This July, almost 100 emerging museum professionals competed during Moving on Up, a Museums Association (MA) conference, to come up with the best idea for a way to make museums more sustainable.
A panel of experts thought the strongest proposal was that museums should plant "guerilla galleries" in shops left empty by the recession. It is an attractive idea. But it doesn't really change the essentials of the museum experience. Whether your encounter with an object is in a museum store or in a gallery, what brings it to life is the same.
Unless they are so beautiful that they speak for themselves, most museum objects are dead and dead boring unless someone tells you something about them in an engaging way.
The things that we know about museum collections are nearly as important as the collections themselves. But collections knowledge has often been seen as an afterthought, less deserving of care than real objects.
The professionalisation of museum documentation over the last 30 years might almost have made this worse, with collections knowledge sidelined to departments seen as technocratic poor relations.
The MA wants to give collections knowledge the status it deserves. Since late 2007, 15 retired collections specialists have been spending time in their former museums, as Monument fellows. With support from the Monument Trust, these fellowships have enabled retired specialists (mostly curators, but also some conservators) to work with their successors and pass on knowledge.
The project is not about new research, but about the things they know, but never had time to record. Some fellows are focusing on particular groups of objects; others are producing resources for their successors that help provide a key to the whole collection.
Everyone at the MA who has worked with the fellows has found their enthusiasm and the sheer wealth of their expertise inspiring. We are delighted that the Monument Trust has generously agreed to fund a further two rounds of fellowships.
The new opportunities will be advertised later this autumn. As part of this new phase, the MA will also produce resources to help all museums with their succession planning so that knowledge does not continue to be lost when specialists retire.
The MA intends to keep working on collections knowledge, resources permitting, and there are bigger questions to address. One striking thing about the fellowships is that almost no fellows are working with one individual who is a direct successor with the same job description.
Their successors all have much broader responsibilities, and less time to work with their collections. In many ways this represents progress, and reflects a museum sector that does more. But how will future specialists build their knowledge?
Helen Wilkinson is the projects officer at the Museums Association.
A panel of experts thought the strongest proposal was that museums should plant "guerilla galleries" in shops left empty by the recession. It is an attractive idea. But it doesn't really change the essentials of the museum experience. Whether your encounter with an object is in a museum store or in a gallery, what brings it to life is the same.
Unless they are so beautiful that they speak for themselves, most museum objects are dead and dead boring unless someone tells you something about them in an engaging way.
The things that we know about museum collections are nearly as important as the collections themselves. But collections knowledge has often been seen as an afterthought, less deserving of care than real objects.
The professionalisation of museum documentation over the last 30 years might almost have made this worse, with collections knowledge sidelined to departments seen as technocratic poor relations.
The MA wants to give collections knowledge the status it deserves. Since late 2007, 15 retired collections specialists have been spending time in their former museums, as Monument fellows. With support from the Monument Trust, these fellowships have enabled retired specialists (mostly curators, but also some conservators) to work with their successors and pass on knowledge.
The project is not about new research, but about the things they know, but never had time to record. Some fellows are focusing on particular groups of objects; others are producing resources for their successors that help provide a key to the whole collection.
Everyone at the MA who has worked with the fellows has found their enthusiasm and the sheer wealth of their expertise inspiring. We are delighted that the Monument Trust has generously agreed to fund a further two rounds of fellowships.
The new opportunities will be advertised later this autumn. As part of this new phase, the MA will also produce resources to help all museums with their succession planning so that knowledge does not continue to be lost when specialists retire.
The MA intends to keep working on collections knowledge, resources permitting, and there are bigger questions to address. One striking thing about the fellowships is that almost no fellows are working with one individual who is a direct successor with the same job description.
Their successors all have much broader responsibilities, and less time to work with their collections. In many ways this represents progress, and reflects a museum sector that does more. But how will future specialists build their knowledge?
Helen Wilkinson is the projects officer at the Museums Association.
Links
To read more about the MA's Monument Fellowship programme, click here
To read more about the MA's Monument Fellowship programme, click here
