In the late nineties I was a junior curator in the Victoria and Albert Museum's fashion and textiles department, where part of my job was to answer public enquiries.
Most of these were about obvious highlights of the collection and were easy to answer because there were good publications to refer to, as well as internal records based on research from past exhibitions and displays.
But every now and again, we would receive an enquiry about an object from one of the backwaters of the collection: something that had never been included in a publication and for which there was only scant documentation.
In such cases, a senior curator would almost always be able to answer the question, even when the only documented information was a frustratingly brief hand-written note from a 19th-century accession register.
But that additional knowledge never made it into print or into the collections' database. This is regrettable, but it is inevitable that when museum collections are very large, curators have to prioritise their attention.
Almost ten years later, of course, much more information is available online. But even so, most curators still have knowledge in their heads that they have never written down. What happens when those curators retire? How is that knowledge retained and passed on to the next generation of curators and the public?
A new pilot scheme from the Museums Association (MA), made possible by the Monument Trust, aims to find a way to ensure that curators 'download' their expertise when they retire.
The scheme will fund a series of post-retirement fellowships over the next three years to allow recently retired curators the opportunity to work alongside their successor to pass on their knowledge of the collection.
It will be funding 12 fellowships of either six or 12 months duration. It will expect the fellow to spend most of their time working with their 'home' museum, but also to provide advice and training to other museums in their field - perhaps through a Subject Specialist Network or a regional museum hub.
Applications will have to be made jointly by the retiring curator and their museum, and guidance and support will be provided, particularly to make sure that the fellow's work focuses on the collection and does not inhibit the work of their successor.
The MA will publish details of the scheme and invite formal applications in the spring. It is keen to contact curators approaching retirement who might be interested in participating.
This project is part of the MA's commitment to take forward the recommendations of Collections for the Future. The project seems an appropriate way to begin to address the problem, by making sure that museums do not lose any more of their expertise.
The MA is grateful to the Monument Trust and in particular to the late Simon Sainsbury, who was enthusiastic about the scheme, for making it possible.
Helen Wilkinson is the MA's policy officer
For more information about the scheme, contact helenw@museumsassociation.org
Most of these were about obvious highlights of the collection and were easy to answer because there were good publications to refer to, as well as internal records based on research from past exhibitions and displays.
But every now and again, we would receive an enquiry about an object from one of the backwaters of the collection: something that had never been included in a publication and for which there was only scant documentation.
In such cases, a senior curator would almost always be able to answer the question, even when the only documented information was a frustratingly brief hand-written note from a 19th-century accession register.
But that additional knowledge never made it into print or into the collections' database. This is regrettable, but it is inevitable that when museum collections are very large, curators have to prioritise their attention.
Almost ten years later, of course, much more information is available online. But even so, most curators still have knowledge in their heads that they have never written down. What happens when those curators retire? How is that knowledge retained and passed on to the next generation of curators and the public?
A new pilot scheme from the Museums Association (MA), made possible by the Monument Trust, aims to find a way to ensure that curators 'download' their expertise when they retire.
The scheme will fund a series of post-retirement fellowships over the next three years to allow recently retired curators the opportunity to work alongside their successor to pass on their knowledge of the collection.
It will be funding 12 fellowships of either six or 12 months duration. It will expect the fellow to spend most of their time working with their 'home' museum, but also to provide advice and training to other museums in their field - perhaps through a Subject Specialist Network or a regional museum hub.
Applications will have to be made jointly by the retiring curator and their museum, and guidance and support will be provided, particularly to make sure that the fellow's work focuses on the collection and does not inhibit the work of their successor.
The MA will publish details of the scheme and invite formal applications in the spring. It is keen to contact curators approaching retirement who might be interested in participating.
This project is part of the MA's commitment to take forward the recommendations of Collections for the Future. The project seems an appropriate way to begin to address the problem, by making sure that museums do not lose any more of their expertise.
The MA is grateful to the Monument Trust and in particular to the late Simon Sainsbury, who was enthusiastic about the scheme, for making it possible.
Helen Wilkinson is the MA's policy officer
For more information about the scheme, contact helenw@museumsassociation.org
