Dr Abigail Harrison-Moore, Head of the School of
Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds
Jen Kaines, Registrar and Collections Manager,
Leeds Museums and Galleries
Laura Walsh, Registrar and Display Technicians
Manager, Royal Armouries
The second talk of Friday’s ERC programme was given
by Dr Abigail Harrison-Moore, Jen Kaines (Leeds Museums and Galleries) and Laura
Walsh (Royal Armouries), who delivered an informative and inspiring talk about a
programme that they set up over 5 years ago to provide more training
opportunities for Registrars. The fully funded and salaried position offers an
individual professional training at both National and local authority museums,
whilst studying for a PGCert in Art Gallery and Museum Studies at the
University of Leeds. At present, there is no other professional training for people
hoping to pursue a career in the museum sector, or as a registrar, and this
traineeship is particularly unique because it is tailored to meet the
professional needs of the selected individual.
The traineeship was created through a
collaborative partnership between Leeds Museums, Royal Armouries and the University
of Leeds, to help the chosen trainee develop the skills required to be a registrar:
combining theory with practice. The programme is mutually beneficial to the
trainee and the museum sector as it offers professional training in many
different fields. When the trainee eventually enters full time employment, they
will arrive with a breadth of experience that they can apply to the
museum.
The talk kicked off with a discussion about the
profile of the registrar: an overview of what a registrar does and the skills
that a registrar needs. The speakers addressed the challenges that they faced
when setting up the programme, with the initial problem being the accessibility
of the role of a registrar. Abigail explained that whilst most people know what
educators and curators do her students and even museum professionals aren’t
sure what the role of the registrar is. The lack of knowledge about registrar
work is problematic in terms of training. One of the aims of the training for
the future programme is to develop the profile of the registrar in the context
of the museum, both on a national and international level.
Each speaker discussed the different strands of
the programme that they oversee, and how they bring their area of expertise to
the training. Over the course of the year, the trainee works at a national and
local authority museum, and they learn about the different museum models, their
needs and the constraints. Abigail discussed the challenges she had faced when
coordinating the university programme, and that she needed to be responsive and
continually reassess the content so that it was relevant to what is going on in
the museum world. This is also essential so that that the trainee can apply the
theory to their museum practice. The tension arises because typically universities
don’t offer flexible learning, so this is part of the programme that will need
to be reviewed.
We were shown a video which included interviews
with past trainees, all of which have since secured full time positions in
museums and galleries.
Abigail, Jen and Laura agreed that recruiting
for the position has been challenging. At present, there aren’t a diverse range
of applicants for the post, and 80% of those that applied last year were white British.
This again reiterates the problem surrounding the profile of the registrar. The
present educational system in the UK doesn’t teach young people about museums,
and in turn, they don’t know that registrar posts exist. The only way to challenge this is to start
educating children from a diverse range of backgrounds about museum work at an
early age. Going forward, Abigail, Jen and Laura will continue to reach out to
younger people who are still at school with the hope that they can build a
child’s knowledge about museum practice, recruit them to the programme and
diversify the type of applications that they receive.
Because the existing partnership is between
three organisations, the funding model is complex and diverse, and there is a
need to generate more money in order to make the programme sustainable. When
the panel opened to questions at the end of the talk, it was evident from
comments and feedback that there aren’t any other salaried training programmes
available throughout Europe. Everyone agreed that it’s imperative that this
specific training programme is maintained and continues to operate, with the
hope that one day it can expand. The reception from this talk was extremely
positive, and it was very encouraging to hear that three individuals are working
so hard to provide such a valuable training opportunity and that they are
trying to raise the profile of the registrar in the museum profession.
By Phoebe
Newman, Exhibitions and Displays Coordinator, Dulwich Picture Gallery
No comments:
Post a Comment