Nationals to be more open over partnerships
National museums have pledged to be more open about the partnership work they are involved in, including providing greater clarity about their regional objectives and loan procedures.
The National Museum Directors’ Conference (NMDC) published its report on national/regional partnerships, which includes 11 recommendations about how museums can work better together, last month.
Diane Lees (pictured above), director general of the Imperial War Museum, who headed up the work for the NMDC, said national museums needed to listen more, while regional museums needed to be “more dynamic and demanding”.
The report found that 16 nationals worked on 1,600 projects with regional museums in 2008-09. But it also found that there was “considerable difficulty” in quantifying partnership activity, and recommended that national museums should agree a consistent set of data to be collected.
Other recommendations include working together on staff development; sharing best practice; joint advocacy; making loans easier; and national museums working with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council to develop “more effective” Subject Specialist Networks.
Lees said members would have to report on progress with the recommendations. She added that each national would be taking an approach that suited it as an institution. “For us, we don’t want more branches, but do want to get more of our material out,” said Lees.
She said her museum was also thinking about how to categorise loans to make them more accessible. “2014 is the centenary of the first world war and we anticipate a huge demand for objects,” said Lees. “We are looking at a more pragmatic approach, so that we can have a section of readily available material with relaxed loan conditions.”
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