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A series of four discursive events co-organised by the UCL Mellon Programme and UCL Centre for Museums, Heritage and Material Culture Studies

Wednesdays 6pm, May 4, 11, 18, 25, 2011 University College London

From being perceived as a collective resting place for mute objects and a silent, ocular-centric space to showcase them, the museum is increasingly called upon to account for the voices in its midst.  Objects are now widely understood to tell stories, speaking in different ways to different constituencies.  In turn, the voices of visitors, source communities, curators, collectors and makers – whether in the form of reminiscence, testimony, storytelling, myth or song – play an increasingly prominent role in determining the museum’s approach to knowledge production and dissemination.

This series of oral interventions – by architects, artists, curators, historians, musicians, theorists, and writers – aims to understand how the voices emanating from objects and subjects in the museum impact the institution’s traditional remit of researching, collecting and displaying objects. How do these voices condition the visitor’s affective and sensory experience? How do the narratives told by the museum through objects change over time? Which voices have been suppressed, and why? What can museums do to preserve the immaterial traces of the voice? And what new technologies and outreach strategies will be required to listen to and broadcast voices both in and outside of the museum?

Speakers include: Sarah Byrne (UCL Mellon Programme)

Debbie Challis (UCL Museums and Collections)

Emma Poulter (British Museum)

David Toop (London College of Communication)

Colin Fournier (UCL Bartlett School of Architecture)

Marysia Lewandowska (Konstfack, Sweden)

Sarah Lowry (Foundling Museum, London)

Steve Cross (UCL Public Engagement Unit)

Toby Butler (University of East London)

Paul Elliman (Yale School of Art)

Seph Rodney (The London Consortium)

Imogen Stidworthy (Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht)

Jack Maynard (Tate)

Linda Sandino (V&A and UAL)

Susan Hawkins (Kingston University London)

Hillary Young (Museum of London)

For more information visit: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/mellon-program/events/voices

Or contact Sarah Byrne:  s.byrne@ucl.ac.uk;  Anthony Hudek: a.hudek@ucl.ac.uk

“Lessons in Learning” is a free to download publication by UCL Museums & Collections relating to outreach in primary schools. It covers themes including Higher Education, Science and methods for success in engagement and aspiration raising.

This publication is the result of an evaluation study – carried out by Culture:Unlimited -into the Primary schools outreach programme offered by UCL Museums & Collections. It will be of interest to universities, museums and other institutions that engage in outreach programmes with schools. It can be found here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/learning/he

It is a good practice guide for working with primary school children particularly in science, including the strategic background to such projects. The key to outreach that is effective and engaging is discovery-based learning, developed from an exploratory model. Concepts of Higher Education (HE) are poorly understood among Primary-aged children but it is both possible and appropriate for universities or museums to introduce such concepts at this level through hands-on interactive workshops in schools.

If you have any questions please do get in touch with Celine West
Head of Learning and Access, UCL Museums & Collections. tel 020 7679 2151  (core hours Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9.30-3.00)

The Museum, Galleries and Collections Fund supports museums and galleries in the higher education sector where the cost of stewardship goes beyond what universities could be expected to meet from mainstream funding for teaching and research. It supports collections that have research significance beyond their home institutions. The fund was previously managed for HEFCE by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). HEFCE has recently completed a review of its funding for university museums and galleries, led by Sir Muir Russell. Higher education institutions wishing to be considered for funding were invited to make written submissions. The review considered how far the activities of the museums and galleries met core HEFCE policy aims and are activities of a kind that HEFCE funding should support. Three main criteria were developed to support this consideration:

* provision of a service to the wider research community at significant cost beyond what is needed to meet the needs of an institution’s own researchers
* provision of a high-quality teaching and learning experience to the wider HE community
* addressing HEFCE’s widening participation objective to promote and provide the opportunity of successful higher education to everyone who can benefit from it.

UMG was closely involved in the consultation process and following this, HEFCE has made allocations to university museums and galleries, which can be seen here:

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/research/initiats/museum/allocat.htm

In introducing the allocations, HEFCE Chief Executive, Sir Alan Langlands, said: ‘Universities and colleges play an important role in the cultural heritage of the country, holding some of the finest and most important collections of artefacts in the country. By funding such a diverse andsignificant range of museums and galleries we recognise their important role in education and research and our responsibility to ensure that those collections are accessible to the public.’

Hello,

My name is Karen Calpin, I am a PhD student, based at the University of Glasgow, my research is focusing on the design of STEM public engagement activities. If you are involved in the design or creation of activities I would be very grateful if you could take the time to fill out my online questionnaire (see the link below). The questionnaire looks at the elements that make up an activity, such as audience, use of questioning, venue layout etc, to try to discover if and how these elements influence each other. It is hoped that this questionnaire can shed some light on the elements of an activity and aid in the creation of a model of the design process of creating activities.

The questionnaire can be found at;
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/278141/Design-influences

I would be really grateful for your participation.

Thanks
Karen Calpin