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DAY 1: 21C SKILLS KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Marsha Semmell, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Institute of Museum and Library Services, USA

http://www.imls.gov/about/staffdetail.aspx?StaffId=25
Museums and the New Culture of Learning: Opportunities, and Obligations, for Transforming Practice

The best museums have always been centers of learning, using their collections, experiences, exhibitions, and spaces to reflect and inspire people’s curiosity and interests. They intentionally seek to enrich people’s lives. Today, a confluence of factors--new research into the cognitive, neurological, behavioral, and social dimensions of learning; the imperatives of the global knowledge economy; and the explosion of new digital technologies—has triggered a set of circumstances that have changed the learning equation. This technological, scientific, and sociological churn occurs as the planet faces continued urgent challenges in health, the environment, cross-cultural understanding, and financial stability.

In recent decades, the United States, along with many other countries around the globe, has engaged in vigorous and occasionally contentious debates about the skills and competencies our children – and our entire population – need to thrive in our contemporary global society. Government agencies, universities, schools, corporations, philanthropies, and civic officials have been active players in these conversations, and have begun to adapt practice to accommodate these "21st century” skills. In addition, learners of all ages, through computers, mobile devices, and social media, have begun to take their learning into their own hands, without depending on traditional educational institutions. Although there have been some ‘early adopters,’ many museums have been slow to join this learning revolution. In some cases, this is due to limited staff knowledge, scarce resources, or a missing sense of strategic possibility. In others, museums, or key community stakeholders, don’t recognize and exploit their potential power as effective partners in community-wide (formal and informal) learning efforts.

This presentation explores our current participatory learning culture, including societal and technological trends and recent research informing our knowledge of effective learning. It will provide examples of United States museums that have embraced their role as vital centers of "lifelong, life-wide, and life-deep” learning. In a time when learning is increasingly "de-institutionalized,” with people of all ages capable of accessing the knowledge of the world through the devices in their pockets, how can our museums remain relevant? Further, in what ways can – and must – our museums help individuals and communities address our pressing current national and global challenges?

The presentation will also discuss the work of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a United States federal grant-making agency, including its "Museums, Libraries, and Twenty-First Century Skills” initiative and an innovative, public/private partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that is leveraging research on teen behavior in the digital world to support the planning and design of 25 teen-focused learning labs in cities around the country.

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DAY 2: MUSEUMS IN THE PACIFIC RIM

Leo Tanoi, Creative Producer Pacific Programs, Casula Powerhouse Art Centre, Sydney

Museums engaging with Pacific communities

Sydney currently has a significant proportion of Pacific Islander populations, as well as a range of museums that hold collections of immense historical and cultural value to Pacific diaspora and creator communities, as well as to Australian and international audiences more broadly. How are museums engaging with these communities and where are they headed? How are museums relating to the needs of young Indigenous and Pacific people and how can they better engage them? What is the role of museums as active agents in culture, especially around issues such as sustainability and cultural preservation. How will museums work with creator and Diaspora communities to provide trustworthy, credible solutions?

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DAY 2: MUSEUMS IN THE PACIFIC RIM

Dr David Fleming, OBE, CEO, National Museums of Liverpool

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/about/people/seniorstaff/david_fleming.aspx)

The Political Museum

It has suited museums for generations to pretend that at heart we are ‘above’ politics, occupying a Shangri-La where dispute, controversy and opinion do not exist – just the ‘truths’ of expertise, scholarship and connoisseurship. In this paper I shall try to demonstrate that, on the contrary, most (if not all) museums are inevitably political in nature, places where agendas run strongly, and which are teeming with messages, opinions and bias.

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DAY 3: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

STEPHEN WEIL MEMORIAL LECTURE

Frank Howarth, PSM, Director, Australian Museum Sydney
http://australianmuseum.net.au/staff/frank-howarth/)

Do Indians Belong with Dinosaurs?

"Visitors arrive at the dioramas after passing by extinct dinosaurs, stuffed animals, and an endangered species exhibit. Some museum visitors, especially children, get the impression that Native Americans are just like the dinosaurs—extinct. Or that they are somehow "primitive” because they are displayed with wildlife.”

We have moved on from this in our portrayal of indigenous peoples, but how far. Is there a different lingering problem? Does the Western portrayal of indigenous peoples and their material culture in museums reflect "an imperialist nostalgia, where warm sentiments for an elegant era mask relations of domination” as Renato Rosaldo said?

Why do we put the cultures of indigenous peoples under the scientific microscope of anthropology, then display them in a case in a museum, while we celebrate our own dominantly Anglo Australian culture in the art gallery, sporting hall of fame and war memorial? What does our portrayal of indigenous peoples do to and for those people?

In this lecture I will reflect on how museums, especially "natural history” museums, have portrayed indigenous cultures, from the time when "natives” were shown in dioramas alongside the dioramas of wild animals and dinosaurs, to now.

I propose that the next step for how indigenous cultures have a presence in museums and galleries involves moving to a mode of cultural engagement that involves indigenous people in interpreting collections and teaching about indigenous language and culture, where visitors engage with indigenous people and cultures through immersion. Indigenous views will be heard more clearly and there will be a focus on strengthening indigenous culture through transfer on knowledge and language between generations.

I would like museums to move from a place where "we”, the dominantly white detached objective museum voices tells "you” the audience about "them”, the indigenous peoples, to one where "we” the indigenous people tell "you” the audience about "us”. Moving to a place where any "imperialist nostalgia” becomes part of the story, not how the story is told.

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Welcome Reception

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SESSION 1: NEW BUSINESS

Kimmo Levä, Secretary General, Suomen museoliitto - The Finnish Museums Association
Which business should museums be in?

The future of museums lies in the private sector and we need to learn to operate in a normal market situation, which includes competition with other service providers and the need to make a profit. New action models have already emerged in the commercialization of exhibition services, and museums have also become service providers in the tourism industry.

The problem, however, is that tourism is a business area where profitability is very weak in general, and especially weak when it comes to museums. Two studies to this effect have been published in Finland, which indicate that ticket and museum shop sales do not even cover the direct costs of those functions. If we factor in the indirect costs of exhibitions themselves, operational losses are guaranteed.

It is appropriate to ask, therefore, if it would make more financial sense to commercialize the expertise museums possess in information management, teaching, consulting, storage, and research, as well as the conservation of the cultural environment and the restoration of artifacts and buildings. These are all areas in which we possess unique know-how, where there is little competition and, if we compare the information management business to the tourism business, the profitability is much better.

Leadership is doing things right, management is doing the right things. First and foremost, museums need to put time and effort into management in order to evaluate the kind of business we should be engaged in. It seems that in the future the most successful museum will be a museum without exhibitions, and one which focuses on business areas related to information, communication and community image, special trade, goodwill, training and consulting, asset management, storage, healthcare, or restoration.

Vicki Northey, Assistant Director Audience Outreach and Exhibitions, Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney
How can I be cool and memorable? – museum working spaces that seat audiences in the middle.

We work in museums because they are places that allow us to be creative and to tell stories to thousands of people using objects and experiences that we believe are memorable and vital to our cultures and society. People at dinner parties and barbeques think that what we do must be fascinating, interesting and filled with spontaneity. But in reality many of us work in bureaucracies with processes and procedures and we can become quite incensed when these processes are not followed and proper consultation does not take place. When we do those management style tests we would all want to be in the group of risk takers and innovative thinkers. We would all put our hand on our heart and say that visitors are at the centre of what we do. But is it the visitor experience or visitor number that most concerns us. Do we just want to be the popular kids or interesting long term friends? What is the magic formula for forming and measuring these friendships? In social media terms is going viral enough? Will we also need to measure how many times we are de-friended?

What would our work look like if we only did what visitors wanted? What would our museums look like if our audiences directed all content and programs? Would more people come? What would collections look like if they were crowd sourced? What skills or experience would you need to work in such a museum? Would we need to invest the same time and money? Would we be less bureaucratic and more innovative?

If museums are the holders of our collective memory are we creating memorable experiences that contribute to that collective memory? Can we create something memorable if we do not work in partnership with our audiences and communities? Museums pride themselves as being safe places for unsafe ideas – is this true in our work spaces as well as our public spaces? After working in museums for 26 years I feel the need to get back to basics, to chuck out my preconceived ideas and get my gut reactions to the forefront. This paper will chart my challenge to encourage a work environment that gets me and my team back to our professional youth where risk taking, quick reaction and fantasy are the norm. Where we are nimble, open and engaging, conversing directly with our audiences to create memorable experiences, large and small for everyone.

Ken Gorbey, Museum Consultant, Wellington, NZ
Challenges for museum leadership in an earthquake prone country organising to extract itself from deep financial schtuk

New Zealand is a nation of around 4.4m people. Having spent beyond its means since the 1970s, it has a nett debt of c$NZ160b, or $36k for each man woman and child. Recently one of its main cities, Christchurch, has been devastated by a series of earthquakes – the rebuild might cost around $NZ30b. There is now strong pressure on the agencies that commonly fund museums, national government and local authorities, to rein in spending and reduce debt. This paper considers some of the implications for museum leadership – it suggests in equal measure opportunity and innovation, and “planned systematic abandonment.”

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SESSION 2: NEW SKILLS

Helena Robinson, PhD Student, University of Sydney
Converging museums with libraries, archives and galleries: a case for the development of cross-disciplinary expertise?

The convergence of museums with libraries, archives and galleries has been an important recent development for the cultural sector both internationally and in Australia. Globally, the trend has been highlighted by various projects to provide digitally converged access to diverse collection resources, the formation of bodies to facilitate collaboration across the domains, as well as the creation of new bricks-and-mortar converged institutions such as Library and Archives Canada and Puke Ariki in New Zealand. In Australia, convergence has been driven by State Government incentives and a desire by Local Government to adopt a rationalised, financially efficient model for cultural services in the course of updating aging infrastructure. These developments have led to the development of a number of prominent ‘converged’ collecting institutions, blending the collection spaces, visitor experience and staffing across museum, library, archive and gallery collecting areas. These convergences have resulted in new demands for collection professionals, challenging the conventional discipline-based specialization of staff across all tiers and, in many cases, compelling staff to work outside of and across areas of expertise.

Taking these changes into account, should the next generation of museum professionals be educated to work not only within the traditional museum context but also across other collecting domains? How well are those already employed in converged settings adapting to their expanded roles? What kinds of cross-disciplinary professional development are available to collection workers? And, do the experiences of these staff challenge the fundamental viability of convergence?

This paper addresses these questions by drawing on interviews conducted within the last 12 months at two recently converged institutions in New South Wales. Utilizing responses from a cross-section of staff, it examines whether convergence facilitates the cross-pollination of professional skills and expertise, or whether such a model creates unsustainable pressures and expectations on staff, ultimately affecting the cultural output of their institution. The results of the research present important findings for the future training and professional development of museum professionals, as well as having immediate relevance for the way in which converged collecting institutions are planned, structured and managed.

George Jacob, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Canada
Overcoming Illiteracy: Inventive Collaboration

Even as the world gets increasingly interconnected and tech-savvy with an overwhelming force of social networks and the all-pervasive media, over a fifth of the world’s population cannot read or write. With UN reports pointing to 793 million adults and 127 million adolescents as illiterate, museums with their mandate of visual literacy hold the key to make a significant contribution in overcoming this challenge beyond the blackboard. Literacy is a Human Right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development. Educational opportunities depend on literacy. It is at the heart of basic education for all, and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring development, peace, democracy and international relations. It is that unifying source of sustaining evolving civil societies. A good quality basic education equips pupils with literacy skills for life and further learning. It is well researched that literate parents are more likely to send their children to school. With literacy aiding access to continuing educational opportunities literate communities are better geared to meet the challenges of global competitiveness.

While museums continue to extend their reach to under-served communities, a global strategy is needed to fundamentally transform the way museums can use their potential to effectively engage a generation of the disengaged, the disillusioned and the disenfranchised. Resource crunch is always cited as a primary reason of inertia in this realm. With a global financial outlay of over $40 billion towards museum in the coming decade alone, there is room for innovative thought towards re-engaging resources as attempted never before.

In an inventive collaboration, a 650,000 sq.foot, newly-constructed living museum stretches itself beyond the ordinary. In stages of conception, inception, execution and outreach, it offers critical solutions for the developing world by engaging traditional artisans, by allowing for sustained community outreach, generating employment and above all, creating an exhibit experience that transcends the barriers of illiteracy.

Mariann Raisma, Director of University of Tartu History Museum
Museum challenges after the museum revolution or How to develop new skills for the new museum?

Museums in Estonia are gone through the real museum revolution during the last ten years. Thanks to the European support many museums are rendered a thorough restoration and modernization process – the content and the design of the museums are changed completely. While in the Soviet era museums were important ideological tools, then during the first decade of the regaining the independence, the museums fell into the deep crisis – the role and importance of the museums became extremely low in the society. During the last five years there are opened new and innovative museums in Estonia, which (at least some of them) compete with the most attractive museums in Europe. The number of visitors is high compared to the number of inhabitants of Estonia: the visiting number in 2011 was 2.2 million (number of inhabitants is 1,3 million). In the same time there are plenty of museums, which are looking for the new identity and waiting the possibilities for modernization – or closure.

This major change has raised some important questions for the new museums, but also to these, which hasn`t gone through the changes: How to survive, when the need for additional financing is becoming more and more important? How to grasp new target markets? Which are the priority activities in the near future? Is the emphasis only towards the public is justified?

For answering these questions is important to analyze the structure of the museums, role of the memory institutions and needs of the target groups. In my paper I am analyzing what changes has been done in the museum structure and organization culture for surviving and – for being successful. How in these recently renovated museums are developed new ways of communication with the target groups, where the main focus is the visitor and how sufficient this ideology is. The paper discusses the 21 century skills through the best examples of Estonian museums.

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SESSION 3: NEW PRACTICES

Camilo Sanchez, Museum of Independence, Bogota, Colombia
The Big Gap

In new museum developments, senior visitors complain when the visit turns too technologic, an increasing effort and aspiration of museums to give younger visitors a more significant experience. However, nowadays we are bombarded by information and visual teasers everywhere. New technologies in museums do not amaze young visitors any more. What should we do?

There is a big gap between the point where museological theory is and the expectations and image that most of the general public have of what museums are, or should be. While sometimes museum changes and developments still generate some resistance (as some people claim that contemporary museums and exhibitions lost their former charm, the “look of old all museums should have”), on the other hand, in a world in constant crisis, where everything changes faster every day, museums seem not to keep up with an increasingly complex society.

If the reason of a museum is the society it belongs to, and this society naturally changes, the museum has the obligation of integrating these social transformations into its institutional dynamics, contents and forms of communication. Museums in the future will have to respond faster to social and economical changes. We need to start talking seriously about how to become relevant social agents that can quickly adapt to a world that change faster every day. Museums have to become important and relevant for communities, not only because they guard their heritage, but rather because they lead social change and become places that help to effectively solve problems (or at least think of hypothetical solutions) that are becoming sadly recurrent, like economical global crisis, rapid climate change, racial discrimination, increasing poverty, crime, etc. That is the only way people will stop thinking than museums are just a recreational venue you only visit willingly when you are a tourist and need a clean toilet.

The Museum of Independence in Bogota recently underwent a complete transformation that tried to tackle complex historical, social, political and museological issues. We have tried to create a human scale museum that is coherent with its purpose and mission. With few resources and lots of creativity, the Museum seeks to achieve a contemporary and open approach to history and collections in order to generate critical thinking in our visitors, which we feel are more active and participative every day. We hope that way we will be able, if not to close, at least to reduce the gap.

Emily Loughnan, Click Suite, New Zealand
A new way to tell a treasured old story

"The story begins over 130 years ago with the construction of a grand Wharenui, a large meeting house, to unite the people of Ngati Awa in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. The house was taken by the NZ government as a show piece to the world and it began a long journey “on tour” around the world. (Interestingly, this included a visit to Sydney for the British Empire Exhibition in 1879). The house finally made it back home, and has been lovingly restored. The elders of the tribe wanted to open this house up to the public, but faced the challenge many museums face of how to make a precious historic item relevant to the visitor in 2012?

For the people of Ngati Awa, situated in Whakatane, a popular tourist destination, the competition for the attention of the tourist is strong. While wanting to create a reason to visit, they still wanted to be true to the treasure they had on display. The solution was to create a leading-edge digital experience inside the house. The latest video mapping technology was used to trace the interior of the grand Wharenui, onto which imagery and animations were projected. Historical musical instruments are used in the soundtrack, and the carved walls of the house feature as graphical elements in the animation.

It is almost impossible to capture the very special experience of being there, in a humbling space, watching a 12 metre wide projection, and proudly watching tourists become entranced by the legends. There’s no doubt it’s an enormous success. The creation of such a work forced the tribe to think in quite modern terms about how to connect with audiences; culturally it raised some mighty challenges which they bravely faced."

Emily will take you behind the scenes to show how the project was achieved, how sensitive cultural issues were addressed, and to explain how this result could not have been achieved if current Museum practices were followed. Emily proposes changes to current practices as food for thought for museum professionals wanting to achieve new and innovative ways to connect with their audiences.

Yin Cheng Jin, Museum Consultant, PhD Student University of Queenland
Are donations cost free?

Museum’s acquisition is fraught with issues related to their authentication and interpretation. The administrative professional consciousness of museums, which entails aspects of cultural inclusion, are important in determining whether a museum can deliver on its promise. The institutional reluctance to entertain doubts about administrative practice has a strong political and isolationist element. It seems as if museums sometimes choose to insulate themselves from public scrutiny. Consequently, institutions are at risk of alienating the public’s faith in their practices and the public records in Australian have shown the institutional weakness in argument particularly regarding Non-Australian collection when responding to critics.

Should there be an institutional sense of superiority, in which institutions consider themselves to be the gold standard of art collecting and administrating? Are concerns regarding the conduct and quality of public collections socially and professionally justified? Are donations costs free? The paper will focus on the motivation for collecting items should be cultural, not political nor financial, particularly in managing donations. Furthermore, I propose that museums should benefit from, and treasure comments from the public including art critics and those in the evaluation profession within a culturally inclusive framework.

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SESSION 1: HUMAN RIGHTS

Adele Chynoweth, Visitor, School of History, ANU
'Let our histories be visible': Human rights museology and the challenge of Australian consensus history

Over 400,000 non-Indigenous Australian children, now known as the ‘Forgotten Australians’ grew up in out-of-home ‘care’ in the twentieth century. However, there has been more serious attention to the history of institutionalized Indigenous Australians and Former Child Migrants than to the largest group of children in Australian Homes. In 2009, the Australian Government, attempted to redress this oversight by allocating funding to the National Museum of Australia (NMA) to create a touring exhibition about Australian children in institutionalized care. This initiative was a response to years of intense lobbying by the Care Leavers of Australia Network. Subsequently, Inside: Life in Children’s Homes in Institutions opened at the NMA in November 2011 and closed in February 2012.

Despite, or because of, the provision of Australian Government funding for Inside to tour, at the time of the submission of this proposal, only one Australian museum had chosen to host this touring exhibition. Why this reluctance? Is this symptomatic of a consensus history, which disavows the narratives of Forgotten Australians in preference for the history of the Stolen Generations? What are the broader implications of such observations? Do Australian museums conflate contemporary human rights narratives with race? Should museums follow or challenge consensus history? How do museums choose narratives/themes for exhibitions? Should governments influence such decision-making processes? How should museums respond to external advocacy groups who demand that their histories be represented?

In this presentation I will argue that socially responsive museologies, exemplified by the work of the Federation of International Human Rights Museums, assist in countering refusals to challenge consensus history and provide methodologies to realise exhibitions that emphasise people and their narratives.

Jasmine Tunstall, Education Program Leader of Social History and Art (Pouako Tikanga a Iwi me ngaa Mahi Toi), Waikato Museum (Whare Taonga O Waikato), Hamilton, New Zealand
The Waikato Museum and Human Rights: investigating the role of the Waikato Museum museums as a partner in a national attempt to educate and approach issues of human rights.

Under the Human Rights Act, the Human Rights Commission is responsible for education and advocacy about human rights in New Zealand. In order to reach more people and ensure human rights education is ongoing, the Commission initiated a human rights community development approach creating the Taku Manawa (My Human Rights) program. This accredited facilitation program began in 2003 with the objective of empowering selected representatives from diverse community organisations with knowledge and the ability to undertake human rights advocacy and implement this advocacy in their communities. In 2010 the program was implemented in the Waikato region and Waikato Museum became the first museum in New Zealand invited to nominate a participant to represent their region.

This paper will identify and explain how the Waikato Museum was first identified as a ‘human rights museum’ and what this means for a museum in New Zealand and the Pacific region. Secondly, the paper will explore how partnering with the Human Rights Commission provides the Museum a platform to promote positive social change and greater awareness of human rights issues through community events, public programming and exhibition planning, and how this is received by the museum going public.

Rosemary Listing, researcher - Institute of Art and Law, Australia
The Sunny Southland: Legal Risk in Museum Employment

Museum and art gallery employees work in close proximity to extremely valuable and sensitive property. Such individuals therefore face certain legal risks in the course of their employment. A number of recent international court cases have demonstrated that, despite being morally entitled to indemnification by their employers, museum staff are not always protected from legal liability in the course of their employment. One such example is the action brought by the State of Italy against antiquities curator of the Getty, Marion True for illicit receipt of archaeological items. The case demonstrates the Courts' willingness to entertain an action against an employee of a reputable institution. The case also evidences the plaintiff's growing ingenuity in seeking out unexpected targets for art and cultural property litigation. This talk will discuss some of the risks employees of such institutions may face in Australia. The extent to which the employing arts institution is required to indemnify the employee in the course of their employment will be discussed. Two potential claims: breach of contract and negligence, will be examined; along with a number of cases that may offer guidance about the nature of such claims. Finally, we will look into some practical solutions that may be employed by staff to avoid liability in the future. It is hoped that the talk will generate an increased awareness of the legal risks that may be faced in such employment. The foremost aim of the talk is to allow those who deal in art and cultural property to become more confident in their work.

Avril Alba, Sydney University, Australia and Dr Jennifer Barrett, University of Sydney, Australia
Retaining our Relevance? Reimagining the Sydney Jewish Museum

Increasingly and internationally, Holocaust museums are being called upon to maintain their ‘contemporary relevance’ in order to retain the interest and support of the visiting public. Exactly what such relevance entails is more often than not a vexed issue, for to maintain relevance these institutions must engage with the necessity of bringing the past into the present; delving into the potentials and pitfalls of what has come to be labelled ‘memory work’.

The Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) stands on the cusp of a major renovation of its permanent Holocaust exhibition. The factors compelling the development are the passing of the survivor generation, the age of the current permanent exhibition and the demands of ‘contemporary relevance’. Yet the content and nature of the proposed redevelopment’s ‘contemporary relevance’ remains a topic in flux.

This paper will address the history that has brought the SJM to this vital juncture in its development and, in particular, it will discuss the influence of ‘survivor memory’ on this process and its interpretation by the current generation of museum board members, professionals and volunteers who will lead the SJM into its next incarnation. While Holocaust memory is often assumed to be a unifying one, this investigation suggests that this assumption may be misguided and that obtaining ‘contemporary relevance’ in the museum context may be a more difficult and shifting ‘goal post’ than it first appears.

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SESSION 2: MUSEUMS AND COMMUNITY

Tarisi Vunidilo, Secretary-General for the Pacific islands Museums Association (PIMA), Vanuatu
Pacific Museums And Sea-Level Rise: Proactive programs for Local Pacific Communities

The word “Pacific” often brings out notion of “beauty”, “peace” and “romance”. Early voyagers and artists to the Pacific recorded a place of serenity and relaxation. To some extent, such notions still holds true today as tourism has become a big money earner to Pacific countries. Yet, underneath that notion of peace and romance lies issues of environmental concern one of which is sea-level rise. Environmental organisations have identified Kiribati, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and off shore islands of Papua New Guinea as high risk places to sea-level rise. This is a major concern to Pacific communities that live on low-lying atolls, as well as villages on the coastal areas of larger islands. This has direct impact archaeological sites and museums. PIMA and ICOMOS Pasifika (two leading regional heritage organisations that are based in Vanuatu and Fiji respectively) are proactively undertaking community training exercises, whereby local villagers are trained to record sites before they are destroyed. This paper will discuss some of the programs they have done to date to assist local islanders on mitigating issues such as sea-level rise, and destruction of sites due to development.

Dion Pieta, Collections Coordinator, Anthropology Research, Australian Museum
Challenging what it is to be a 'warrior'

A new partnership between Juvenile Justice and the Australian Museum is helping young people from Pacific communities build self-esteem by reconnecting with culturally significant artefacts.

Moira Fortin, Museum Administrator, Museo Antropológico Padre Sebastián Englert, Easter Island, Chile
What leadership and skills are required to pilot museums in the Pacific Rim into the future?

Leadership, a critical management skill, is the ability to motivate a group of people toward a common goal. Somehow leadership is an intangible - a charismatic component that some people have and others simply don't. People don't have to be tall, well-spoken and good looking to be a successful leader. It is not compulsory to have to have that "special something" to fulfill the leadership role. What a person in the position of a leader needs to have to have is clearly defined convictions - and, more importantly, the resolution to see them manifest into reality. Only when this is understood, the guidance role can move from manager to leader. Nowadays, museums must operate in an increasingly complex environment and at a faster speed than ever before. Unlike institutions of the past, organisations today must be extremely quick, embracing rapid change in funding and governance issues, as well as in organizational structure and external regulations. Therefore, the Director of a museum should have skills such as strategic thinking, finance and organisational behavior, focusing in topics such as building public understanding, achieving financial stability, leading organizational change, and enhancing staff and board effectiveness.

Moreover, the Director of a Museum from the Pacific needs to reflect the changing needs and issues facing peoples of the South Pacific as they work to establish peaceful and sustainable communities, livelihoods and futures. The person in charge of leading a Museum will have to facilitate links between other museums from around the pacific region in an effort to stimulate an exchange of knowledge, ideas, experiences and strategies that strengthen mutual efforts for change.

Dr Kirsten Davies, Macquarie University, Australia
From the Mouths of Babes, children’s views on global climate change

Do children have the right of to a viable future? How do they view climate change? This presentation will describe children’s (8-12 years) perceptions surrounding climate change through data collected from Vanuatu, several Australian locations and Bhutan, since 2006. The survey, focus group and interview data, was gathered through the application of Intergenerational Democracy, a whole of community method of engagement requiring the involvement of children to the elderly. This method was developed by the author and is the subject of her 2012 book. This conference is the first time the children’s views will be shared in an open forum. The presentation will progress to discuss if their perceptions are justified and if they are being addressed through human rights conventions and legislation. How to move forward? Ideas surrounding the role of museums in securing intergenerational equity and a viable planet for future generations will be presented in the concluding discussion where contributions from participants will be encouraged.

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SESSION 3: MUSEUMS AND NATURAL DISASTERS

Lai Ying-Ying, Professor and Director, Graduate School of Arts Management and Cultural Policy, National Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan
Waiting for Godot? Museums’ Actions after Natural Disasters

The strong earthquake, of Richter magnitude 9.0, struck the near sea of Japan on March 11, 2011, followed by Tsunami, has shaken the east of Honshu, Japan. This has reminded Taiwan, residing on the same circum-Pacific belt, of the catastrophe during the September 21 earthquake, 1999 and the big mud-slid occurred after a medium-size typhoon during the August 8, 2009. Facing the globalization era that is hit by natural disasters of the century, i.e. earthquake, hurricane, tsunami, etc., what and how can museum functions?

The earth never stops changing. However the recent natural disasters have caused great damages and trauma to the people. What have we learned from the lessons? What can the museums do to work with nature and people heading for our future with courage and positive attitude? Can museums be the social capacity that provide solace and rebuild people’s heart and soul? This paper attempts to examine some different projects undertaken at three different places, namely New Orleans, USA, Sendai, Japan, and the case of Taiwan, on how actions were taken, social consensus were converged, and museum performance demonstrated under confined resources.

Ochi Yujiro (Mr.), Director of Hiroshima prefectural Museum
Countermeasures of Japanese Museum after Tohoku Big Earthquake and Tsunami aiming at tough Museum for various disaster and building up in closer connection with the disaster-stricken museum for saving works and materials

Japanese museum was very shocked by the Hanshin-Awaji Big Earthquake(M.7.2, early morning of January17, 1995). This big Earthquake that took over 6,400 lives and break off public transportation, electricity, gas line, roads and bridges and broke over 250,000 houses, also damaged famous museums’ building and works in Kobe and suburbs. Before this earthquake Japanese museum didn’t felt a natural calamity was own affair. But this big earthquake made Japanese museum tackled with countermeasure for disaster. Those countermeasures were strengthened by the big Niigata earthquake (M.6.8, 2004) and another earthquakes in Japan, and are very effective for this big Tohoku earthquake, M.9, March 17 2011.

Those countermeasures are followings:

  1. Safety for Visitors
  2. Earthquake-resistant Display
  3. Earthquake-resistant Storage Room
  4. Construction of seismic isolation devices
  5. Building up in closer connection with the disaster-stricken museum for saving works and materials

Of course, Japanese museum experienced such a big suffering of Tsunami by this Tohoku Earthquake for the first time. Tsunami sweep works, materials documents and curators off from museums. Japanese museums learned lessons from this Tsunami experience. This paper discusses the above-mentioned countermeasures and new lessons for museums.

Dr Robin Hirst, Director Collections Research and Exhibitions, Museum Victoria
A Leadership Challenge: Museums and National Disasters

Disasters of immense proportion need appropriate responses from collecting institutions. How do we respond to the challenges in a way that is immediate, sensitive and appropriate? How do we collect in the midst and in the aftermath of a disaster?

The Black Saturday 2009 bushfires saw the largest loss of life in a natural disaster in Australia’s history. We had never experienced an event like this in the history of the museum. What would leadership look like in this situation?

In the weeks immediately following Black Saturday 2009 Museum Victoria Museum Victoria responded to the disaster along with its sister institutions. What emerged from this cooperation was an approach that can become the basis for a museum’s response to any future disasters on this scale.

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THE DIGITAL MUSEUM

Jasper Visser, CEO, Inspired by Coffee Digital Consultancy, Netherlands
How to up your digital game? Lessons to improve the new media and technology strategy of your museum

In recent years we’ve seen a sharp increase in museums experimenting with the possibilities of new media and technology to better reach and engage audiences. Best practices abound, but few museums seem to realise their full digital potential. In this fast paced presentation Jasper Visser will argue that the way that museums approach digital media needs to be more strategic, aligned with the organisational vision, values, assets and target audiences. Based on comparisons between different museums from around the world, general lessons will be presented that can serve as guidelines for museums just starting out with digital media or planning to make it an integral part of their operations. Best practices and case studies will illustrate the lessons, providing delegates with hands-on advice as well as long-term strategies.

Suse Cairns, PhD candidate, University of Newcastle, Australia
#blog #tweet #museums: Social media and museum discourse

Social media is making possible new forms of discourse in the museum sector, accelerating access to people, ideas and information. Blogging, Twitter, listservs and other digital forums are now important platforms for dispersed collaborative innovation, allowing physically distant colleagues to work together and propel the discussion of the entire community forward. New ideas emerge quickly and are debated, tested and weighed for robustness openly and in public. The impact of ideas communicated through social media can be immediate.

This process is very different to traditional methods of publication, in which ideas are vetted and peer-reviewed behind closed doors. Instead, social media is responsive, agile and open. It is unencumbered by the constraints of traditional publishing models. The information that is influential, then, is that which has been filtered forward through the network and social models of communication. Museum professionals who are active and prominent on social media are therefore shaping the dialogue of the sector itself.

Many of those who are most engaged with social media are progressive, technologically savvy and strong proponents of innovation. Conversely, those who do not participate online are at risk of being excluded from new ideas and innovation delivered by digital means. Social media, therefore, is not only shaping museum business, it also changes what it means to be an active and involved museum professional in the digital age. Creating an active presence on social media can make careers and build reputations. Successfully leveraging social networks can give even emerging museum professionals new opportunities not only to engage and learn from the experiences of others, but also to shape discourse and museum field itself.

This paper will consider the role of social media as a disruptive force for shaping museum discourse, and discuss the changes that one emerging museum professional has experienced in her own career path as a result.

Dr Lynda Kelly, Manager Online, Editing and Audience Research, Australian Museum, Sydney
The connected museum in the age of social media

Museums now operate across three spheres: their physical site; online (via websites and social media) and in the mobile space. Coupled with this is the reality that audiences are constantly shifting and changing. Access to deep information and rich experiences are now available on most people’s phones on-demand. Given the rapid pace of change, access to new tools for learning, the rise of mobile and a focus on digital literacy what does the twenty-first century museum need to look like?

This paper identifies key trends around the connected museum and discusses what each means for museum practice and organisational change.

Jamie Conynham, Co Founder and Operations Director, Tapit.
Technology, mobile and museums:

Andrew is responsible for Tapit operationally, building and streamlining Tapit logistics, managing Tapit teams and executing Tapit's vision.
Andrew has over a decade of marketing experience prior to co-founding Tapit, all of those with media company, Mediabrands Australia.

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CASE STUDIES #1

Sarah Edwards, PhD Candidate, working as artist at Museum Victoria, Australia
Call of the Wild: an art/science collaboration

Environmental issues and climate change put museums in the spotlight in the 21st Century. Natural history museums play a critical role in providing researchers and the broader community with evidence of aspects of the environment that have become extinct or are critically endangered.

Museum Victoria is home to over 16 million objects. As a practicing artist, I am working in collaboration with the museum’s natural history curators to create a series of artworks that examine the critical role the curator plays as mediator between object, viewer and curatorial practice, in order to explore the relationship between the environment and the museum’s role in preserving it.

One specific art project has involved the museum’s unique collection of frog calls including a number of species that have become extinct within the last fifty years. Working with Dr Murray Littlejohn (Zoology, University of Melbourne) who recorded the three hundred hours of calls, I have engaged the frog call collection as evidence of the impact the expansion of our built environment and global warming have on this highly susceptible animal.

Through the collaboration, I wish to bring to light the critical role curators and collection managers play in preserving collections that have the power to inform future decision makers about human impact on the planet. As an artist working with a natural history collection, I have the opportunity to provide an avenue by which to re-present these calls beyond the walls of the museum. In providing an alternative method by which to bring these calls “back to life” - re-presenting them as an overlay into the built environment that aided their demise – I aim to highlight the important role museums have in preserving our fragile environment, and remind audiences that these calls are now only available through the valuable work of the museum.

Naitsikile N. Iizyenda, Operations Manager, Museums Association of Namibia
The Challenges of developing Community-based Management Committees: A Case Study of the Munyondo gwa Kapande Cultural Village Project

The heritage sector in Africa faces particular management challenges for two reasons. Firstly, a strong emphasis is placed on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and the significance of sites which means that community-based management is important to ensure a sense of community ownership. Secondly, the fact that most museums in Namibia are small means that the role of the Management Board becomes important with the Museums Association of Namibia giving a lot of emphasis to governance and the training of museum boards.

In addition to the awareness of the need for heritage preservation, heritage development in Namibia is perceived by communities as being linked to the possibility of developing sustainable cultural tourism and income generation. This case study looks at one such project, The Munyondo gwa Kapande Cultural village situated near Rundu in the Kavango Region of Namibia.

The Munyondo gwa Kapande is a legendary tree situated near the town of Rundu in the Kavango Region. The story goes that Kapande was a famous drummer who was swallowed by a tree. It is said that today on some occasions if you listen carefully, you can still hear the sound of the drum beating.

In 2006 a group of interested community members approached the Mbunza Traditional Authority to request land around the Munyondo Tree to develop the area into a Cultural Village, because of the unique oral traditions associated with the tree and as a way of involving the youth in cultural heritage preservation. The project was later selected as one of eleven pilot projects under the MDGF Programme for Sustainable Cultural Tourism in Namibia. The implementation of the project is administered by the Museums Association of Namibia.

With no legal structure in place, a community based management committee was created to assist with the implementation and management of the cultural village. This case study looks at the reality of how a community-based management committee functions, the challenges they face and recommendations to achieve an effective committee.

Virginia Fernanda González, Collections Manager, National History Museum of the Cabildo and May Revolution, Argentina
Conservation and Commissioning Wealth Building Value

Buenos Aires, in recent years has made a strong public investment, holding an almost efficient work of conservation, restoration and promotion of their architectural heritage and collective, beginning with its Historic Protection Area with their programs of “Conservation and Commissioning Wealth Building Value”, with the creation of the School Workshop aimed at people unemployed / underemployed and social vulnerability to train them in the craft of artisans and restorers for the recovery of architectural heritage (in which most reside) to form skilled labor in conservation, restoration and maintenance of heritage. Another approach was the collective equity investment and are popular as Notable Bars, and promoting tourism in the historic districts. The criticism of this policy of heritage conservation is selectively used in pursuit of cultural tourism, the current slogan is “Tourism is progress, a tourist, a job” at the expense of heritage sites and not so profitable. Likewise, the balance of the management of the various directions of the autonomous city property is positive.

In our country there are skilled professionals, there are programs and proposals, as well as theoretical concepts at the level of advanced countries, but this does not match the power and government budgets, private investments (hard to achieve public-private agreements) with local interests and above all have the tools and products to work on it. Interventions safeguard and rescue techniques of diverse heritages, restoration and reuse of architectural and building heritage, movable heritage and require a response methodology, the application of theoretical principles and the necessary knowledge and fair evaluation of the traditional or next generation.

Abi Kusno, Program Manager, Directorate Cultural Heritage and Museum, Ministry of Education and Culture, Indonesia
The National Movement to Love Museums: A Case Study from Indonesia

Indonesia had more than 200 museums. Sadly most of the museums are in a poor condition. Their collections are poorly managed and their permanent exhibitions are unattractive. The museums’ public programs also don’t appeal to the public. Museums are seen as the spooky-old-fashioned places to go. Thus the public’s interest in visiting museums is decreasing. The public prefers to visit shopping malls rather than museums.

To fix that situation the Indonesian Government, under the Directorate of Museum of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (now Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museum of Ministry of Education and Culture), launched a program called The National Movement to Love Museums from 2010 to 2014. Activities of that program varied from redesigning museums, choosing museum ambassadors, creating new museum regulations, and funding Masters scholarships for museum personnel. The aim of this project is to make Indonesian museums better able to face the challenges of the 21st Century in order to win back visitors to museums.

This paper will address evaluation of that project two years after it first launched, outlining which programs were a success and which ones were failures. The evaluation will be use to improve the Indonesia’s National Movement to Love Museums project in the future.

Dr Michail A. Bryzgalov, Director General, The Glinka National Museum Consortium of Musical Culture, Moscow, Russia
The Glinka State Museum of Musical Culture and The Association of Musical Museums: Challenges of re-structuring in the year of museum’s centenary in 2012

The presentation will focus on the history and present of the museum, its initiatives to consolidate community of musical museums in Russia and CIS and overview of management challenges it has to come through in the course of its re-structuring in a view of its 100-year history celebrations in 2012.

The Glinka National Museum Consortium of Musical Culture (Moscow, Russia), which has the status of a particularly valuable object of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation. Nowadays it is a consortium of six museums located in the historical centre of Moscow. There are nearly a million items in the museum funds in total. This is the world's biggest multidisciplinary collection that aims to cover all elements of the concept of “musical culture”.

The Association of Musical Museums was set up in November 2009 with objective to promote co-operation between the musical museums across Russia, facilitate development and implementation of federal, regional and international cultural programs. Currently the Association represents as members more than 40 musical museums in Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

In 2011 the museum had to undergo major re-structuring in order to stay up to the expectations of target audiences and survive fierce competition of Moscow museum and cultural landscape. The process involved analysis of the current museum staff structure, core museum process mapping and introduction of new models of working. For the first time in the museum history a Strategic Development Plan for 2011-2018 had been introduced to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and it was accepted as a state program for the museum development.

Phillipa Tocker, Executive Director, Museums Aotearoa, New Zealand
Museums: all things to all people?

It is axiomatic that new approaches and ways of doing things are required to keep museums and galleries engaged in and with contemporary society. Examples of commonly adopted innovations are interactive exhibits and social media. The challenge this creates for any museum organisation is how to keep adding (and how to resource additions), without subtracting something. If you add a new strand to the work program, it is likely that something will be squeezed or dropped altogether to create the necessary capacity. This begs the strategic question, what is the role of the museum in contemporary society? Or more to the point, what is the role of any particular museum, and how does it change over time? For, not only does the role of ‘the museum’ change, but also the ways in which any particular museum changes and adapts to changing times - economic, social, environmental, technological...

Looking back through history, museums and similar cultural institutions have occupied varying positions relative to their social/historical contexts. For example, art/artists/patrons have acted in support of the status quo, or as protest and catalysts for change. Similarly, museums have been built as monuments to reinforce political power such as empire and colonization, or as a forum for education and social change, such as holocaust museums.

What does this mean for museums now? I will offer some case studies to encourage the beginnings of a debate about how museums might use strategic self-reflection to ensure their continuing relevance in times of change. This requires more than audience and stakeholder research: it requires a fundamental examination and understanding of the museum’s origins, collections, allegiances, resources; and its role in its local/regional/national/global contexts.

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CASE STUDIES #2

Belinda McMartin/David Wells, The Bradman Museum, Bowral
The Bradman Museum & International Cricket Hall of Fame

From 1989 The Bradman Museum, Bowral has stood as an icon to cricket’s greatest batsman. Overtime the museum had become progressively static and struggled to engage new audiences. In 2008 the Board approved innovative new measures which would bring the museum into the globalised 21st century. New media and technologies were identified to transform the galleries into a state-of-the-art social history museum that wouldn’t focus solely upon one nation and the achievements of one man. The resultant International Cricket Hall of Fame, was designed to appeal to a diverse multi-generational and cultural audience.

Cricket is a global business and thus a good cricket museum has the potential to reach a global audience. Previously only Australia and England were represented in displays which limited the global scope of cricket and ignored the emerging Indian sub-continent. In the new museum all cricketing nations are now represented and a more ‘complete’ history of the game is presented thereby widening the museum’s global visitor appeal.

The museum has also adapted to the needs of the 21st century through the use of new media and technologies. Using large format AV and countless touch-screens visitors are able to shape their own experience according to their interests. These new advances further appeal to a diverse audience and hence attract a younger clientele whilst not isolating the museums existing older patrons through more traditional display techniques. The introduction of these new technologies has paved the way for further innovation and collaboration with organisations The International Cricket Council (ICC), Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) has assisted in the creation of new exhibits.

Without the foresight and leadership of the museum Board and bipartisan support of both Federal and State Parliament none of these advancements would have been possible to equip the museum for the 21st century and beyond. The Bradman Museum is thus a great case study for understanding the challenges faced by museums in the 21st century and is a salient illustration of changes required to help safeguard the future of museums.

Renata Motta, State System of Museums in Sao Paulo (SISEM-SP), Brazil
Museums in change: the legal framework and the new perspectives for the management of Brazilian museums

In 2009, a federal law (Estatuto de Museus) has been signed to regulate Brazilian museums. The law consolidates a process initiated in the early 2000s, aimed at establishing a new legal framework and structuring of the Brazilian museum field. Today, there are more than 3,000 museums in Brazil, either public or private institutions and there is a big challenge for the establishment of new management models. A great debate on the flexibility of the management of public museums and the need for implementation of partnerships between public and private bodies has been set up as a way of enabling the museums management. In this presentation, we will show the profile of Brazilian museums, especially the 415 museums that comprise the State System of Museums (SISEM-SP). The SISEM brings together and articulates all the museums of the State of São Paulo seeking to promote the development and institutional strengthening. Among its main actions are conducting detailed studies of each museum and cities where they are located. It also promotes training programs, technical assistance and establishes guidelines, in order to improve and enhance the institutions and their collections. The aim of this paper is also to present the management model that includes a public-private partnership that is being implemented in the museums of the Secretary State of Culture of Sao Paulo, since 2005. The Model of Social Organization of Culture has been achieving excellent results and presents itself as a meaningful option for the management of museums in Brazil. Currently 18 museums are included in this management program, including major institutions such as the Pinacoteca do Estado de Sao Paulo (www.pinacoteca.org.br) and the Museu da Língua Portuguesa (http://www.poiesis.org.br/mlp/).

Manvi Seth, Assistant Professor and Head of Museology, National Museum Institute, New Delhi, India
Indian Museums – Challenges and Prospects

This paper will bring forth the global and national challenges of contemporary times being faced by museums of India. Museums in India have a history of around 200 years and at present there are around 700 museums in India. Museums are still not a popular and regular choice for Indian visitors. Museums in India, at present, are in the transition phase of upgrading their management skills and approach to match the new concerns and issues. Museums are striving to explore and revise their mandates to be able to expand their public service roles and become more people oriented. The paper aims to highlight the struggle of the Indian museums to become platforms for communication and become relevant for the contemporary society through the case study of two leading museums of India – Chatarapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya, Mumbai and National Museum, New Delhi.

Erlinda Montillo-Burton, Curator Museo de Oro, Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
Linking Museums to Indigenous Communities: New Challenges in Cultural Collaboration

In the past, museums had already been known to have collaboration with native/indigenous communities through the anthropologists conducting ethnographic research and at the same time collecting ethnographic materials for study and donated to museums to be exhibited. However, the collaboration was more one sided because the native communities were merely furnishing information to the researchers and the key informants were paid for the data furnished. More often than not, the communities are forgotten and ties are broken.

In recent decades, as the world is changing, there are more challenges in the study of culture through participatory collaboration of the community with the museum. That is, the community and museum forge a partnership in studying the culture with greater depth to understand nuances and underlying dynamics therein.

This paper intends to present the significance and importance for museums of making collaborative linkages with the native or indigenous communities, specifically if ethnographic information are derived from such communities. Moreover, this paper would cite the experience of a museum in Mindanao, Philippines, that had close collaborative linkage with an indigenous community in the uplands of Bukidnon in the island of Mindanao. Through collaboration, the community was able to rediscover the almost forgotten indigenous knowledge of cotton weaving. This led to the revival and preservation of the knowledge through transmission to younger women in the community by the older mastercraft weavers.

Gilson Antonio Nunes, Professor of Museology and Coordinator of the Museum of Science and Technology School of Mines University, Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Brazil
Management museums through community councils in Brazil

In Brazil the studies about museums and their collections are a search field booming, considering the increase of a bibliography on these issues and increase the number of undergraduate courses in museology, for example. In Brazil, in the field of management, from the oldest museum experience that has news and dating back to the seventeenth century, which occurred during the period of Dutch rule in Pernambuco in the second half of the eighteenth century to the present day, lives up an unprecedented revolution. Such a revolution takes place, not by chance, from the development of the National Museums Policy, launched in 2003 and since then has resulted in consistent ratios as increased over 100% in the number of Brazilian visitors in museums (totaling about 33 million) or a significant increase in contributions for the financial sector by the Ministry of Culture saw an increase of over 300% reaching R $ 119 million in 2008. This policy turns into a State policy in 2009 with the approval by Congress and presidential sanction laws 11904 establishing the Statute of Museums, the regulatory framework for the sector and that deploys 11,906 after almost twenty years a municipality under Ministry of Culture, the Brazilian Institute of Museums (IBRAM). This legislation directly impacts the management of museums. In a particular experiment is reported the creation or restructuring of three museums in the city of Ouro Preto where he was adopted as the strengthening principle of shared management with the creation of community councils for the administration of these institutions.

Ajeng Ayu Arainikasih, Department of Archaeology, University of Indonesia
Exhibiting Papua within the National Museum of Indonesia

Papua Island is located in the farthest east of the Indonesian Archipelago. There are more than hundreds different ethnic groups dwelled in the island as their indigenous people. In appearances they are also slightly different from the rest of the Indonesian People. However, West Papua formally became part of the Republic Indonesia in the 1969 because of its status as former Dutch’s Colony. At the moment, there are many social issues arise regarding the indigenous Papua people such as poverty, violence, health and education. They are struggling to face the rapid changing in this globalization era. Many of them even want their own independence, separated from Indonesia.

As the 21st Century museum’s responsibility is to solve social problems, the National Museum of Indonesia is supposed to address the Papua issues within their exhibition to avoid further disintegration. This paper examines the way the National Museum of Indonesia exhibits artifacts from the Papua region. Is it only an ethnography exhibition or it could foster public discussion to promote sense of belonging and identity as part of the Republic of Indonesia? Suggestions for the museum are offered at the end of this paper.

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Reception

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PowerHouse Museum

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Conference Venue

Plenary sessions will be held in the Night Parrot

Parallel sessions will be held in Night Parrot, Level 4 Reasearch and Collections Building and the Halstrom Theatre.

Master Classes, will be held in Night Parrot, Level 4 Reasearch and Collections Building and the Boardroom.

The Australian Museum is located on the corner of College and William Streets, just across from Hyde Park. Go to the Museum’s website for more information about travelling to the Museum.

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CONFERENCE THEME

Museums have always operated in times of change, yet the challenges and pace of change over the last five years has been unprecedented. Globalisation, environmental issues and climate change, relationships with Indigenous and creator communities, diversity of audiences, different employee mindsets, new skill sets, new media and technologies and the global financial crisis, have placed increasing pressure on the ways museums are managed and led.

#museumchallenges, INTERCOM’s 2012 conference, will address these issues using a mix of conference/meeting formats designed to encourage conversation, learning, intellectual stimulation and exchange of ideas.

DETAILED THEMES

THEME 1: 21ST CENTURY SKILLS

THEME 2: MUSEUM ISSUES AND MANAGEMENT IN THE PACIFIC RIM

What leadership and skills are required to pilot museums in the Pacific Rim into the future?

THEME 3: 21st CENTURY LEADERSHIP

Panel sessions, case studies, conversations and exchange around the changing nature of our business, the changing face of museum employees, as well as the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital museum.

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Australian Museum

Australian Museum

Museum3

Australian Museum

Getty Foundation

Australian Museum

Museum Studies – The University of Sydney

Australian Museum

Powerhouse Museum:

Australian Museum

Historic Houses Trust

Australian Museum
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Masterclasses, Thursday 29 November, Australian Museum

Masterclass 1: Developing Your Digital Strategy (FULL DAY)

Jasper Visser (The Museum of the Future) will take you on a full day of design for your institution's digital strategy- from conception to implementation. Share experiences, successes and failures and prepare a draft strategy to take back to your institution.

Masterclass 2: Museum Management: Theory and Practice (HALF DAY)

What are the issues impacting on museums and museum management? This masterclass looks at general management theory and practice, and applies these to museums. Presented by Michael Harvey, Head of Exhibitions, Web and Creative Services, Australian Museum.

Masterclass 3 Audience Research (HALF DAY)

This hands-on workshop will cover all aspects of audience research from exhibition evaluation to program evaluation and market research, as well as evaluating online and mobile and a variety of tips and techniques. Presented by Dr Lynda Kelly, Australian Museum, this class will include practical exercises within the Museum’s exhibition spaces.

Masterclass 4: Assessing Significance (FULL DAY)

Learn the well-regarded 'Australian way' of assessing the values and meanings of a museum object, and see how this information can be used in planning. Veronica Bullock and Roslyn Russell from Significance International will step you through a practical exercise, after introducing you to the theory. Questions are encouraged!

Go to the conference website to register for a Masterclass.

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SOCIAL EVENTS

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Powerhouse Museum

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Australian Museum

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Day 1 Panel Bios

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Conference Program

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