Euphemisms, talking statues and new perspectives: Simon Brown reflects on the MA Conference 2014

The annual Museums Association conference was held at the start of October, which this year was held in Cardiff for the first time since 1997. The event is always an excellent melting pot of discussion on the issues that have surrounded the sector for the previous 12 months, many of them especially relevant to our region.

Many of the sessions were concerned with sustainability in the sector in the context of the (often euphemistically phrased) ‘current funding climate’. David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool, spoke powerfully about how NML are still working to deliver ambitious projects in this situation, including the excellent dementia friendly programme House of Memories. Many small museums in our region are also eligible to apply for funding from programmes such as the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Arts Council’s Museum Resilience Fund, which both had representatives at the conference.

There were many inspiring case studies, not least from the excellent Talking Statues project in London and Manchester. Plaques have been mounted on 15 statues across both cities, with QR codes and other methods, which allow users to hear the statue speaking to them on their smartphone. (How many people would love to hear the words of Robin Hood or Brian Clough in Nottingham?)

The show was stolen though by Mat Fraser, who gave a powerful keynote performance of his show Cabinet of Curiosities: how Disability was kept in a box. Fraser was commissioned by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the University of Leicester to create a performance that reflected how disability is portrayed in museums. He used a soundtrack including Daft Punk, objects from the collections of National Museums Wales, and his own rapping and crooning skills to put a new perspective on a subject that has long been neglected in the sector.

He challenged us all to find and reassess one object in our collections from the perspective of its relevance to disability. That’s not difficult is it?

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This post was written by Simon Brown, Artefact Loans Officer at Nottingham City Museums and Galleries and the East Midlands member representative for the Museums Association.. He manages the 11,000 strong Access Artefacts handling collection, based at Wollaton Park. 

He graduated from NTU in 2004 with a BA in Heritage Studies with Human Geography, and has since gone on to work in various roles for Nottingham City Museums and Galleries and Nottingham Contemporary, including as a museum assistant, curator and documentation assistant. He is currently studying for the AMA.

Useful links:

MA website: http://www.museumsassociation.org/conference/cardiff-2014-archive

House of Memories at National Museums Liverpool: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/learning/projects/house-of-memories/

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation: http://esmeefairbairn.org.uk/

Arts Council’s Museum Resilience Fund: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/apply-for-funding/museum-resilience-fund-2015-18/

Talking statues: http://www.talkingstatues.co.uk/

Mat Fraser: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/museumstudies/rcmg/projects/cabinet-of-curiosities

                        http://youtu.be/aje8aQfee1U

"Some museums like their culture dead and stuffed ...

This quote by Richard Kurin (2004) refers to the continuing focus of many museums on the exhibiting of physical objects, ignoring intangible cultural heritage (ICH), that is living heritage "embodied in people rather than in inanimate objects", and so includes customs, music, dance, performing arts, festivals, and traditional craftsmanship. The safeguarding of ICH by museums has been a theme in the past for International Museum Day and ICOM's General Conference, and this has translated into practice at many museums, especially in Asia and the Pacific. 

The term 'intangible cultural heritage' may not have caught on in museums in England, but that does not mean that they have no understanding of it. Its simply been expressed in different ways, using different terminology.  It also demands considerable imagination of museum professionals, and often more technology than the display of physical museum objects. 

Many English museums have successfully navigated the shift away from object led presentation, including the Towner gallery in Eastbourne. At the end of 2012, in conjunction with the Museum of British Folklore, it saw a two day festival of folk including performances by mummers, handbell ringers, sea shanty singers and morris dancers.  It also enabled children to make Punkie Night turnip lanterns and gingerbread men, and adults to make a hoodening horse. This led Cllr Carolyn Heaps to say that “This is set to be one of our busiest weekends of the year …” (Towner Gallery 2012)

                                 (c) Museum of British Folklore

Kurin (2004) has said that, "Museums are generally poor institutions for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage - the only problem is that there is probably no better institution to do so." So, for museums to engage in intangible heritage and embrace a more people-centred museology they have to include:

- Working with communities to preserve cultural knowledge and traditions,

- Empowering voices and narratives of different people,

- Rethinking meanings of collections (tangible and intangible),

- Using new media to document and communicate intangible heritage, and

- Creating spaces for the performance of intangible heritage

 (Alivizatou 2011)

  

Suggested reading: 

Alivizatou, M.  (2011)  The Role of Museums in Safeguarding ICH (Available at:  http://www.sac.or.th/databases/ichlearningresources/images/Lecture14-Eng-Summary_AD.pdf)

Alivizatou, M. (2012)  Intangible Heritage and the Museum.  New Perspectives on Cultural Preservation. Left Coast Press.

Jackson, A and Kidd, J. (2011)  Performing Heritage. Research, Practice and Innovation in Museum Theatre and Live Interpretation. Manchester University Press

Kurin, R. (2004)  Museums and Intangible Heritage:

Culture Dead or Alive?  ICOM News No.4 (Available at http://icom.museum/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/ICOM_News/2004-4/ENG/p7_2004-4.pdf)

This post was written by Suzy Brunyee, who will be undertaking her PhD on the Future of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the UK (its Challenges and Opportunities) at Nottingham Trent University from October 2014. She has begun to document and share her research on Britain's fascinating traditions and museums' uses of these online at http://www.intangibleheritageblog.com/

Working Towards a New Normality - Culture in Partnership

Sir John Moore's lively workshop on working with children and young people, in partnership, at the East Midlands Heritage Awards 2013

The Arts Council of England’s Great Art and Culture for Everyone strategic document published in October 2013, mentions the word partner, partners or partnership 33 times in a 65 page document. It would be fair to say the Arts Council acknowledge the importance of organisations working together, and for good reason. The Local Government Association, with its members faced with 33% (or more) cuts in the Local Services Support Grant, is advocating a ‘shared services’ approach to local government.

However this strategic thrust is at odds with what usually happens in times of economic hardship. The tendency is to withdraw and pull in on oneself, training budgets are cut, travel budgets are cut and conferences become a luxury rather than a necessity.

Therefore the challenge is for cultural organisations get together to share services, volunteers and/or staff. Can it be done? Already 95% of local authorities now share some services and a few have even experimented with shared chief executives.

The cultural sector has a history of collaboration rather than competition. We need to use this mind-set to turn collaboration into true partnership and joint working. I believe there is an urgency to do this by 2018 when the Arts Council’s current museum development funding stream ends. 

The regional strategic bodies have shown the way. Last year’s East Midlands Heritage Conference ‘Stronger Together’ showed that it can be done. It was a partnership initiative between Museum Development East Midlands, East Midlands Museum Service and Nottingham Trent University. It was free and inclusive encouraging delegates from the region and beyond to come together to share good practice. The next step is to take that good will and create something sustainable and resilient joint working practices.

The structures for this sustainable approach are in place. Strong county forums are in place to encourage smaller museums to come together. Major Partner Museums have the opportunity take a lead in joint working at the larger municipal level. Museum Development 2015-18 bidders also have the opportunity to help embed this approach strategically.

If we bury our heads in the sand we will inevitably begin to lose museums, but there is reason to be optimistic, but that optimism is dependent upon making the most of our limited resources – and that means working together in a meaningful way – permanently.

Resources from the East Midlands Heritage Conference 2013 can be found at http://emms.org.uk/east_midlands_heritage_conference_awards_2013/

More information on the East Midlands Heritage Conference 2015 will be released closer to the event. To join the mailing list, please visit www.emms.org.uk

This post is by Neville Stankley, a Senior Lecturer in Heritage Management at Nottingham Trent University, Vice-Chair of East Midlands Museums Service and key practitioner for the region. He is currently involved in several partnership projects, including the Postgraduate Certificate in Heritage Education, a pioneering model in vocational training that brings together the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law, Leicester City Council, Rutland County Council and Nottingham Trent University.

The Future is Wheat Starch?

Culture Syndicates' Jess Tarver and Eileen Patrick 

test out the speedy new method of labelling objects

The Culture Syndicates have been working with a museum just outside Nottingham on labelling their accessioned objects. Although we have worked with several museums in the past this is the first one that asked us to use wheat starch to label the collection when possible.  This is a review of how to use wheat starch and what how we found it.

What you need

·         Neutral Pure Wheat Starch

·         Acid free paper

·         Archival pen

·         A small paint brush

All these items can be found at http://www.preservationequipment.com/

You will also need

·         Distilled water

·         Scissors               

·         A jar (such as a jam jar)

·         A microwave 

The method

To make up the wheat starch mix 1 teaspoon of wheat starch powder to 5 teaspoons of distilled water and then heat it up in the microwave. We found that a little goes a long way so would suggest that to start with you only use this amount.

To create the label write it out on the acid free paper, using an archival pen, and cut it out. Using the paint brush, put a small amount of the wheat starch solution onto the object and then place the label top and stick it down using a bit more starch solution. Leave to dry.  

What objects can it be used on?

What is great about this product is that it can be used on a diverse range of objects. It can be used on wood, glass metal, ceramics, bone and plastics.

Time

The wheat starch methods takes around 10 minutes in total: labelling and the drying time.

The old paraloid and B67 poly method takes around 1 hour (including drying time for the paraloid and B67 poly layers).

Therefore the time saved for is roughly 50 minutes per object…that’s 8 hours for 100 objects!!!

Pros

This method is very easy and quick, especially compared to the paraloid sandwich method

There are no chemicals involved

This method can be used on a number of different surfaces

Cons

It is not suitable for all objects:

-          The labels are very obvious on small or transparent objects

-          The wheat starch solution does not stick very well to polished metals

Would we use it again?

Yes. This process makes it very easy to label a range of objects and takes less time than other methods. However it is unlikely that it would be possible to do an entire collection using solely this technique but it has made the process of labelling 500 + objects faster. We highly recommend that it is added to museums’ labelling kits.