Icom encourages regional museums to seek international partners - Museums Association

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Icom encourages regional museums to seek international partners

£51,000 project aims to increase regional international work
Patrick Steel
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The International Council of Museums (Icom) has launched its Working Internationally Regional Project, which aims to increase international work in regional and local museums.

The £51,000 project is funded by Arts Council England’s Renaissance Strategic Support Fund, and managed by a consortium of museum organisations led by ICOM in association with the National Museum Directors’ Council, the Association of Independent Museums, the British Council, and Heritage Without Borders.

Dana Andrew, the project coordinator, has spent the last month researching the level of international work at local and regional museums across England. As part of this, she is encouraging museums to complete an online survey, which runs until Friday 8 August.

Discussing her initial findings, she said: “There is a lot of international work in regional museums, mainly based around collections.

“University museums have got a head start as they are already operating in a global context, but there is a variety of different types of work across different types of organisation.”

“For some museums international work is not on the agenda, as they are struggling just to keep their doors open, but although it may not be a priority now, many see it as part of a long-term plan for future resilience.”

Andrew’s research will feed into five regional workshops, one in each arts council region, the first of which is scheduled for the last week of September in the north of England, although the venue has not yet been confirmed. It is hoped the meetings will help to find practical solutions for museums looking to work internationally.

Andrew said: “There are conferences aimed at big national museums that do international work but this project is looking at smaller museums and people who haven’t necessarily done this sort of work yet, so we are hoping to be working with a real variety of museums.”

As part of the project, Andrew will also be creating a resources section on the Icom-UK website, based on her research and the workshops, and scoping the potential for a mentoring scheme for smaller museums with ambitions to work internationally.

The project ends in April 2015.

Links

Survey: international work by regional and local museums

Working Internationally Regional Project



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