants to the sector or they can be a refresher to help you stay up to date with new practice. These modules also support the Associateship of the Museums Association (AMA) competencies.

If you are not currently an individual member, join today to access Museum Essentials and other benefits.

Join today

Discounts are available for employers purchasing multiple memberships. You may wish to sign up several members of staff and volunteers as part of their induction process, so that they can undertake the Museum Essentials courses.

Please contact us for further details via membership@museumsassociation.org.

Our Museum Essentials courses

NEW – Museum Essentials: Taking Action on Climate Justice

This course is divided into 5 sections with 5 lessons in each section. The sections are:

  1. Overview
  2. Raise awareness
  3. Champion change
  4. Be the change
  5. Put it into practice

The course takes 5-15 hours to complete and can be worked on in stages.

The course aims to support your journey, help you think about opportunities where you can make an impact, build your understanding of the issues and make connections with colleagues across the sector and beyond.

This course is for everyone who works in and with museums, and those interested in joining the sector.

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Museum Essentials: Introducing Decolonisation in Museums

The course is divided into 5 sections or blocks with 5 lessons in each section. It aims to introduce you to the ideas and issues around decolonisation so you can embark on this work with confidence and clarity of purpose.

This course will most likely take longer to engage with and to complete than our other Museum Essentials courses. 15 hours would be the minimum time we suggest and we recommend that you start with the Supporting Anti-racism course.

This course is for everyone who works in and with museums, and those interested in joining the sector.

Most of our online learning courses will support your awareness and practice at levels 1 and 2 of the Museums Association’s Competency Framework. However, the content and exercises in this course will help you to achieve some level 3 competencies.

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Museum Essentials: Supporting Anti-racism

The Supporting Anti-racism course is divided into 5 sections with 5 lessons in each section, which aim to raise your awareness and build your confidence in taking action for anti-racism. The course takes 5-15 hours to complete and can be worked on in stages.

We hope that by providing a mix of information, exercises, resources and signposting you will be able to develop your confidence and competence around your own anti-racist practice and be more equipped to take action.

This module is for everyone who works in and with museums, and those interested in joining the sector.

Supporting Anti-racism relates to the Sustaining Relationships and Partnerships competency.

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Museum Essentials: Working with the Learning and Engagement Manifesto

This course is for all museum practitioners and those interested in joining the sector. It will help you think about your professional practice and use the Museums Association’s Learning and Engagement Manifesto as a framework to develop your work.

The course is divided into 5 sections with 5 lessons in each section. It takes 5-15 hours to complete and can be worked on in stages.

We hope that by providing a mix of information, exercises, resources and signposting you will be able to develop your confidence and competence around your own practice in relation to the Museums Association’s Learning and Engagement Manifesto.

Working with the Learning and Engagement Manifesto relates to the Engaging Audiences and Communities competency.

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Museum Essentials: Working with Collections

The Working with Collections course takes 5-15 hours to complete and can be worked on in stages. The five sections cover dynamic collections practice, contemporary collecting and interpretation.

The course teaches you how to make better use of your collections and introduces you to the key principles around collecting, disposal of collections and the basics of interpretation, documentation and participatory practice.

This course is beneficial to anyone working in a museum, gallery or heritage site, regardless of role. It gives new entrants an overview of museum collections practice, which gives them a better understanding of their organisation even if they do not work directly with collections.

Great course, very accessible and a great variety of additional resources to watch, read and participate in.

Eleanor Thomas. Museum Essentials: Working with Collections

Working with Collections relates to the Empowering Collections competency.

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Museum Essentials: Working Ethically

The Working Ethically course takes 5-15 hours to complete and can be worked on in stages. There are five sections which cover public engagement and benefit, individual and institutional integrity, and stewardship.

The course encompasses the MA’s Code of Ethics and the ethical, moral and legal position. It covers considerations in public engagement and benefit, how ethics affects stewardship, and how we care for and use collections. You will learn the beginnings of arguments around sponsorship and look at various ethical dilemmas.

This course is beneficial to anyone working in a museum, gallery or heritage site, regardless of role. It gives new entrants a thorough introduction to ethical practice which can be applied across any area of museum practice.

I loved this course. I learned so much and it made me think critically about so many different issues. Thank you.

Llewela Selfridge. Museum Essentials: Working Ethically

Working Ethically relates to the Managing People, Money and Organisations competency.

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Museum Essentials: Working with Community Partners

The Working with Community Partners course takes 5-15 hours to complete and can be worked on in stages. There are five sections which cover Partnerships with Purpose – the MA’s pilot project aimed at supporting museums to partner with community organisations; participatory practice; context and culture and putting it all into practice.

The course offers practical content and guidance. We hope by providing a mix of information, exercises, resources and signposting you will be able to develop your confidence and competence around your own partnerships and encourage others to work with community partners.

This course will help you think about your practice and partnership development considerations. It is written for anyone in the museum sector who wants to know more about how effective partnerships can be.

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I have completed this course feeling encouraged, curious, and accomplished!

Sarah Albany Parker. Museum Essentials: Working with Collections

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