MUSEUMS ON THE MOVE
As well as curating our own exhibitions in our museums, East Lothian Museums Service is increasingly offering advice, help and expertise (as well as our artefacts) to others in the community who want to curate their own exhibitions. For example, for many years we've worked closely with Musselburgh's Museum Committee in their excellent exhibition's program. More recently, though, we've been assisting schools and community groups who have come to us asking for help in curating their own exhibitions. Now we've decided to formalise this with our Museums On The Move project.
What is Museums On The Move?
In 2005, we assisted Dunbar Grammar School and Gullane Primary School in their commemorations of the 60th anniversary of VE Day; these celebrations included exhibitions that the schoolchildren curated.
In 2006 we gave similar assistance to Campie Primary School with their Romans exhibition. We've also loaned objects and given advice to North Berwick Day Centre and Dirleton Village Hall in their very successful recent exhibitions. However, we've often faced the problem of our inability to loan artefacts from East Lothian's collection due to security issues, i.e. the lack of a secure, museum-quality glass case in which to display valuable and irreplaceable objects.
To get around the problem above, we needed to buy a glass case. You can buy these for £35 from Ikea, but they're not museum-grade, unfortunately. The ones we required start at about £5,000. If you want one that's de-mountable and can be taken easily from venue to venue, you're looking at at least £7,000. Luckily, the Scottish Museums Council's grant scheme came to our rescue. Thanks to them we now have:
- a de-mountable secure glass case, measuring 90 x 90 x 210 cm, with two internal shelves
- PC equipment, in a lockable cabinet, to display photos, presentations, sound and video
- a digital projector
- folding, free-standing notice boards to display materials
- and other equipment to create a portable museum, ready to be filled with interesting things, either from our own collection or from elsewhere.
We recently had our first successful "official" Museums On The Move venture in Musselburgh. Simon Fairnie of Fisherrow Fishermen's Centre approached us with the idea of an exhibition to tie in with North Sea Trail day. Simon and other members of the Fisherrow community collated objects to display, wrote interpretive material, found a venue to exhibit their heritage, and took care of publicity. The Museums Service printed out the interpretive materials, loaned a couple of dressmaker's dummies to display clothing, and loaned a PC to display old photos and to let visitors hear some audio memories. We also loaned one object from our collection (some old fishing boots). Most of all, though, we simply enabled the community to mount this exhibition. See pictures here.
We've since collaborated with Knox Academy in Haddington, and North Berwick Day Centre to put on further exhibitions, and plan to work with King's Meadow Primary School in the coming months. We still have funding, though, for more community exhibitions this year, and we want to enable you to put on your exhibition in East Lothian.
My school would like to take part. What happens now?
Contact us to arrange a meeting. Typically, a teacher will have an idea for an exhibition topic, usually related to the curriculum. We then come and meet the class, bringing some objects to look at and handle. We talk to the class about what you might want to display, how to display it, and most importantly, why museums display things. Through games and group workshops, the class can learn about different methods of interpretation, catering for groups of different abilities, using audio and video, and much more.
What can we get out of participating in Museums On The Move?
As well as inspiring lots of hard work, a group project like this can give learners a real sense of ownership and pride, and foster good relations with the school's wider community. Museums On The Move also gives you the chance to let others see your hard work. An opening night party for your exhibition is a great opportunity for the head teacher, parents and the local press to see your talented learners.
This sounds interesting, but we can't take time out of our busy curriculum to faff about with museums...
Museums On The Move can complement your teaching, and shouldn't add to your workload. In other words, it can be an integrated part of your curriculum. Best of all, you can get other teachers on board, and make this a true cross-curricular project. Creating a museum in your classroom (or elsewhere) can be helpful in many parts of the Scottish Curriculum, including history, English, ICT, maths, art, expressive arts, PSD, geography, science, environmental studies...
How can I find out more?
Contact our Education Officer, Sarah Cowie.
