2. Share Academy
• A partnership project between
– University College London
– University of the Arts London
– London Museums Group
• Funded by Arts Council England (ACE)
• Pilot project: 1 October 2012 – 31 March 2013
• Current programme: 1 April 2013 - 31 March
2015
3. Aims & Principals
Aims
• To build sustainable and mutually beneficial
partnerships between Higher Education
Institutions and London museums
Why?
• Collaboration between museums and Higher
Education Institutions benefit both sectors
• Barriers exist to partnership working
• A broker provides support and advice when kick-
starting partnerships
4. Share Academy 2
Share Academy 2 is:
• Testing pilot conclusions
• Providing support & brokerage
• Liaising with HE and museum stakeholders to
develop strategic approaches
• Funding 15 projects, £126,000
• Developing cross-sectorial advice & guidance
for future collaborations
5. Museum Benefits
Cross-sector partnerships:
• can have a positive impact on working
practices; for example they can be a powerful
way in which museums enhance
understanding of their collections
• provide a means to re-engage the community
• can be a mechanism which enables museums
to add to and develop new collections
6. HE Benefits
Cross-sector partnerships provide :
• academics with an opportunity to engage
different audiences, communities, and
organisations with their research
• a means to develop and test academic
research
• opportunities for public engagement
• real-world, research-based teaching and
learning opportunities
7. Local Roots,
Global Routes
• UCL Legacies British Slave Ownership & Hackney
Museum and Archive
• Project aims:
– To create a performance-based and interactive
educational resource for Key Stage 3
– To explore the history of Hackney in the context of
British slave-ownership
• Project outputs
– Resources developed and being delivered for Black
History Month
– Putting the Black in the Union Jack? Black British
History in Education
8. Stamp printing plates, dies, and
rollers: from vault to view
• UCL CEGE & The British Postal Museum and Archive
• Project aims:
– To test & create 3D digital resources for BPMA
– To use 3D digital resources to open up collections
• Project outputs
– Will form the basis of an online, publicly accessible
resource for the BPMA
– Contribute to the BPMA & researchers’ knowledge on
3D digitization techniques & hoe these can be utilised
– Blog: http://postalheritage.wordpress.com/category/3d-
scanning/
9. Inspiration Examined
• UAL MA Textiles & Museum of Domestic Design &
Architecture (MoDA)
• Project aims:
– To articulate the process of inspiration through
engagement with museum collection
• Outputs:
– Short informative films on MoDA’s website
– Peer reviewed journal papers, increasing
understanding of how museum / archive resources
can be used to inspire university students
10. Summary
• University – museum collaborations provide:
– access to local, rich & diverse communities and organisations,
demonstrating cultural and social impact of collections
– an outlet for research to take place & be disseminated
– An opportunity not to view resources, knowledge and skills in
isolation
• Smaller museums can provide greater scope & richer research
• Some Share Academy funded projects have demonstrated the
value of engaging with social media, using this as an archival
and engagement tool
• Mutual benefit & honest discussion from the outset is a key
component in successful collaboration
11. Share Academy
• Sally Macdonald, Co-Founder of Share Academy
• Judy Willcocks, Co-Founder of Share Academy, Head of
Museums, UAL and London Museums Group Chair
• Dr Helen Chatterjee, Head of Research & Teaching, PACE, UCL
• Paddy McNulty, Museums Consultant
• Laura Lannin, Share Academy Academic Coordinator
• Chloe Bent, Share Academy Administrator
Paddy ? – I’m happy to do this, or would you like to? Thought you will probably talk about the pilot and then rationale of SA 2 and then I will talk about the case studies. But, if you wanted this slide to go after the benefits I’m happy to do it if it makes it easier – just let me know.
Paddy –
Laura
Laura
Building on the expertise of the lead partners, this project will create a performance-based secondary schools session and an interactive educational resource for Key Stage 3; exploring Hackney’s local histories and the wider legacies of British slave ownership for Black History Month in October 2014. These resources will be produced as part of a collaboration with 3 secondary schools, a community consultant, student interns, and creative art practitioners. Teacher training sessions will be hosted and a filmed version of the resource will be produced. To link the schools offer into a wider context of public engagement, UCL’s ‘Legacies of British Slave Ownership’ project will deliver workshops, webpage, a walking tour, and a showcase event.
Project is demonstrating:
That there are links between Hackney and wider national / international histories
That it is possible to use wider resources (i.e. LBS database) to develop resources and community links in other organisations, such as HMA.
There has been a research and educational component – demonstrating the social and cultural impact collections can have
Laura
Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (CEGE) & The British Postal Museum and Archive (BPMA)
Mail rail
Non-national, specialist museums rarely have access to 3D digitisation technologies.
This project will facilitate the British Postal Museum and Archive’s access to 3D digitisation, it will also provide UCL with a test-bed for 3D imaging.
Beginning in 1840 with the creation of the world’s first stamp, the Penny Black, the BPMA records the history of stamp production in the UK. It holds a large collection of dies, rollers, and printing plates.
These objects provide an insight into the cycle of stamp production, but they have rarely been photographed and are unavailable for consultation by the public.
This project aims to combine a number of technologies in order to capture these items as 3D digital objects, which will ultimately provide the museum with a publicly accessible resource.
Laura
This project enables students to be actively involved in the creation of research which asks how ‘inspiration’ gained through engagement with museum collections is translated within the creative process.
Discuss what’s interesting about MoDA – the space no longer has a museum space, but it has been designed fro research & traveling exhibitions – the space (white, changeable) is interesting as any type of T&L / research activity could take place in the space.
The project provides a potential model for engagement with design collections.
While work has been previously undertaken on understanding the visual aspect of ‘influence’ or how history informs current creative practices, the process by which this occurs has not been articulated.
MA Textile students will explore MoDA’s collections, with video interviews capturing their narratives on the process of ‘inspiration.’
The findings will be disseminated to encourage further engagement with museum collections.