Fahima Begum: Museums Association Conference 2013 Part 1
The Power of Museums…and my thoughts of the Conference.
This year, the Annual Museums Association Conference and Exhibition were held in BT Convention Centre, Liverpool. The conference themes explored the changes that staff and organisations are facing, with regards to funding cuts and promoting the collections to a wider audience.
My SOCL2 traineeship is based at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, located in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, so I took a lot of value from the discussions, debates, exhibitions and workshops I attended; these were largely structured around providing and understanding about how success could be achieved, and indeed what success would look like, to professionals working in different areas of the Culture and Heritage Sector.
I attended sessions, intrigued to discover how and why the speakers’ museums mattered to them and their organisations. I believed that these sessions would raise questions about vital issues that surround the Art sector, for example, the sustainability of collections which museums gather over the years and the importance of preservation. I was also interested to hear about different methods used to attract audiences, and how they carry out projects that fit within their financial budget. This is the first post in my week-long Blog Series- “The Power of Museums”- which will feature a daily spotlight on the talks I attended at the 2013 Museums Association Conference.