Revisiting Museum Collections workshop at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle

I attended the Introducing and exploring Revisiting Museum Collections training day held at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, on 10th December, 2010. This was offered as part of the Stories of the World project and was facilitated by Caroline Reed, Project Manager, SotW: Collections and Communities, Collections Trust. The day provided a ‘toolkit’ for capturing alternative interpretations of objects in order to enhance existing archives. There was also guidance on how to hold an artefact-based focus group and record participant feedback.   I felt that a similar approach could be applied to eliciting responses from informants as part of my work on the Sunderland Pottery collection at the SMWG. 

Outline of day by Sophie Robinson,  Project Co-ordinator, Stories of the World  is below:

         

We are very pleased that you are able to attend this one-day workshop event, which will be facilitated by Caroline Reed and introduce Revisiting Collections, a framework that empowers museums and archives to work directly with the communities they serve and to develop and share a new understanding of the multi-layered meaning and significance of the objects and records they hold. Revisiting Collections underpins Stories of the World.

A key strength of the Revisiting Collections approach is that it shows how to capture new voices and perspectives on objects and records directly within the museum or archive’s collection documentation system - ensuring that new, multi-layered information forms part of the story about the collections that is recorded and made accessible to all.

Professionally, Revisiting Collections seeks to break down some of the barriers that have grown up between ‘people-focussed’ and ‘object-focussed’ working in our museums and archives. The approach embraces the work of outreach and education staff, curators, archivists, cataloguers, data managers, text writers, designers and conservators – indeed anyone involved in developing collections and bringing them to the widest possible audience.

During the day we will explore how the methodology might best be used to support your organisation’s objectives around collections and audience development.

Preparing for the day

The Revisiting Museum Collections and Revisiting Archive Collections toolkits, guidance notes on Running a Revisiting Collections Focus Group and other excellent support materials are all available for free download from the Collections Link website: http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/increase_access/revisiting_collections

The workshop will include two practical sessions that will help you understand how Revisiting Museum Collections works for both museum staff and members of the public.

Important – please read this before the day:

For use in these sessions we ask you to bring along images of one or more objects, preferably from your museum collection, which you can talk about to a partner. If it’s small and not too vulnerable you might like to bring a real object. We also ask you to bring some written information summarising what your museum knows about the object and its background - a copy of a catalogue record or printout from your documentation system and/or a label would be ideal. Don’t worry if you don’t have a great deal of information to bring.

Programme

This is our outline programme for the day. There may be minor changes

Time	Session	Title
10.15-10.30		Registration / refreshments
10.30		Welcome and Introductions
	1	What is Revisiting Collections and how can it support your work?
	2	Practical: understanding responses to objects
11.50		Comfort break
12.00	3	Using Revisiting Museum Collections with community / focus groups
	Case study 1	Case study - using objects in focus groups
		Discussion: using Revisiting Museum Collections in your organisation
12.45		Lunch
1.45	4	What people know, feel and want to find out: sourcing and sharing new information
	5	Creating a legacy: capturing and managing new information
	6	Practical: capturing and managing new information
	Case Studies 2	Two case studies from SotW North East: Journeys of Discovery Beadwork and Maori projects
3.15		Tea break
3.30	7	Creating a legacy: adapting your systems for managing collections information
	8	Revisiting Collections and SotW
	9	Assessing the outcomes
4.00		Discussion & Conclusion
4.15		END