University Museums and the Community 16-20 September 2008

Hosted by The Manchester Museum and The Whitworth Art Gallery at TheUniversity of Manchester, in partnership with the University Museums Group UK

University Museums and the Community 16-20 September 2008

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Welcome

ContentsPage 2 Welcome

-4 Programme

Page 5-23 Abstracts &Biographies

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We would like to welcome you to the University ofManchester and to the 8th conference of UMAC – the firsttime it has been held in the UK. The conference theme‘University Museums and the Community’ is a vital one, as universities increasingly seek to engage with their localpopulation. University museums, of course, are well placedto act as channels for communication between the publicand the world of academia.

We think we have put together a stimulating series ofkeynote speakers, lectures, and workshops, as well as a programme of visits to museums in the area. In order to maximize discussion we have experimented with the format of the conference and introduced more roundtableand small discussion groups – we hope you will find thesea good way of engaging more closely with colleagues.

There is also a good social programme in the course of theconference, so we hope you will enjoy your experience ofvisiting Manchester overall.

We hope that you will find all the information you needabout the conference and the locality in this handbook and other accompanying information. If you have anyquestions at all, please ask one of the conference team.

Nick MerrimanDirector of The Manchester Museum

Maria Balshaw Director of The Whitworth Art Gallery


TUESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER

All sessions are in The Whitworth ArtGallery unless otherwise stated

15.00 UMAC Board MeetingWorthington Room

16.00 Conference registration opens

16.30 UMAC working group meetings

18.00 Introduction by Maria Balshaw,Director of the Whitworth Art Gallery, followed by Welcome by Sir HowardBernstein, Chief Executive, ManchesterCity CouncilSouth Gallery

18.10 Opening of ‘Cloth & Culture’ exhibition by Lesley MillerSouth Gallery

18.00-19.30 Drinks receptionSouth Gallery/ Gulbenkian Gallery

WEDNESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER

09.00 Welcome by Cornelia Weber, Chair of UMACLecture Theatre

Session 1: Public Engagement (Chair: Nichola Johnson, Chair of UMG UK)

09.05 Keynote: Dame Nancy Rothwell(Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the University of Manchester)The Increasing Importance of PublicEngagement in the Higher EducationSectorLecture Theatre

09.45 BreakSouth Gallery

10.15 Panel session: University Museumsas Beacons of Public EngagementErinma Ochu (University of Manchester), Steve Cross (University College London), Lindsay Allason-Jones (University ofNewcastle)Lecture Theatre

12.00 LunchSouth Gallery(Committee meeting of UniversityMuseums Group UK) Worthington Room

13.00 University Museums Group UKAGMLecture Theatre

Session 2: Digital futures(Chair: Maria Balshaw, Whitworth ArtGallery)

14.00 Keynote: Professor MichaelShanks (Stanford University, USA)Animating the Archive: mixed reality museological futuresLecture Theatre

14.45 Panel session: University Museums and the Internet CommunityLucia Almeida Matos (University ofPorto, Portugal), Carl Hogsden (Universityof Cambridge), Damon Monzavi(University of Teheran, Iran), CorneliaWeber (Humboldt University of Berlin,Germany), Mark Carnall (UniversityCollege London)Lecture Theatre


17.15-18.45 Session 3: Choice of two site-based tours and discussions

A: Multiple Voices in the UniversityMuseum

Delegates are invited to explore theManchester Museum’s community engagement work with two 15 min toursfrom the following three options:1. Myths about Race (Sam Alberti,Research Fellow and Stephen Welsh,Curator of Living Cultures)2. Lindow Man (Bryan Sitch, Curator ofArchaeology) 3. Collective Conversations (GurdeepThiara, Curator of CommunityEngagement)

Followed by two presentations:1. Darwin exhibition (Henry McGhie, Headof Natural Sciences) 2. Collections and engagement (MalcolmChapman, Head of CollectionsManagement) Followed by discussion Meet in the foyer of the ManchesterMuseum

B: Art Gallery based session

Delegates are invited to explore theWhitworth Art Gallery, and can choosefrom the following:

1. Drawing Stonehenge and Some SmallerThings: tour of the modern collection displays by Mary Griffiths (Curator,Modern Collection)2. Cloth and Culture: tour of the exhibitionby Jennifer Harris (Deputy Director)3. Art and Labour’s Cause is One: WalterCrane in Manchester: tour of the exhibitionby Helen Stalker (Assistant Curator) 4. Public Engagement at the Whitworth:Talk by Andrea Hawkins (Head of PublicEngagement) Meet in the foyer of The Whitworth Art Gallery

19.00-21.00 Drinks receptionMammals Gallery, Manchester Museum

19.15 Welcome from Professor AlanGilbert, President of the University of Manchester

THURSDAY 18 SEPTEMBER

Session 4: Formal and informal learning(Chair: Pete Brown, University ofManchester)

09.00 Keynote: Michael John Gorman,Science Gallery, Trinity College DublinRe-imagining the public face of theUniversity in the 21st CenturyLecture Theatre

programme

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09.30 Choice of participation in roundtable discussions or site based tour andpresentationsA: Roundtable workshop discussionson role of university museums in formal and informal learning. Presenters: Table 1: Karl van Dyke(Macquarie University, Australia); Table 2:Juliette Bianco (Dartmouth College,USA); Table 3: Celine West (UniversityCollege London); Table 4: Foo Su Ling (National University ofSingapore); Table 5: Rebekah Moran(University of Reading, UK); Table 6: JanetStott & Sarah Lloyd (University ofOxford, UK); Table 7: Carmen Sanchez-Mora (University of Mexico); Table 8:Chris Jarvis (University of Oxford, UK);Table 9: Christopher Parkin (University ofOxford, UK); Table 10: DominickVerschelde (University of Ghent, Belgium)South Gallery


11.00-11.45 Feedback from facilitatorsand plenary discussion led by chair of overall morning sessionLecture Theatre

09.45-11.15 B: Site-based session at ManchesterMetropolitan University Special CollectionsPublic Speaking – research, exhibition and the public imagination

Three case-studies will be presented:

Out of the Ordinary 2006: work by SharonBlakey and Hazel Jones, artists/staff fromMMU

Firing Thoughts: exploring the relationshipbetween ceramics and drawing

Confected Landscapes, Cultural Wallpaperand Contemporary Vignettes: Ceramics,print and a selection of objects from theMMU Special Collections. Bringing theresults of a practiced based PhD into thepublic arena.Manchester Metropolitan University

11.45 UMAC AGMLecture Theatre

13.15 LunchSouth Gallery

14.30 Museum visits:1. Lowry Art Gallery and Imperial War

Museum North2. Urbis3. Museum of Science & Industry4. Manchester City Art Gallery

18.00 UMAC Board meetingWorthington Room

19.30 Conference dinnerMoso Moso restaurant, Oxford Road

FRIDAY 19 SEPTEMBER

Session 5: Developing relationships(Chair, Nick Merriman, University ofManchester)

09.30 Keynote : Professor AmareswarGalla (University of Queensland, Australia)The University Museum as a Site forIntercultural Dialogue and SustainableDevelopmentLecture Theatre

10.00 Three concurrent workshopsA: University Museums and their relationship to the city:David Ellis (University of Sydney,Australia); Adele Finley (University ofManchester, UK); Reet Mägi (University ofTartu, Estonia) Lecture Theatre

B: University Museums and hard-to-reach audiences: Susan Birch (University of Oxford, UK);Ingrid Birker (McGill University, Canada);Gill Hart (University of Cambridge, UK)South Gallery

C: Strategic realignment to reach specific communities:Axel Christophersen & MortenSteffersen (NTNU University, Trondheim,Norway); Edmon Castell (NationalUniversity of Colombia)Worthington Room


12.00 Report back and plenaryLecture Theatre

13.00 Lunch Session 6: Audience development(Chair: Andrea Hawkins, University ofManchester)

14.00 Keynote: Jane Pickering (PeabodyMuseum, Yale University, USA)Ivory Tower or Welcoming Neighbour? Engaging Our Local CommunitiesLecture Theatre

14.30 Panel session:The internal audience as leisure usersJack Ashby (University College London,UK); Joy Todd (University of Oxford, UK);Tiina Metso (University of Helsinki,Finland); Mirna Heruc (University of Adelaide,Australia)Lecture Theatre

16.00-16.30 Final Plenary session.Summary of conference themes by SallyMacDonald, Chair of UMAC ConferenceAcademic Committee and closing remarksby Cornelia Weber, Chair of UMAC.Lecture Theatre

Saturday 20 September: Optional trip to Liverpool (for those who have signed up and paid). 9.30: coach pick-up from central Manchester11.00: Visit to Albert Dock area (TateLiverpool, International Slavery Museum,Merseyside Maritime Museum)Lunch (own expense)2.00: Coach to World Museum Liverpool and Walker Art Gallery4.30 Return to Manchester (arrive c.5.30)Further details can be found in your delegate bag.

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Wednesday 17 September

9am: Keynote addressProfessor Dame Nancy Rothwell(Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, The University of Manchester)The Increasing Importance of Public Engagement in the HigherEducation Sector

Public Engagement (PE), once the“hobby” of a rather few academics, is now increasingly prominent.Universities are facing pressures fromgovernment and funding bodies toenter dialogue with those outside academia and to train their staff andstudents in public communication. But the higher education sector is alsobeginning to recognise the intrinsicvalue of PE as a means of trainingtheir staff and students to listen aswell as talk and write about what theydo in plain English, to seek input andideas from those outside the ivorytowers (and to our surprise their ideasare often very good), to engage withcommunities that have barely heard of Universities, let alone ever enteredone, to seek talented students fromless privileged communities and evento open new avenues for research.

Museums and galleries can pay a critical role in these activities. Staff in academic departments tend to forget that many Museum staff areprofessional public communicators,who understand what the public isinterested in and how they want tolearn. The Museums themselves areideal venues to support a diverserange of PE activities and are morelikely to attract wider audiences thansterile labs or daunting theatres.

Nancy Rothwell obtained a first classdegree in Physiology in 1976, a PhD in 1978 and a DSc in 1987 from theUniversity of London. Her earlyresearch identified mechanisms ofenergy balance regulation, obesity andcachexia. In 1984 she was awarded a Royal Society Research Fellowshipand relocated to Manchester in 1987.Nancy was awarded a Chair in physiology in 1994, then a prestigiousMedical Research Council, ResearchChair in 1998. Her current researchfocuses on the role of inflammation in brain disease which involves experimental and clinical studies. Shehas recently served as president of theBritish Neuroscience Association and a council member of MRC.

Nancy currently oversees a researchgroup of about 20 scientists, with significant external funding and is Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Manchester. She is a Trustee ofCancer Research UK, the Campaignfor Medical Progress, a Council member of BBSRC, Chair of theWellcome Trust Public EngagementStrategy Committee, and a non-executive director of Astrazeneca. In 2003 she won the prestigious PfizerResearch Prize, in 2004 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in2005 was honoured with a DBE.

Nancy takes a strong and active interest in training young scientistsand public communication of science,and regularly gives talks to schoolsand the public and contributes to television, radio and press, particularlyon sensitive issues in science. In 1998she delivered the Royal InstitutionChristmas Lectures, televised by the BBC.

10.15am: Panel discussionUniversity Museums as Beacons of Public Engagement

The UK’s funding bodies for highereducation have recently launched a major new scheme designed toencourage universities to engage better with the public. The Beaconsfor Public Engagement initiative is intended to bring about a fundamental culture change, ‘making public interactions and socialconsiderations a core part of the roleof any member of staff or student inany discipline’. Interestingly, each of the six Beacon universities will beworking with a museum partner, inrecognition of the fact that museumshave greater experience of runningpublic engagement programmes. The Beacons scheme offers the potential for university museums toexplore their role as a bridge betweenacademics and the community and as agents for this cultural change. This session brings together a paneldrawn from Beacon universities wherethe university museums are playing akey role in this process. The panellistswill outline how the scheme works,the developing programme of publicengagement that they are undertaking,and the potential of this kind ofapproach to be adopted by universitymuseums across the world.

Panellists:Erinma Ochu (The University of Manchester)Erinma is director of the ManchesterBeacon for public engagement.She has worked across the boundariesof science, technology, media and thearts, as a producer, curator, sciencecommunicator and festival programmer. Her research backgroundincludes: a PhD in neuroscience, a 2-year NESTA fellowship to explore

abstracts and biographies

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new ways to communicate science to the public and action research intocreative teaching and learning throughCreative Partnerships and the engageenquire programmes

Steve Cross (University College London)Steve Cross in the Co-ordinator of the London Beacon for public engagement, based at UCL. He wasonce a scientist, but since then hasmanaged exhibitions and events for the Centre for Life, Newcastle, curated the permanent exhibitions at Wellcome Collection and helpedcreate The Science of Survival for theScience Museum. At UCL he will beworking to integrate engagement intothe fabric of research careers, andhelping academics to get moreinvolved with various communitiesoutside the university.

Lindsay Allason-Jones (University of Newcastle)Lindsay Allason-Jones was, until 2008,Director of Archaeological Museumsfor Newcastle University beforebecoming the Director of the Centrefor Interdisciplinary Artefact Studiesand Reader in Roman Material Cultureat Newcastle University. She has published many books and papers onthe archaeology of the Roman Empire,particularly on artefacts and issuesrelating to women in the provinces.She is involved in the governance ofmany of the museums on Hadrian’sWall and is also a member of a number of international, national andregional bodies concerned with thedissemination of archaeologicalknowledge to the public.

2pm: Keynote address

Professor Michael Shanks (Stanford University, USA)Animating the archive: mixed reality museological futures

Archives - the store rooms of humanity - what has come down tothe present. Modernity feeds on thepast. Memories make us who we are.And when there are no memories wehave diaries, written accounts anddocuments, pictures perhaps, and,above all, things. History, and who weare, lies in the material remains of thepast, in archives. This talk will arguefor some radical shifts in archival andmuseums practice drawing upon newkinds of digital environments - Web2.0 participatory and collaborativesoftware, such as wikis and social software like “Flickr”, and 3D virtualworlds like “Second Life”. Exampleswill include several collaborative experiments in the curation and exhibition of collections at StanfordUniversity involving academic faculty,contemporary artists, students, localand international communities, andmuseum institutions. The case will bepresented for a reanimated archive,new prosthetic architectures for richand cocreative engagements with the remains of the past.

Michael Shanks is the Omar andAlthea Dwyer Hoskins Professor ofClassical Archaeology at StanfordUniversity. He has worked on thearchaeology of early farmers in northern Europe and Greek cities inthe Mediterranean, has researched the design of beer cans and the futureof mobile media; currently he isexploring the Roman borders withScotland and investigating the Anglo-American antiquarian tradition.His lab at Stanford, Metamedia, is

pioneering the use of Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate collaborativemultidisciplinary research networks inarchaeology, design history and mediamaterialities. This comes after a longcollaboration with the European performance company Brith Gof and with performance artists in thePresence Project. As a Director ofStanford Humanities Lab he is championing experimental researchand development in transdisciplinaryarts and humanities. A key theme inhis current lab projects is the future of The Archive.

A series of critical interventions indebates about the character of thearchaeological past, including thebooks ReConstructing Archaeology(1987), Social Theory and Archaeology(1987), Experiencing the Past (1992),Art and the Early Greek State (1999)and Theatre/Archaeology (2001) have made him a key figure in contemporary archaeological thought.For Michael, archaeologists do not discover the past; they work on whatremains. Archaeology, the discipline ofthings, is about our relationships withwhat is left of the past. This means we are all archaeologists now.

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2.45pm: Panel presentations and discussion: UniversityMuseums and the InternetCommunity

YOU ARE HERE: a collaborative on line platform for art and social engagement

Lucia Almeida Matos (Faculdade de Belas Artes, University of Porto, Portugal)

The fine arts collection of theUniversity of Porto is housed in the Faculty of Fine Arts where it is regularly used as a learning tool for students’ artistic education. The programme of activities of theMuseum of Fine Arts of the Universityof Porto acknowledges changes bothin contemporary art practice, whichoften is relational in nature, and in theuniversity’s understanding of the needfor a more engaged role in society.YOU ARE HERE is an ongoing projectled by the Museum of Fine Arts of the University of Porto that bringstogether different areas of knowledgeranging from Geography, Sociologyand Economy to ComputerEngineering, History, Architecture, Art and Design. The project aims atfacilitating interaction between the artstudents and the population that livesand works in the surrounding area ofthe Faculty of Fine Arts. Using Googlemaps and Wiki technology to build a collaborative on line platform itoffers an open area for creative projects intended to promote mutual understanding between the art schoolcommunity and its neighbourhoodwhile inviting visitors to becomeacquainted with people, places, history and culture.

Lucia Almeida Matos is a professor ofHistory and Theory of Modern and

Contemporary Art at Faculdade deBelas Artes, University of Porto, whereshe is also responsible for the MA program in Museum and CuratorialStudies. She is head of the Fine ArtsCollection of University of Porto andcoordinator of the Research Center forContemporary Art (CICAC) of thesame university.

Museums and the Internet:Reversing the Technology

Carl Hogsden (Museum ofArchaeology & Anthropology,University of Cambridge)

Museums are currently experiencing a ‘broadcast’ heyday in their insatiabledesire to harness the possibilities provided by the internet. Whilst thereis utility value in the broadcast model,surely the communications aspect ofthe ‘internet museum’ suggests a use beyond simply a one-to-many distribution channel? Just as outreachinitiatives increasingly connect theexternal with the museum by embracing collaborative projectsinvolving communities in museumwork, so too could the ‘internet museum’ connect the physical museum to the external in ways thatchallenge broadcast monopolisation.Over the last four years, the Museumof Archaeology & Anthropology(MAA) in Cambridge has reconsideredits approach to the role of the ‘internet museum’. In viewing theinternet as a discursive hub aroundwhich communities can engage with museum collections, MAA isdeveloping web-based technology toestablish a platform from which tocreate online dialogic interaction withits various communities. Rather thanseparating the physical museum fromthe ‘internet museum’, we are interested in the opposite to

broadcast; the potential to reverse the technology, thereby creating bidirectional access and fully embedding the ‘internet museum’ into the work of its physical counterpart.This paper draws on ongoing workwith Arctic communities to highlightthe difficulties experienced in usingthe internet for distance communitycollaboration and how ‘work inprogress’ at MAA is seeking to address this.

Carl Hogsden has developed computerapplications for the museum sectorsince 2002. His ongoing researchinterests lie in the use of communications technology toenhance the interplay between people, museums and objects. In combining technical development,exhibition production and curatorialpractice for the Museum ofArchaeology & Anthropology inCambridge, Carl strives to find ways in which community voice can be represented in both the physical andtechnical dimensions of the museum.Carl also provides technical leadershipfor Pacific Voyaging, a community collaborative initiative based at theUniversity of Auckland, and is currently involved in developingCollectionSpace, an open source, web-based collections management system.

The effect of digitalizing the documentations on learning

Dr Damon Monzavi (Darya-e-NoorGemstones Museum & Kooh-e- NoorSadabad historical-cultural complex, &Faculty of World Studies, TehranUniversity, Tehran, Iran)

The Gemstones Museum began 5years ago introducing Iranians to the art, science and the industry ofgemstones and minerals. One of the


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ways that gemstones museum tries to communicate is through making its digital documentation accessiblethrough Bluetooth technology. Whenvisitors turn on their Bluetooth in theMuseum entrance, they are asked tosubscribe to the SMS newsletter. Bysubscribing, the member receives anSMS newsletter every two days. Whena child or student subscribes, he or she receives a quiz question or a puzzle which in turn produces pointsin a competition, leading to a gift.Inside the Museum, visitors areencouraged to enter into their phonenumbers next to exhibits. On doingthis, they receive information about theexhibit, together with images and music.Most of the Museum’s visitors (especiallyyounger generation) enjoy this kind oflearning, and in the course of less thanone year more than 5000 people havesubscribed to our SMS newsletters.

Damon Monzavi has been the manager of the research departmentof Towlidi Fanar (industrial company)examining the use of garnets in industry and electronics from 2003-7,and has been manager of theGemstones Museums of Darya-e-NourKish island and Kooh-e-Nour, Tehran,since 2002. He prepared two travelingmuseums in Semnan province in 2006and in the last five years has produced 42 hours of radio and television programmes on gems and mineralsand 110 workshops in the Gemstonesmuseums. He has also produced andpublished a guide book on multimediaand software.

Web communication. A contentanalysis of German university collections and museums websites

Dr Cornelia Weber (HumboldtUniversity of Berlin, Germany)

The internet opens up new horizonsfor (science) communication: throughclassical websites, weblogs, wikis,podcasts, or videos. Specific researchon the potential these communicationmedia offer for university museumsand collections is still missing.Therefore, I would like to present andto survey the current use of internetcommunication in order to providefundamental material for further discussion at the conference. Thestudy will be based on collections registered in the online database system “University Museums and Collections in Germany”(http://publicus.culture.hu-berlin.de/sammlungen/).

Cornelia Weber is General Manager of the Helmholtz-Zentrum fürKulturtechnik (Helmholtz Center for Cultural Techniques), HumboldtUniversity of Berlin, Germany, &Deputy Managing Director of theDepartment Scientific Collections andScience Communication. At universityshe studied German Philology, particularly Medieval Language and Literature, and Art Education and undertook at PhD. From 1990-1995 she was ScientificCoordinator at the Institute for theEuropean Cultural History, AugsburgUniversity; since 1995 she has beeninvolved with science management at Humboldt University. She was co-organiser of the exhibition Theatreof Nature and Art – Treasure-trove of Knowledge, Martin Gropius Bau,Berlin, 2000/01; and has undertaken aResearch Project University Collectionsin Germany: Research on theirHoldings and History, funded by theGermany Research Foundation. Since October 2004 she has beenChair of the International ICOMCommittee University Museums andCollections (UMAC)

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Have we missed the boat?

Mark Carnall (University CollegeLondon)

My misanthropic view is that museumsin general (including university museums) are severely lagging behindespecially when it comes to engagingwith the internet community. BetweenFlickr, Amazon, Second Life, Youtubeand Wikipedia there is very little thatis not covered by sites like these toleave a viable niche for universitymuseums to engage with the internetcommunity. I am a member of thegeneration that grew up with theinternet ingenuity technology createdby ‘Generation X’ and I think that university museums, with limitedresources, cannot compete with theseproducts and companies with their billion dollar turnovers and teams ofhundreds of administrators, creativethinkers and even ethnographers!Quite frankly, I think that universitymuseums missed the internet explosion boat and attempting tocatch up is throwing money into abottomless pit, only to be supersededby the next innovation in creativetechnology. It is an old fashioned view,but our strength as museums is thephysical objects we have and until wecan really work out how to engageinternet audiences without incessantlyworrying that 3D models and imageswill all end up free to all on Flickr (inperhaps an infringement of stale copyright laws), university museumwebsites should just resign themselvesto being online contact detail listings.

5.15pm: Choice of two site-basedtours and discussions on involvingcommunities as part of curatorial practice

1. Tour of the ManchesterMuseum: Multiple Voices in The University MuseumJeff Horsley and Sam Alberti (The Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester.)

University museums are uniquelyplaced to provide a forum for differentinterpretations and responses to theircollections. Across its practice, TheManchester Museum is committed to challenging the curatorial voice as the sole narrative. This session willgive delegates the opportunity toengage with the principles of thisapproach through recent and ongoingprojects. The Manchester Museumstaff involved in polyvocal projects will engage reflect on the challengesand rewards of this approach.

Content and contributors:Delegates choose two 15 minutestours from the following threeoptions;1. Myths about Race (Sam Alberti /Stephen Welsh)2. Lindow Man (Bryan Sitch)3. Collective conversations in theContact Zone (Gurdeep Thiara)Followed by speakers in the MuseumLecture Theatre 4. Darwin bicentenary (Henry McGhie)5.Collection Management (Malcolm Chapman)

2. Tour of the Whitworth Art Gallery

Drawing Stonehenge and SomeSmaller Things: tour of the moderncollection displays by Mary Griffiths(Curator, Modern Collection)

Cloth and Culture: tour of the exhibition by Jennifer Harris (DeputyDirector)

Art and Labour’s Cause is One: WalterCrane in Manchester’: tour of theexhibition by Helen Stalker (AssistantCurator)

Public Engagement at the Whitworth:Talk by Andrea Hawkins (Head ofPublic Engagement)

Thursday 18 September

9am: Keynote addressMichael John Gorman (Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin)

Reimagining the Public Face of the University in the Twenty-First CenturyUniversities have an ever-increasingneed to engage the public with different areas of research, to justifypublic funding, to extend their relationships with local communitiesand to attract potential students.Science Gallery (www.sciencegallery.com), a new initiative of Trinity College Dublin, is an experiment in publicengagement with science and technology, bringing science into dialogue with the arts through exhibitions, events and festivals andacting as a sociable environment forface-to-face interactions and betweenthe public and scientists. Key challenges that will be discussedinclude: engaging the research community with the public, creating a two-way conversation, engagingyoung adults with science and technology and balancing research priorities with public interest.

Michael John Gorman is the foundingDirector of the Science Gallery at


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Trinity College Dublin, a major new initiative for public engagement withscience and technology through exhibitions, festivals, workshops andevents. He was Lecturer in Science,Technology and Society at StanfordUniversity for three years and has heldfellowships at MIT (Dibner Institute),Harvard University, Stanford Universityand the Warburg Institute. He holds a BA in Physics and Philosophy fromOxford University and a PhD in Historyof Science from the EuropeanUniversity Institute in Florence. He is the author of Buckminster Fuller:Designing for Mobility (Skira, 2005),and (with Nick Wilding), La TechnicaCuriosa di Kaspar Schott (Edizionidell’Elefante, 2001), as well as articleson the history of science and technology in journals includingNature, Leonardo, SIGGRAPH and the Burlington Magazine.

9.30am: Choice of participation inround-table discussions or a site-based tour and presentation

9.45-11.15 Site-based session at Manchester MetropolitanUniversity Special CollectionsPublic Speaking – research, exhibition and the public imagination

Convenor: Stephanie Boydell(Manchester Metropolitan UniversitySpecial Collections)

Academics, practitioners and curatorsreflect upon their involvement inrecent exhibitions held in MMUSpecial Collection’s public gallery. The exhibitions, based upon academicresearch and practice, utilised materialfrom University collections, act as asite for the display of such researchand a public interface with the university.

Increasingly the university museum isseen as a site of public engagementyet often the collections are “treasures”; gifts to the university thatdo not reflect the current activity ofthe university. So too, HE researchactivity (particularly in the visual arts)can be a difficult idea to communicateor engage with and often remains invisible to the wider community.Exhibition in the public space can be a means of engaging the public by highlighting current research interestsof the academic community and theresearch output of the university.Research can be “seen”, understoodand appreciated if the skills and talents of other disciplines are broughtto bear on it, and at the same timebring the museum into the heart of university activity. This will be discussed using three case studies:

Firing thoughts: exploring the relationship between ceramics and drawing (2007). Using the museum and exhibition asan alternative/accessible vehicle fordissemination of academic research,and the value of collaborative workingbetween curators and academics tobring new aspects of collections tolight. This project was a collaborationwith the Peter Scott Gallery, LancasterUniversity, MMU and ManchesterInstitute for Research in Art andDesign, based upon material from thetwo University’s collections. The themeemerged from academic researchinterests and the variety of means bywhich it was presented; exhibition,publication, conference, website andfilms, might be seen as a model forpublic engagement with research.

Out of the Ordinary (2006). Workby Sharon Blakey and Hazel Jones,artists/staff from MMU.Using existing collections as researchmaterial for arts practice and how thatprocess can be translated for a wideraudience. Museums can often getstuck using objects/collections, andcreating output that they are comfortable with and understand. By being open to learning from unexpected routes, and acknowledgingthe different value systems inherent in different disciplines, new dialoguescan be found that may be a moreeffective means of communication for new audiences. The visual natureof the research of arts practitionerscan be a fertile resource for museums;and in response the museum can validate this, alternative form ofresearch in the HE sector.

Confected Landscapes, CulturalWallpaper and ContemporaryVignettes: Ceramics, print and aselection of objects from the MMUSpecial Collections. An exhibitionby Paul Scott. (2008) Bringing the results of a practicebased PhD into the public arena.Practical arts based research is a relatively new field of higher education, this new and growing arearesulted in an unusual and challengingexhibition. The museum space can,through display, be an active part ofthe university’s research profile. There will be some discussion of theintrinsic difficulties in displaying andinterpreting practical and higherresearch to a wider audience, andtouch on issues such as should curatorial practice count as part of thePhD particularly if the exhibition isaccepted as the practitioner’s normalmeans of communication/dissemination.

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2. Roundtable workshop discussions on the role of university museums in formal and informal learning(NB Tables can accommodate 12 persons only)

Table 1: On the Road Again: Reaching OutTo Isolated School CommunitiesKarl Van Dyke (Museum of AncientCultures at Macquarie University inSydney, Australia)

Country New South Wales is very isolated from the urban environmentof Sydney. As such, country schoolsfind it difficult to access real museummaterial to support the teaching ofthe school curriculum in AncientHistory. With the financial burdens ofdistance along with severe drought,many schools cannot make the journey to Sydney to see the archaeological material held in theMuseum of Ancient Cultures (MAC) at Macquarie University, one of only ahandful of such museums in Australia.Consequently we have developed a‘travelling road show’, which takes our education programs to them. In this way we also fulfil our strategic obligations to our parent university inthe core area of community outreach.In return the University benefits fromthe on-going goodwill of teachers,students, their families and the localcommunities. It is through such networks and the loyalty our programsfoster, that we help the Universityattract students to Macquarie.Thispresentation looks at the approacheswe take to support disadvantagedrural communities. It also suggeststhat this travelling program may serve as a model for other universitymuseums in similar geographical circumstances to follow, as they alsoseek to reach out to wider audiences

and increase interest in, and access to,their unique collections.

Karl Van Dyke is director of theMuseum of Ancient Cultures atMacquarie University in Sydney,Australia. He has been at the Museumsince 1991, building it up into a firstclass collection representing the ordinary aspects of ancient peoples’lives. He was national President of the Council of Australian UniversityMuseums and Collections (CAUMAC)for 5 years and Vice-President for 3years. During his term as President heguided CAUMAC into affiliation withMuseums Australia, the peak industrybody. During the period whenAustralia was nationally investigatingthe plight of university museums he was an official observer to theinvestigation, contributing to the final publications of the two Cinderella Collections reports as a proof-readerand sub-editor. Before entering theworld of university museums, heworked for 15 years as a secondaryschool teacher specialising in Ancientand Modern History. He then workedfor a short time as a sub-editor forAustralian Consolidated Press beforejoining Macquarie University. Karl hasan interest in the university museummovement, in museum education programs, the history and development of museums and inmuseum leadership, administrationand governance.

Table 2: The Purpose-Driven UniversityMuseum: Addressing theAcademic/Community ConundrumJuliette Bianco (Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA)

University museums expend muchenergy dividing their time, staff, and

resources serving the needs of boththe academic institution and the surrounding community. Universitymuseums can be seduced to favortheir appreciating public, resulting infaculty disenfranchisement that in turnmakes it harder for the museum to doits work. The museum can also focustoo much inward, making the museum, and by association theUniversity itself, less relevant to thecommunity, jeopardizing precioustown/gown relations. Either way, the museum, the university, and the community suffer equally. This doesnot have to be so. Through carefulconsideration of mission, implementing strategic planning that involves all stakeholders, andevaluating the impact of the missionon its audiences, the University museum can transform itself into apurposeful museum and address theacademic/community conundrum. This process demonstrates the museum’s commitment, not to oneaudience or another, but to the purpose of teaching—formally in theclassroom and through facilitatedgallery presentations, and informally in the galleries for the unguided visitor. This presentation will use theHood Museum of Art’s two year initiative to demonstrate that throughrealigning its mission towards cultivating teaching and creatingmeaningful learning encounters, the museum, the university, and the community benefit equally.

Juliette Bianco, Assistant Director ofthe Hood Museum of Art, DartmouthCollege, holds an M.A. in Art Historyfrom the University of Chicago and aB.A. from Dartmouth. She providedCollege and public access to themuseum through exhibitions, publications, public programs, marketing, and public relations.


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She works closely with the director on the museum's strategic planning.Juliette also coordinates and curatesexhibitions at the Hood, including_Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art and Society in the Papuan Gulf ofNew Guinea_, and _Wenda Gu atDartmouth_, a site-specific work bythe Chinese avant-garde artist. Shepresents often at conferences in theUnited States about university museums.

Table 3: Building creative communities Celine West (UCL Museums andCollections, London)

UCL Museums and Collections hasworked with parents and children inthe London borough of Haringey forthe past 4 years. The successful partnership work between theCollections’ education officer andHaringey’s parental involvement coordinator has led to a sustained programme of outreach in the borough, mainly with parents at familylearning workshops in schools, andwith parents and Primary school children in schools, Children’s Centresand play groups. The Haringey contextincludes one of the most diverse populations in the UK, with a highproportion of recent immigrants aswell as low levels of attainment atschool, high levels of poverty andcrime. Community cohesion is viewedas key to strategies for improvement;

Haringey has been a leader in parentalinvolvement in schools and in creativework with museums partneringschools for the past decade. Thispaper analyses the special impact auniversity museum can have in thiscontext, with museum outreach usedto engage parents not only in newsubjects and their own creativity butalso in understanding more of what

and how their children learn and raising aspirations. Object handlingworkshops provide a forum for discussion with others in the community and often act as a startingpoint for people to tell their own stories for the first time.

Celine West is the Head of Learningand Access at UCL Museums &Collections (University CollegeLondon), working across the university’s diverse collections to develop learning opportunities for a wide range of audiences.Prior to this, Celine worked for UCLMuseums & Collections as Educationand Access Officer, focusing on delivering outreach workshops toschool students and family learninggroups all over London. She has alsoworked for Brighton & Hove Museumsas Children and Families EducationOfficer, and completed an MA inMuseum Studies at the University of Southampton.

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Table 4: The Value of Integrating FormalLearningFoo Su Ling (National University ofSingapore, NUS)

Most museums offer a range of informal learning opportunitiesthrough talks, workshops and shortcourses, usually associated with theircollections and exhibitions. Whilst auniversity museum may provideavenues for such free choice learning,it should also be mindful of synergising with and providing support for the mainstream academicpursuits of its parent institution. Thisactive participation in formal academicgoals may be approached throughintegrating the museum’s resources –exhibitions, collections and professionals– into relevant faculty curriculum. Aspart of an education institution, a university museum is also in a compelling position to participate inthe school system. Collaborativeefforts and regular dialogue withteachers generate ideas on how museum trips enhance lesson plansand learning experience. Pronouncedintegration with formal curriculum differentiates a university museum’sprogramming from the largely leisure-based approach embraced by stateand private museums. It is a direct andtangible way of participating in thenational education system. This presentation introduces NUSMuseum’s initiatives towards greaterparticipation in formal educationoffered by the university and community schools, the challengesencountered and the benefits of continuing to widen the Museum’sinvolvement in the formal education arena.

Foo Su Ling is a Manager at theNational University of Singapore (NUS)Museum where she designs andimplements programmes promotingthe use of museum resources in teaching, learning and research. Sheinitiated the Paper-to-Gallery series, an exhibition platform encouragingNUS’ academic community to presentresearch findings in a visually enriching format through curatorial strategies.

Su Ling curated ‘Sculpting Life’, anongoing exhibition of works by lateSingapore sculptor Ng Eng Teng whoexplored the human condition, relationships and identity. This is usedby schools for comparative studieswith the styles of modern European sculptors. Su Ling holds a Masters ofArts (Southeast Asian Studies) fromthe National University of Singaporeand a Bachelor of Engineering fromthe Nanyang Technology University.

Table 5: Family Matters: the role of university museums in intergenerational learningRebekah Moran (University ofReading, UK)

Most people’s first visit to a universitymuseum is as part of a school trip oron a family outing. As universitymuseums we focus time and resourceson developing engaging programmesfor schools but what is being donewith families? When engaging with‘the wider community’ there is no curriculum and groups are self-selecting, mixed-ability and ephemeral– so how do we design, market andmap this kind of informal learning?Family learning programmes oftenrepresent a marketing coup and aboost to visitor figures but they alsoraise questions about style of delivery,

modes of assessment and most importantly the validity of such learning within a university context.This session aims to look beyond the‘glitter and glue’ and engage with thepedagogy and policy underlying familylearning initiatives. It will also explorehow such theory intersects with logistical and ethical issues in thedesign, delivery and assessment offamily learning. Finally, it will investigate how family learning can tie into key government learning initiatives, meet university wideningparticipation objectives and provideuniversity students with key transferable skills through innovative‘family learning volunteer’ programmes. In this way this sessionwill illustrate that intergenerationallearning is an important area of potential growth for university museums.

Bekky Moran is a museum educatorwith 13 years of professional experience. Over this period she hasestablished herself as a specialist in‘family learning’. She currently worksas Learning Manager for the University of Reading Museums & SpecialCollections Services where she hasdeveloped an innovative family learning programme. Bekky’s workwith university museums and collections builds on her previousexperience as Family Learning Officerat the British Museum and as LearningOfficer at the Royal Naval Museum.She now delivers ‘family learning’training courses for the MuseumsAssociation, ‘Renaissance’ and ArtsCouncil England. She is also a memberof the European Family LearningNetwork and participated in theirrecent training and networking course in Finland.


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Table 6: University Museums as Motivatorsfor Science EngagementJanet Stott (Oxford University Museumof Natural History)

There is widespread concern in the UKand US about the dwindling numberof students who choose science foruniversity and careers. Research hasshown that the teenage years are atime when many students (particularlygirls) turn away from science. Manyfactors have been identified as contributing to this shortfall, includinglack of opportunities to do science,lack of high quality maths and scienceeducation, peer pressure, a lack ofencouragement, and misguided student perceptions about science, scientists and their ability to pursuescience careers. As institutions withaccess to tremendous scientificresources through the university, and a public mission, University Museumsare ideal places to address this crucialissue. This panel discusses activities inthree major Natural History Museumsand a Museum of the History ofScience that aim to inspire and excitestudents about science.

Sixth Form Study Days and ScienceBehind the Headlines Sarah Lloyd (Oxford UniversityMuseum of Natural History)

The Oxford University Museum ofNatural History runs a series ofthemed science study days for up to300 Key Stage 5 students. The day’sprogramme includes short lecturesfrom academics and curators and arange of smaller group activities. Theprogramme always features an activitycalled ‘Science Behind the Headlines’;a small group discussion framedaround a theme taken from sciencestories in the news and focused on a

topic covered in one of the lectures.Groups are facilitated by scientistsfrom within the University. Scientistsare given a framework to work with.Those with little experience can support the more experienced andeveryone willing to contribute can beinvolved in the programme. Uptakefrom both schools and academics isvery strong; the University Museumcontext provides an ideal opportunityfor students and scientists to engage.Each discussion is unique, however‘Science Behind the Headlines’ enablesstudents to understand the impactthat science has on their lives and provides role models to inspire studentsto consider a career in science.

Janet Stott is Head of Education atOxford University Museum of Natural History

Sarah Lloyd is Secondary EducationOfficer at Oxford University Museumof Natural History. Both Sarah andJanet have a background as secondaryschool science teachers. OUMNH hasconsiderable experience in workingwith secondary school students and aparticular interest in teaching evolution.

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Table 7: A non formal science programmefor teachers at the University of MexicoDr Carmen Sanchez-Mora (University of Mexico)

University museums have become avital link between universities andtheir communities as importantsources of formal learning outside the classroom, as well as places ofinformal learning for visitors of allkinds. There is also another line ofeducation, the so called non formal,that serves as a bridge between theworld of the university and the manyand varied communities outside it.

This presentation is about the role ofUNIVERSUM, a science museum at theNational University of Mexico in formal and informal learning, butmainly in the non formal one. Thismuseum was established in 1992 andhas more than 22 000 square metersand over 800 interactive exhibits. Themuseum is essentially entertaining andaccessible while strongly linked to thenational educational agenda providingan important program geared towardsschools. As an informal educationalresource, Universum is a prime site forlearning about learning and aboutlearning to learn. The most importantthing is that being a university museum, Universum has the possibilityto engage on learning research withmany of our faculties, researchers and students.

But the main contribution we couldshare with other institutions is ourexperience in a different form of education: the non formal one, proposed by Coombs in the 1970´s.Coombs emphasized the need todevelop different educationalapproaches other than formal

education, that he called informal andnon formal education. With theseterms he wanted to highlight the existence of an education outside ofthe regular school programs. But atthe same time, Coombs was very clearabout referring to those activities that were organised intentionally toachieve some educational goals asnon formal education. Non formaleducation is organised and systematicand is directed to specific populationgroups. Many common practices inour museum related to non formaleducation include lecture cycles, conferences, courses and workshops.We have developed an interestingapproach and methodology related tothis form of education, that permits allthe public who for many reasons is far away from schooling, to becomescientifically and technologically literate.

Carmen Sanchez-Mora was born inMexico City in 1950. Her present position is Deputy Director of Studiesand Training in ScienceCommunication, National University of Mexico (since 2000). Her fields ofexpertise are Museum studies,Scientific illustration, Science communication, Didactics of Scienceand Biology. Her main studies arePh.D. in Science Education, Universityof Mexico (2000), Master in Science,University of Stanford, CA. (1996),and she is a Bachelor in Biology,University of Mexico (1972): She alsoowns a Diploma Degree in MuseumStudies (2001). Carmen Sanchez-Morais the author of several researchpapers on museum studies, and she is the author of six books on sciencecommunication, four text books onBiology and twelve museum lay-outs.She is an Academic advisor of 5 graduate students in the field ofScience Communication, and 6 inBiology (Bachelor level).

Table 8: The Role of University NaturalHistory Museums as Centres forPublic Engagement in Conservationand Wildlife ResearchChris Jarvis (Oxford University Museumof Natural History, Oxford, UK)

With growing public awareness of theissues of global warming, biodiversityand habitat loss, university museumsare perfectly placed to bridge the gapbetween the varied habitat andwildlife conservation groups, academicresearchers and the general public. The Oxford University Museum ofNatural History has run a large publicevent for the last 4 years called‘Oxfordshire Goes Wild’ at which thegeneral public gets to meet local andnational conservation groups and academics working in these fields.Whilst promoting the museum as aplace to gather trustworthy scientificinformation on these issues, the eventalso allows an ‘All under One roof’venue for the public and conservationgroups to meet, discuss importantlocal and global issues and raises peoples political and ecological literacyby offering them information aboutlocal organisations with which theycan become involved. This type ofevent raises the profile of the museumas a place of active research and as ahub for parties interested in becomingmore active in conserving the naturalworld around them.

Chris Jarvis has been the EducationOfficer responsible for Early Years,Primary, SEN and Family education atOUMNH since 2002 having previouslybeen an Early Years teacher. At collegehe studied Philosophy and Historyrather than science, having been putoff by his Biology teacher at secondaryschool, but he has always had anactive interest in Natural history,


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collecting live and dead specimens ofanimals as well as fossils and rocks’and reading widely on the subject. He writes and draw cartoons based on Natural History and has also proofwritten children’s books on the subject.

Table 9: Harnessing the history of scienceand the development of specialexhibitions to support science education in schools Christopher Parkin (Museum of theHistory of Science, Oxford University,Oxford, UK)

The Museum of the History of Sciencehouses a world class collection of scientific instruments and models with a particular emphasis on the early modern period. The museum maintains a programme of specialexhibitions which are developed incombination with academic researchinto specific aspects of the collectionwhich can appear highly specialisedand inaccessible to public audiences.

Over the last four years the museumhas developed a formal education programme for schools which nowoffers a range of workshops and studydays at secondary level, several ofwhich have been developed in conjunction with special exhibitions.They offer students the opportunity to engage with cross-curricula learningexperiences in a novel environmentinformed by current research in thehistory of science. In particular, theinterpretation of the history of scienceenables students to relate to science in its broader cultural and social contexts highlighting many aspects of ‘how science works’. For some students this historical approach,drawing on the stories of individualsinvolved in the making of science, can provide an additional source of

inspiration and motivation. At KeyStages 3 and 4 the workshops areoften best suited to students identified as ‘gifted and talented’.

In this session I will explore how theinterpretation of the history of sciencecan be used to support science education in schools, and how curatorial research programmes at a university museum can inform thedevelopment of workshops.

Christopher Parkin has a backgroundin science teaching and has taught ina range of secondary schools in themaintained and private sectors. After completing an MSc in ScienceCommunication at Imperial College in 2001 he moved towards museumeducation and over the last five yearshas led the development of a newEducation Programme at the Museumof the History of Science at theUniversity of Oxford. He has particularinterests in curriculum developmentand informal learning experiences.

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Table 10: The community service of theGhent University Zoology Museum: a cup of t’s Dr. Dominick Verschelde (Curator, Ghent University ZoologyMuseum, Gent, Belgium)

The Ghent University Museum ofZoology not only provided guidedexhibitions to the general public, but is more and more focusing onorganising fun workshops and practical exercises. These are given to all members of the community:families, kindergarten schoolchildren,students of the primary, secondary,and high schools as well as adult education. Our approach is an informal teaching of formal learning;we offer ‘tantalizing teasers to tasteScience’. We teach the public to usetheir senses to observe, and theirmental sensibilities to create criticalideas; all this in a fun and passionateway instead of the commonly believed‘boring scientific way’. We allow highschool trainees and apprentices ofunemployment offices and theDepartment of Social Service to workand train in our museum thus gettinga taste of the immense workload surrounding a university collection.

But this is not a fairy tale, as it is notwithout some bitter side effects: notall students are as interested in joiningan excursion chosen by their teacher,problems in attitude and motivationcan also occur in apprentices of theunemployment office, but the hardestchallenge comes from persons sent bythe Department of Social Services asthey carry the psychological burdenand background along which broughtthem to their predicament in the firstplace. Universities and universitymuseums have a duty not (only)towards a small part of the

community, in carrying out researchand training students to get a degree,but need to focus on the entire population in order to get the criticalscientific way of thinking into the society. Taking all of this in regard,UMAC does not only stand for‘University Museums and Collections’,but even more so for ‘UniversityMuseums and Communities’.

Dominick Verschelde has a mastersdegree in Zoology and wrote a thesison Systematics of Marine Nematodes.Between 1990 and 1996 he describedmany new species which were published in 10 international papers.In 1997 he became the conservator/curator of the Ghent UniversityZoology Museum, where he teachesand gives practical courses to university students. But his mainobjective has always been to open thecollection and Museum to the generalpublic in any way he can, and ensureits importance to the university.

Friday 19 September

9.30am: Keynote address Professor Amareswar Galla (University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia)The University Museum as a Sitefor Intercultural Dialogue andSustainable Development

The relevance and significance of university museums continue to challenge both academics and bureaucracies. Several universities haveopted for high profile art museum initiatives to engage with their stakeholders. There are still no easyanswers for research collections thatare not amenable to visualisation andinterpretation due to legacies of theircollecting histories. The imperatives of

minimising global warming on the onehand and the challenges of promotingsocial cohesion provide universitymuseums new opportunities toengage with communities. This presentation addresses some of thechallenges and calls for the need to develop new and innovative approaches in promoting sustainableheritage development through university museums.

Amareswar Galla was educated inboth south and north India includingthe prestigious Jawaharlal NehruUniversity in New Delhi. He providesstrategic cultural leadership inAustralia and the region as theProfessor of Museum Studies at theUniversity of Queensland and thefounding Convener of the Pacific AsiaObservatory for Cultural Diversity inHuman Development in partnershipwith UNESCO(www.pacificasiaobservatory.org,http://www.pacificasiaobservatory.org/)

He is the Chairperson of the ICOMCross Cultural Task Force (2004-2011)and a Trustee of the Pacific IslandsMuseums Association. Prof Galla hasled research and capacity building'fingers in the dirt' projects on all the continents of the world during the past three decades dealing with culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable heritage development. A recognised champion of culturaldemocracy, he has been bridging the gulf between the academy and community constituencies throughadvocacy and applied work in thePacific Asia Region.


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10am: Concurrent breakout sessions:

1. University Museums and theirrelationship to the city

The role of the university museumin community development

David Ellis (Director, UniversityMuseums & Acting Director,Community and Alumni Engagement(Cultural), The University of Sydney,Australia)

The development of universities as cultural participants in the cultural lifeof a city is a new and exciting development that in many cases hasbeen lead by the university’s museums. The resulting change in theperception of university museums,from both within the institution andfrom the broader community will bediscussed together with universitymuseums unique placement to be cultural ‘players’ and leaders withintheir university and community. Withdirect call on experts across a diverserange of subject areas they have anability to provide an extraordinaryrange of public programs from performances, concerts, and artistinterventions to more traditional lectures and forums. The benefits canbe enticing. For some museums thathave gone down this path and strategically aligned themselves with their university’s goals thesedevelopments have lead to anincreased visibility (internal and external) and indeed funding (including new buildings and increased staffing numbers).

The University of Sydney’s Museumsand their role in developing and defining the University as a culturalprecinct will be taken as a case study.The relationship between the cultivation of diverse audiences

and benefaction (no longer just the domain of alumni) will also be explored.

David Ellis is Director of UniversityMuseums, comprising the MacleayMuseum, Nicholson Museum and theUniversity Art Gallery at the Universityof Sydney in Australia. He has a background in the visual arts and hasover thirty years experience workingacross the museum, library and gallerysector in exhibition development andmanagement positions. Prior to joiningthe University in 2003 he was program manager for museums at theNew South Wales Ministry for the Artswhere he managed a grants programfor museums and advised on museumpolicy. As an artist he has works inmany regional, state and national collections in Australia.

Contributing to urban regeneration: the power of ’In Touch’ at The ManchesterMuseum and IWM North

Adele Finley (The ManchesterMuseum, University of Manchester,UK)

The presentation will illustrate howuniversity museums, through partnerships with other cultural venues,FE providers, community groups andother service providers, can engagewith disadvantaged individuals inGreater Manchester and contributetowards economic inclusion andregeneration. The ‘In Touch’ volunteerand training programme targets individuals across Greater Manchesterthat are socially and/or economicallyexcluded. It is supported by theHeritage Lottery Fund for three yearsand offers participants the opportunityto find out more about museums andheritage, update skills, gain a recognised literacy qualification and

undertake a sustained period of workexperience as a museum volunteer. Evidence from the evaluation of theprogramme at the end of Year 1 suggests that it is very successful, bothin terms of recruiting and sustainingcontact with hard to reach groups andalso in terms of benefits for individuals;participants report that the programme has had a major impacton their self confidence and motivationto progress into employment and further learning. The project’s successis dependent on the close workingpartnerships developed with serviceproviders, community groups and government agencies. Partners recognise the impact and potential of the project on employment and the development of key skills for employability and engagement in the community. The presentation willreflect on the successes and difficultiesof this innovative project. It will highlight the partnerships that are available and the impact such partnerships and projects can have on individuals, organisations and communities.

Adele Finley is Volunteer Co-ordinatorand ‘In Touch’ Project Manager at The Manchester Museum. She has 10 years’ experience of working in cultural heritage organisations and hasa vast array of experience in projectmanagement relating to the development of volunteer trainingschemes for people at risk of social,cultural and/or economic exclusion. In2003, Adele worked in collaborationwith a national partner at The BritishMuseum to develop a volunteer programme at the ManchesterMuseum recruiting, training and managing a core team of 30 volunteers as object handlers on theMuseum’s galleries. In 2005/06 sheconcentrated her efforts on promotingaccess and inclusion through volunteer18


led initiatives, working with colleaguesat the Imperial War Museum North todevelop a new and innovative volunteer training and progressionprogramme. The ‘In Touch‘ projectspecifically targets disadvantaged individuals and promotes access to heritage, re-engagement with learning and improved prospects for employment. This project is endorsedby the Heritage Lottery Fund until 2009.

University Museums in aUniversity City: University of Tartu Museums in the Service ofLocal Community

Reet Mägi (Director of the Universityof Tartu Museums, University of Tartu,Estonia)

University museums bring academicpotential to bear on community development in culture, education andtourism. Tartu as the seat of Estonia’soldest and only classical university provides an excellent example of this.Tartu is a place where the universityhas for a number of centuries played an important part in shaping the faceand identity of the city and the entirenation. The University of TartuMuseums is a university institutionconsisting of University HistoryMuseum, Art Museum and NaturalHistory Museum. The museums havethe potential, the capacity and the traditon to provide services for thedevelopment of the community. Theuniversity museums hold a series ofunique collections. They are locatedin historical university buildings, anumber of which represent importanttourist sights and are regarded as symbols of the city. Being part of theuniversity system, these museums candraw on experts from other universityunits, as well as work together with

other cultural activities of theUniversity. The paper will present ofthe role that the museums of theUniversity play in developing culture,education and tourism in the city ofTartu. It will also present these museums’ position in the University and how they are supported by the University.

Reet Mägi graduated in History fromthe University of Tartu and later took agraduate degree in European Studiesat the University’s EuroCollege. Shehas been Director of the University of Tartu Museums since 2005 andDirector of the University HistoryMuseum since 2004. Before that sheworked 9 years in the Rector’s Office.In 2002-2004 she served as Directorof Administration of the University of Tartu. For a shorter time she hasalso worked at the Estonian Literary Museum.

2. University Museums and hard-to-reach audiences

Behind the Façade: Bringing museum staff and new audiences together

Susan Birch (Community EducationOfficer, Oxford University Museumsand Collections Oxford University, UK)

The Behind the Façade project pairedfour groups from “non-traditional”audiences with one of the University’sMuseums (The Ashmolean, theMuseum of the History of Science, theOxford University Museum of NaturalHistory and the Pitt Rivers Museum).The four groups included users of thecity’s Nightshelter for the homeless,adults with learning difficulties, thevisually impaired and children withspecial needs.

Following introductory outreach sessions, the participants were givenbehind the scenes tours by membersof staff - from receptionists to curators.They photographed their visit, whereappropriate, and interviewed the staff,finding out not just about the museum, but also each staff member’sown particular working environmentand personal experiences. The photographs and interviews were used as inspiration for a series ofworkshops, led by the professionalartists, and resulted in art installationsexhibited at the museums.

This project provided a unique experience not only for the community participants, but also the museum staff. This mix of newaudiences and non-front line staffallowed for learning to take place onboth sides. It enabled us to see thereal and perceived barriers and anxieties that existed on both sidesand to try and work towards alleviating them.

Susan Birch is the CommunityEducation Officer for Oxford UniversityMuseums and Collections. The roleinvolves attracting new audiences tothese traditional museums by creatingand delivering community outreachprogrammes. She has been in the postsince 2005. In the previous 5 yearsSusan worked and volunteered formuseums across the Midlands, experiencing everything from photographing corsets and recreatingthe Home Front to designing leafletsand organising family activities.


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Hot science/cool programming-science outreach at the RedpathMuseum/ McGill University

Ingrid Birker (Public Programs,Education and Science Outreach,Redpath Museum, McGill University,Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

For over one hundred years, theRedpath Museum at McGill Universityhas worked with young Canadians toinspire curiosity and interest in science.One of the Museum’s first science outreach programs, the bilingualFamily Discovery Workshops, wasstarted in 1993 and nominated in2000 for the Michael Smith SciencePromotion Award. These Workshopsenable young children and their families to learn about science in arelaxed and informal atmosphere. Other science outreach programsinclude the Museum’s dynamic Hands-on science in the classroom (see:www.mcgill.ca/science/outreach/schools) and Hot Talks/ Cool Science (see:www.mcgill.ca/science/outreach/hottalks) where McGill scientists presentedtalks at local high schools. Last year’slively schedule provided “specimenhandling sessions” for over 3,000 students, from as far afield as a high school on a remote military baseto the Mohawk immersion school atKanien’kehaka Raotitiohkwa Indianreservation. Both the weekly SuperScience Documentary film series (see:http://www.mcgill.ca/science/outreach/documentaries/) and the Freaky Fridaypresentations, where McGill scientistsbust myths and popular misconceptions (see:www.mcgill.ca/science/outreach/freakyfridays), are held in the atmosphericVictorian lecture hall. The total number of participants in science outreach programs this pastyear was close to 18,000; almost half

the museum’s total visitorship. There were twice as many french students compared to english, anduniversity students represented 28%of the annual attendance, which isfour times the proportion in a general public museum.

In 2008 science outreach begins with"Soup and Science" lunch hour talksfor new undergraduates, followed byDinner with the Darwins on Feb. 10th,Flashlight tours on Nuit blanche, andOrigami dinosaur workshops duringthe March school break.

After 20 years as the Curator ofInvertebrate Paleontology, Ingrid wasrecently appointed by the Dean ofScience to coordinate all aspects ofScience Outreach at McGill Universityas well as manage the public education program at the RedpathMuseum. In 2001 – 2003 she coordinated the renovation of thegeoscientific exhibits and galleries andprocured the necessary grant fundingfrom the Ministere de la Culture etcommunications. She has developedand produced bilingual travellingexhibits such as High Diversity;Mapping the Past; Nine frogs and atoad, and Wanted Alive!. In 2002 she published the bilingual booklet:What Building Stones Tell, a hands-onwalking tour of local fossils, rocks andbuilding stones. Ingrid is a long-timemember of Biological Curators Group,the Geological Curators Group, theSociety for the Preservation of NaturalHistory Collections, and the CanadianMuseums Association.

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Ways of Seeing: An annual programme run in partnershipwith the Cambridge Mental HealthResource Centre

Gill Hart (The Fitzwilliam Museum,University of Cambridge, UK)

This project was devised by staff atCambridge Mental Health ResourceCentre and the Fitzwilliam MuseumEducation Department. The aim wasto move towards a programme thatwas inclusive and did not involve segregated access for people recovering from mental health problems. Sessions took place at theResource Centre and were open toservice users and the general public.Drop in sessions led to a 5 weekcourse that gradually moved awayfrom the Resource Centre and into the museum.A quote from a participant:‘I walked past a couple of paintings inthe museum that we had looked at asa group. I felt such a shiver of delightas I looked at a painting I’d otherwisepaid little mind to - thinking aboutwhat I knew about it now. The joy ofrecognition; the beginning of knowledge & skills.’

Some participants then signed up fora ten week course taking place in theFitzwilliam Museum and at Kettle’sYard. Members of the public bookedplaces on the course (30% of theplaces were allocated to those referredby CMHRC). Participants visited different departments within themuseum and met Keepers, Techniciansand other staff as well as taking partin group discussions and debates.

For the conference I would like tobriefly describe the project as outlinedabove and also discuss • Successful partnership work

• Evaluation of this kind of project• Integrated models of working – this

specific project involved workingwith mental health service users butis a model that is adaptable to othergroups and individuals

• Challenging perceptions – we got a lot of colleagues involved in thisproject and witnessed a mutualdevelopment of understandingbetween new audiences engagingwith the museum’s collection andstaff engaging with new audiences.

Gill Hart is an Arts Professional dedicated to engaging as wide anaudience as possible. She taught History of Art at the National Gallery in London before working in a community venue for GlasgowMuseums as an Education and AccessCurator. She has been working at the Fitzwilliam Museum since October2006. As well as co-ordinating andmanaging education programmes and events within a large organisation she has a vast experience of teaching a wide range of audiences. In her current role she spends a lot of timeteaching in community venues andhospitals as well as in the Museum.She is particularly interested in developing research into multi-sensoryapproaches to paintings.

3. Strategic re-alignment to reach specific communities

The Challenge of renewal: NTNU-University museum in Trondheim (VM), Norway, meets the community.

Axel Christophersen and MortenSteffensen (NTNU-University Museumof Archaeology and Natural History,Trondheim, Norway)

The renewal process (“Nye VM”- “The new VM”) started at the

initiative of the museum director in2005, and was a response to a challenge from the University on howthe museum could play a stronger rolein the outreach activity of the university.An outline of a concept and a renewalplan was worked out by a group ofinternal and external experts to start aprocess of renewal from 2007–2014.The essence of the renewal plan wasto establish stronger links between the community and the university, byestablishing a knowledge-based centerfor attractions, communication andlearning related to science, technology, natural and cultural history in the center of Trondheim. In the presentation we will presentwhere we are today and where wewant to be in 2015, pinpointing someof the challenges we have experiencedso far, and the challenges we expectto encounter in the time to come.

Axel Christophersen has a Ph.D. fromthe University of Lund, Sweden in Historical Archaeology and wasappointed a professor in HistoricalArchaeology at the Dept. ofArchaeology in the NorwegianUniversity of Technology and Sciencein 1998. Since 2003 he has beenMuseum director at the NTNU-University Museum of Archaeologyand Natural History (2003). In 2005-6he was a member of an official committee considering the role andresponsibility for the university museums as a part of the nationaluniversity structure and from 2008 hehas been a member of the steeringcommittee OECD Global ScienceForum. He has ongoing projects inChina and Afghanistan on culture heritage management. As museumdirector he has specifically worked(theoretically and practically) withmuseum based research-, collectionsand dissemination strategies within


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the university system.Morten Steffensen is Head ofExhibitions and Public Programmes, atthe NTNU Museum of Natural Historyand Archaeology. He was Cand. Phil, University of Bergen, Norway inMass Communication and Cultural Interpretation (1989), and has extensive experience in science communication and project development.

The Museums and CulturalHeritage System: new politics of accessibility to the cultural heritage of the National Universityof Colombia

Edmon Castell (Vicepresidency for the Bogota Campus, Museum andCultural Heritage System, UniversidadNacional de Colombia)

In the National University of Colombiacurrently exist 25 museums and collections including art, medicine,natural science, anthropology and history. Taken together, they comprisethe largest, most diverse and mostimportant museum in Colombia, andalso the least known. The collectionsare the product of the conservationand researchwork of the University inits 140 years of existence. In the lastyears, the National University ofColombia not only has become moreaware of the importance of its culturaland scientific heritage, but also of the marginality of the work in the university museums.

For that reason, in 2006 the universitybegan to work on a Museums andCultural Heritage Project to developpolicies in the university about theconservation, acquisition, documentation,research and communication of itsown cultural heritage.

The National University of Colombiahopes, through the development of a stronger, structured, ethical, responsible, efficient and representativeproject about Museums and CulturalHeritage to be better prepared for current challenges. In addition, theproject hopes to generate a new landscape of accessibility to the museums and collections of theNational University of Colombia. Inshort, the Museums and CulturalHeritage System of the NationalUniversity of Colombia, through a"Museums portal" located in a colonial building in Bogotá known asClaustro de San Agustín (Cloister ofSt. Augustine) seeks to highlight thecultural heritage of the university, andbecome, beyond the classrooms andresearch centers of the campus, animportant reference for the meetingof teachers, students, citizens andother cultural and academic institutions.

Edmon Castell is geographer and hasdegree in Human Geography and aM.A in Museum Studies. In the fieldof museum work he began his activityas a documentation officer in theMuseums Network of the/Metropolitan Area of Barcelona andas a researcher in the Department ofTeaching in Social Sciences/ of theUniversity of Barcelona. Subsequently,he promoted and directed the WIND-MUSEUM, an interdisciplinary museumabout Geography, History andAnthropology. Between 2003 and2007 he worked as a museum professional at the city museum of the Metropolitan Area of Bogota, The Government of Arauca (a regionin the North Colombia) about theXIXth Bolivar Campaign, the ColonialArt Museum of Bogota and theNational Library of Colombia. He iscurrently the advisor to the VicePresident of the National University

of Colombia, where he directs theSystem of Cultural Heritage andMuseums. He also participates in themanagement committee of the firstM.A. in Museum Studies in Colombia.

2pm: Keynote addressJane Pickering (Peabody Museum,Yale University, USA)

Ivory Tower or WelcomingNeighbour? Engaging Our LocalCommunities

The Yale Peabody Museum is situatedin the economically and ethnicallydiverse urban environment of NewHaven. For over ten years the museumhas run extremely popular cultural festivals that attract a diverse audienceof thousands, but we discovered thatattendees rarely came from the cityitself. Clearly, having high-quality programming was not enough toattract our local community. To investigate this issue the museumlaunched a yearlong research study toaddress the following questions: Whatis the perception that residents haveof the museum and what are the barriers to their engagement with themuseum? How can we serve visitorsfrom our neighbourhood? How doesbeing part of Yale University affectpeople’s relationship with the museum? Our results were comparable to other studies by urbaninstitutions but there were some differences that are of particular interest to university museums. For example, we discovered that negativeopinions about the university were a significant barrier. There was also confusion as to our target audience,and a perception that our programswould not be of interest to “regular”people. University museums need tomake considerable efforts if they hopeto attract and serve non-traditional

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museum-goers – particularly changes in how they communicate and partnerwith the community. New initiatives atthe Peabody include programming forlocal teenagers, diversity training forfrontline staff, new outreach programs,and targeted marketing plans.

Jane has nearly 20 years experience in university science museums. She began her career at the OxfordUniversity Museum of Natural Historywhere she was Assistant Curator forZoology. After a year as Senior Curatorat the Royal College of Surgeons inLondon, she moved to the U.S. to beDirector of the MIT Museum. In 2002she joined the Yale Peabody Museumwhere she supervises all aspects ofpublic programs and serves as DeputyDirector. Jane has an MA in NaturalSciences from Cambridge University,an MSc. in Museum Studies fromLeicester University, and is an alumna of the Getty’s MuseumManagement Institute.

2.30pm: Panel Session

The internal audience as leisure users

Beyond Teaching: Out of Hours at the Grant Museum

Jack Ashby (Grant Museum ofZoology and Comparative Anatomy,University College London, UK)

To a large extent university museumsare dependent on their governinginstitutions for operational fundingand support, space and staffing. Atthe Grant Museum of Zoology, weidentify UCL students and staff as ourprimary audience in order to advocateour work and worth. We strive toattract the UCL community to use thecollection informally, in addition to

academic teaching. These two formatsenhance each other.

UCL students and staff attend theMuseum s public events. Not onlydoes this communicate our value toUCL, but as our local community theycan be easier to attract than peoplefurther afield. Internal communicationsystems allow for cheap, efficient marketing. We run free specimen-based activity days for families, whichsucceed in attracting UCL staff as wellas the wider public, and programmesof innovative, light-hearted, evaluation-driven events for adultswhich interest students too. Theseinclude exhibitions, hands-on activities, talks, discussions and filmnights. Themes addressed are animal-related, but look beyond individualdisciplines to attract students and staffwith wider interests. Choosing topicsthat pique our colleagues interests,but are fun enough to encouragethem out of work hours and bring inthe public as well are a recipe for success at the Grant Museum, withvisitor figures increasing 1000%.

After studying Zoology at CambridgeUniversity, Jack Ashby went on towork in the Learning Department ofthe science centre At-Bristol deliveringpublic and schools workshops. In2004 he was appointed at the GrantMuseum, UCL, with the task of starting a new Learning and AccessProgramme to open up the Museumto new audiences. This included thewider UCL community, schools, adultsand families. He especially enjoys programming events for adults, and is interested in more innovative techniques for engagement. Workingin a teaching collection allows him toact as a strong advocate for objectbased learning.

In a Different Light: An Event witha Difference

Joy Todd (Oxford University Museums and Collections)

A case study of this unusual eveningevent of music, light, dance and somemore traditional museum activities atthe Pitt Rivers and Oxford UniversityMuseum of Natural History. Runningfor 4 years now, it regularly attracts upto 3000 university students, staff andlocal people to the visit the museumas part of a night out. In 2007 it wonthe Award for best event for Museumsand Galleries Month.

For four years Joy has been theVolunteer Coordinator for the sixOxford University Museums andCollections. A trained science teacher,she has previously worked asEducation Manager at the NationalSpace Centre and at various sciencecentres in the South West.

Polyteekkarimuseo – PolytechnicalStudents’ Museum: Why do thetechnical students need a museumof their own?

Tiina Metso (Doctorate student of history at University of Helsinki,Finland)

Finnish student traditions have theirroots in mid-17th century. Since thenFinnish students have had unique symbols and traditions, which havereached their modern state through adaptations and loans mainly fromneighboring countries. A subspecies of Finnish student evolved in late 19thcentury, when technical higher leveleducation started in Finland. The modern students of technology needed ways to identify and to separate themselves from the much


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larger mass of the university studentsin Helsinki and the general academicstudent population.

This need for an identity has lead toseveral symbols which are still in activeuse, the most visible being a studentcap with a large tassel as well as awhole culture of overalls. Today’s technical students – like their forbearers– are clearly identified as members of this very unique and well knowsubspecies of Finnish students:TEEKKARI!

Just the word: TEEKKARI brings aknowing smile on Finns faces. Practicaljokes, tasseled caps, demonstrationsand general public jolliness aroundMay 1st are the trademarks of thesehappy technical students. But behindthe jolliness there is a carefullyresearched, maintained and presentedtradition which spans over 130 years.

The presentation would cover theroots of Finnish student traditionssince 1640, and the development ofthe technical students’ traditions since1870’s. With plenty of pictures I wouldlike to demonstrate why theTEEKKARI’s are worth a museum oftheir own, and why the tradition is so highly regarded that the studentsthemselves bother to maintain amuseum. The museum is not by far amainstream sight – the students liketo experiment and innovate, and themuseum reflects their unprejudicedapproach with a smile.

Master of Arts (history, University of Helsinki), doctorate candidate in same field Univ. of Helsinki. Born inRovaniemi, Finland (proud to be bornon the Arctic circle…)Current position: Technical UniversityStudent Union (founded in 1872)archivist and manager of the

Polytechnical Student’s Museum (est. 1958).

Research interests: academic traditionsand etiquette, students honor duels1808-1939 at the University of Tartu,Estonia (thesis topic), academic traditions exchange and internationalconnections, student songs, Finnish,Estonian and Baltic German studentorganizations history etc. as well asmilitary history of the Baltic Sea regionduring 21st c. Published books andinternational articles on the same topics.

Running a museum without a museum

Mirna Heruc (Art & HeritageCollections,The University of Adelaide,Australia)

The University of Adelaide (founded1874) is a third oldest university inAustralia. It has 23 collections thatrepresent the wide range of its academic research across the arts and the sciences. A central challengein utilising these collections is theabsence of a comprehensively representative museum.

We have developed awareness of the university’s collections through strategic public programs of focusedexhibitions, discussion forums andpartnerships. From 2004, the first yearof Art & Cultural Heritage operations,these activities have enhanced key

University activities while proving to be of significant interest to the general public.

Our core audience at the outset wasprincipally staff with an interest in culture. These people also tended tobe patrons of the other institutions

situated on the cultural boulevarde ofNorth Terrace alongside the University:the South Australian Museum, ArtGalley of South Australia, State Libraryand the Botanic Gardens. Studentshave been harder to entice, but wenow attract a growing number –mostly higher degree candidates. The university community has thus provided informed participants forevents. Further, university staff havecome forward as volunteers within Art& Heritage programs, their knowledgeof the university proving to be a particular asset. The cycle of staff –audience member – volunteer hasproved to be a particularly productiveif unexpected aspect of our activities.

Mirna Heruc was born in Zagreb,Croatia and migrated to Australia in 1979. She is trained as an anthropologist and a teacher, studying at the University of Adelaide.Appointed Art & Heritage CollectionsManager, University of Adelaide,2004, assuming responsibility for visual arts and a wide range of other collections and public cultural activities. Prior to this she had worked for ten years at the NexusMulticultural Arts Centre, Adelaide,from 1996-2004 as Executive Director,organising programs of visual arts andperforming arts, community extensionand engaging in multicultural advocacy.


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Information in this handbook is based onthat available on 20 August 2008. Whileevery effort will be made to realise theadvertised programme, the organisersreserve the right to change any aspect ofthe programme and other arrangementsshould circumstances demand.

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The Manchester MuseumThe University of ManchesterOxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PLtel +44 (161) 275 2634 email [email protected]/museum

The Whitworth Art GalleryThe University of ManchesterOxford Road, Manchester M15 6ERtel +44 (161) 275 7450email education.whitworth@manchester.ac.ukwww.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk


University Museums and the Community 16-20 September 2008

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Transcript of University Museums and the Community 16-20 September 2008