Foreign exchange? University museums and international engagement
University of Cambridge, 3 July 2018
University Museum of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge
Booking is now closed.
University museum collections originate from many countries. Over decades and in some cases centuries, they were created and curated through scientific fieldwork and collecting that ranged worldwide. In the present, those interested in studying collections and in borrowing art works and specimens for analysis and exhibition represent, like our students, many nations. International engagement is anything but foreign to us.
At the University Museums Group’s 2016 conference, Matt Hancock, now Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, affirmed that museums and universities are ‘absolutely central to our post-Brexit future, open and engaged with the whole world, progressive and positive in shaping how Britain sees herself and is seen the world over.’ Universities similarly express ambitions to contribute globally. In 2018, academic and cultural collaboration seems more urgent than ever, yet also more difficult, as threats to global peace and security multiply.
The University Museums Group’s 2018 conference explored how university museums can contribute to, and even lead, universities’ efforts to engage internationally. It considered how smaller as well as larger museums can participate in, and benefit from, international programmes.
Download the full programme here: UMG Conference Programme 2018 final
Presentations are available to download from the following speakers:
Keynote
Keynote Address
Diane Lees, Director-General, Imperial War Museum
Panel: The Funding Environment
Art Fund and the International Work of University Museums
Rachael Browning, Head of Programmes, Art Fund
Funding for International Travel
Dana Andrew, Executive Director, ICOM UK
The EU Landscape: Where Do We Go From Here?
Laura Carletti, European & International Manager, Research Operations Office, University of Cambridge
University Museums: Opportunities and Challenges for International Research
Rodney Harrison, AHRC Heritage Priority Leadership Fellow
Lightning Case Studies
Walking with the Buddha: curating a UK research-led exhibition in Taiwan
Rachel Barclay, Curator, Oriental Museum, University of Durham
Experiments in Collaboration: commissioning Indigenous and Adivasi sculpture in India
Mark Elliot, Senior Curator (Anthropology), Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
“The context of our work is the world”
Henry McGhie, Manchester Museum, University of Manchester
MicroPasts: Crowd- and community-fuelled archaeological and museum research
Daniel Pett, Head of Digital and IT, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
A New China Gallery at Manchester Museum
Bryan Sitch, Deputy Head of Collections, Manchester Museum, University of Manchester
Science in University Museums: an international initiative
Paul Smith, Director, Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford
