Have you seen our new website?

From 1 April our new website Museum Development West Midlands will officially take over from this site bringing you museum development updates, news and resources for the region.

We’ve been busy uploading our resources and toolkits, which are available to view here now. The latest addition to the site is ‘A beginner’s guide to Wikipedia’. This back to basics manual has been written especially for museums. It’s suitable for complete beginners or anyone looking for a refresher and will support you to create and edit Wikipedia articles for your museum.

You can visit the new website now and sign up to receive future updates for your area. Go to Museum Development West Midlands to find out more.

What is eating your collection?

A great write-up from attendees of our Integrated Pest Management course with Jane Thompson Webb last month. Staff from Wightwick Manor have also shared lessons learnt during the training on their brilliant new blog: http://wightwicktrainees.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/biscuit-beetles-and-biscuits.html

Worcestershire's Treasures

We have turned into fledgling botanists-cum-poachers tracking down and hunting wild beasts – and museum pests are our prey.

insect 1We had no idea there were so many different kinds, all with their personal favourite hiding places, and diets. Some like the dark corners, under cases, where they munch on the carpet. Some venture into boxes and cases for a tasty morsel of skin, fur or textile. Others with a sharper tooth spend their lifetime wriggling through wood. They come in all shapes, sizes and colours, and can nibble at most things you might find in a museum or archive, if you don’t keep tabs on them.

insect from english heritage poster 2Luckily at the Archives there are very few live pests to worry about. A shiny new building with climate controlled strong rooms and carefully followed procedures mean only the most agile spider or fly can make it inside. But the conservator does deal with…

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A musical interlude

A really interesting article on balancing collections care and access from Worcestershire’s HLF Skills for the Future trainees.

Worcestershire's Treasures

I have a love-hate relationship with Regina Spektor’s 2012 song All the Rowboats. On the one hand, It is a cool song about museums and art galleries; on the other, it deals with a concept that cuts close to the bone for museum professionals. The song title refers to The Gulf Stream by Winslow Homer that hangs the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the lyrics describe artefacts as imprisoned in museums:

First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It’s their own fault for being timeless
There’s a price you pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
Here’s your ticket, welcome to the tombs

And, one of the most galling images:

But the most special are the most lonely
God, I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing, how to sing

A recent event at at…

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Welcome to our website

Welcome to the website of the MARCHES Network.

We act collectively to strengthen our museums and demonstrate the value of MARCHES Network’s activities in terms of prosperity, community participation and health and well-being.

Our website is moving!

NEW blog postFrom 1st April we will launch the new and improved website for Museum Development in the West Midlands: mdowm.org

The new website will present local news and information as well as regional resources and project updates. It will send you regular e-updates from your MDO, tailored to what’s happening in your area.

You can view the new website now while we are making a few finishing touches. Please sign up to make sure you continue to receive our updates.

Don’t miss our training days and workshops this Spring!

Course: Making the Most of… Your venue for filming

Date: 25th February 2015  Time: 10:30am-4:00pm

Venue: Carrs Lane Church Centre, Birmingham

Details: Can your heritage venue really raise income as a filming venue? This session takes you beyond the generalities, beyond Bargain Hunt and towards a new and potentially lucrative revenue stream. Whether you are an urban or rural site, already host filming projects or are still a little nervous, this largely practical day could be for you. The course will be delivered by Heritage4 Media, a specialist team of architectural experts with more than 20 years’ experience within the filming and broadcasting industries.

Booking: Follow this link to book a FREE place


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Course: Techniques for Engaging Visitors

Date: 2nd March 2015  Time: 9:30am-4:30pm

Venue: Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, Bromsgrove

Details: This great training session from Angelina Boden will help anyone working directly with visitors. As well as wanting to be informed and educated, visitors to museums are also looking for entertainment and fun. This training programme will develop the confidence and skills to bring the buildings to life through storytelling and demonstrations.

Booking: Click here to reserve your FREE place


Course: How to Research the 17-20th centuries

Date: 17th March 2015  Time: 10:00am-4:00pm

Venue: Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, Bromsgrove

Details: This training session from Dr Maggie Andrews (Professor of Cultural History, University of Worcester) will show you how to research individual characters or types of characters through easily accessible materials. The day will focus on researching the history of everyday lives of the people in the past: where to find resources and how to interpret, interrogate and use these resources to build up a picture of ordinary lives in other eras. We will explore some of the pitfalls and there will be chance to work through a range of primary sources.

Booking: Follow this link to reserve your FREE place


Park Farm Film Costume Fitting 7 Aug BobCourse: How to Wear and Care for Costume

Date: 25th March 2015  Time: 10:30am-4:00pm

Venue: Shugborough Estate, Stafford

Details: The day will begin with a session from historic costume maker Jo Badger who will show you how to correctly wear a selection of different costumes and care for your replica costume to ensure its long life. The second part of the day will give you the chance to see costumed interpretation in action as well as hearing from the staff at the established costumed interpretation site of the County Museum at Shugborough Hall.

Booking: Click here to book your FREE place


 

Course: Copyright from Naomi Korn

Date: 15th April 2015  Time: 9:30am-4:00pm

Venue: Almonry Heritage Centre, Evesham

Details: Naomi Korn, Britain’s leading copyright and rights expert, advisor to the cultural and heritage sectors, will be leading a copyright workshop. In this she will be helping attendees to develop the practical skills and knowledge they need to deal with copyright issues at their museum. This event is FREE and spaces are limited, so don’t miss out on this opportunity; usual prices run at £250 per delegate. Materials, lunch and refreshments will be provided – please advise of any dietary requirements. For more information about Naomi’s work, please visit www.naomikorn.com.

Booking: Please contact the Almonry directly to book your place by visiting http://www.almonryevesham.org/blog/

NEW AIM Success Guides: Successful Collection Care

New AIM guides on successful Collections Care and Basic Conservation from Birmingham Museums’ Jane Thompson Webb. Great advice and practical guidance whether you’re new to collections care or seeking a refresher after attending RAW training.

AIM Blog for independent museums and heritage sites

This guide is a companion to the Success Guide, ‘Successful Basic Conservation’ which AIM has also published today.

You can find Successful Basic Conservation and Successful Collection Care under Success Guides AIM Website.

Conservation care english image

Together these guides provide a practical foundation to understanding ‘preventive’ and ‘interventive’ conservation of our collections.

Researched and compiled by Jane Thompson Webb on behalf of AIM and funded by CyMAL (Welsh Government), these new Success Guides are available in both English and Welsh.

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New AIM Quick Guides: Donation Boxes in Museums

AIM Blog for independent museums and heritage sites

AIM is pleased to introduce the first of a new series of publications called ‘Quick Guides’.

The AIM QUICK GUIDES have been developed to provide useful and relevant information across a range of topics to help support the work of independent museums.

Researched and written by Professionals in the museum sector, the QUICK GUIDES offer practical help in a shorter format to our SUCCESS GUIDES allowing us to cover particular topics in more depth.

These guides can be viewed online in PDF format or downloaded and printed.

The first publication in this series is ‘Donation Boxes in Museums’ which has been produced by Judy Niner and Amy Richards of Development Partners, sponsors of the AIM National Conference 2015 June 18 – 20 at ss Great Britain, Bristol.

Donation Boxes in Museums Donation Boxes in Museums

On-site donations can play an important role in a museum’s overall fundraising strategy for two principal reasons.

First, the…

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