Programme and Abstracts

For the past five years the Collection Care Department at The National Archives has worked to embed audience development as part of its core business, benefiting from a dedicated engagement team within the department. This presentation will focus on reviewing our journey so far – the positives and the negatives. Through several case studies (of varying success) we will explore how we are working to understand the needs of our audiences, increase reach, and build deeper relationships with those around us through effective engagement activities. It will also review how we navigate internal relationships within a large organisation with competing priorities, built processes to evaluate and measure the impact of engagement activities and create an audience development plan.

The Global Connections research project (2021) is a collaboration between the Fitzwilliam Museum and the McDonald Institute of Archaeology. It conducted a pilot study on the Adès collection of Iranian ceramics. The Fitzwilliam Museum lacks an Islamic art curator, and its internationally-significant collection is understudied and underused. Islamic ceramics pose challenges in the way objects were previously restored. Completely ‘new’ objects were assembled out of various sherds often blurring the boundaries between concepts of fake and restoration. The team tested a range of non-invasive techniques to develop a protocol to analyse the collection. 

In 2023, we ran a public events programme with a theme of ‘making’. Working with contemporary ceramicist, Dr Abbas Akbari (University of Kashan), we supported non-specialist audiences to decorate ceramics in lustre and observe a traditional kiln being built and fired. Researchers were present to explain the stages of making, and the ongoing research. 

The project has received a British Academy – Leverhulme grant, which will fund the next steps of the research project.

A lack of representation of the public in heritage management has been recognised by many conservators who are seeking ways to diversify the voices represented in conservation decision-making. Conservation actions impact on the presentation of the object, illuminating or suppressing aspects of its history and value. The museum and heritage sector must make drastic changes and step back from practices that have caused many to feel unwelcomed excluded or marginalised. Multiple voices must be represented in decisions that impact on the value of cultural heritage. 3D technologies to show treatment options create an engaging and immersive way for new audiences to engage in conservation decision-making.

This presentation explores ethical considerations – including historical and epistemological limitations of current guidelines, the ways in which they are changing, as well as methodologies for safe access, the management of risks to people and collections through a series of case studies and handling sessions based at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. This work will also reflect on the perceived reception of a framework for preservation which encourages rather than limits creative or restorative engagement, i.e. through the repatriation of objects to communities of origin or their alteration as a result of protest or activism.

Environmental responsibility is a core investment principle of Arts Council’s Let’s Create strategy. But how are the demands of addressing a museum’s carbon footprint balanced with the care of collections, or the ambition to share exhibitions and build audiences tallied with the environmental impact of touring shows? How can we together embed environmental thinking and  sustainable practices in everything do? This presentation introduces Arts Council’s collaboration with Julie’s Bicycle to deliver an ambitious Environmental Programme which aims to empower the culture sector to rise to the challenges the climate crises present, and to accelerate and scale our collective response, and describes recent initiatives within the Museums & Cultural Property team to review the environmental impact of exhibition loans through the prism of the Government Indemnity scheme.

Environmental responsibility is a core investment principle of Arts Council’s Let’s Create strategy. But how are the demands of addressing a museum’s carbon footprint balanced with the care of collections, or the ambition to share exhibitions and build audiences tallied with the environmental impact of touring shows? How can we together embed environmental thinking and  sustainable practices in everything do? This presentation introduces Arts Council’s collaboration with Julie’s Bicycle to deliver an ambitious Environmental Programme which aims to empower the culture sector to rise to the challenges the climate crises present, and to accelerate and scale our collective response, and describes recent initiatives within the Museums & Cultural Property team to review the environmental impact of exhibition loans through the prism of the Government Indemnity scheme.

"The Bicycle Wall" (1978), a ceramic mural commissioned for the Milton Keynes public art program, was at risk of demolition when Aldi bought the site for development.

Recognising its cultural value, local heritage groups fought to save the mural and it was relocated. As a gesture of goodwill, Aldi commissioned us to conserve the tiles. 

Challenges were numerous: the scale of the mural, the exposed nature and height of the site, the need to find suitable materials, and the involvement of stakeholders, including an international company unaccustomed to conservation ethics. However, local project involvement reinstated a sense of pride in the community.

An international collaborative partnership to promote the safeguarding and sustainable use of under-recognised yet valuable resources for heritage research.

Over the past three years, the Heritage Sample Archives Initiative (HSAI) has worked to enhance the recognition, preservation, access and use of heritage sample archives through promoting good practices for their management. Its efforts have led to the development of a searchable online register for sample archives, hosted by ICCROM, that will allow organisations to share information about their sample archives, promoting their visibility and use. The presentation shares an international interdisciplinary collaboration driven by the need to address challenges faced by institutions large and small, from high- and low-income countries, concerning the safeguarding and use of heritage sample archives.