At the heart of museums are collections, and the people caring for them. Due to the popularity of this session in July 2022, we are re-running the session to respond to the demand for this topic.

This practical training session is part of our ‘Getting Your House in Order’ series of training in partnership with the Collections Trust, which you can find out more about in the section below.

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Ownership of Collections: Session Overview

In this session we will focus on the Spectrum procedures and processes involved in assessing and documenting new acquisitions. This includes due diligence, provenance, decision-making and capturing written evidence of transfer of title.

By the end of the session, delegates will:

• Understand which Spectrum procedures are most relevant to ownership and how they might fit together.
• Understand the role of the Spectrum standard in relation to museum Accreditation.
• Know where to find more information and guidance.

Before the session:

• Think about how you do things in your museum, referring to your relevant policy and procedures if you have access to them, although we appreciate you might not right now. You might also find it useful to have these with you to refer to during the session.
• Please ensure that you have a working microphone, so you can participate in discussions

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Who should attend?

This session is suitable for trustees with responsibility for collections, collections officers and managers, and collections volunteers.

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Booking Information

There are 20 spaces available on the session for museums in the south east.

Please follow the link below to book your free space on this training session.

Book your place here

By booking a place on to a South East Museum Development training event, you are agreeing to the following :

• To ensure fair distribution, only one representative from each museum can book a place on this training course. Additional bookings from the same museum will go on to a reserve list. Places on this training course will be confirmed by email.
• That you are either a paid staff, a volunteer or a trustee who works within or with a South East museum or heritage organisation which is in Arts Council England’s Accreditation Scheme (either fully accredited or working towards accreditation). Where this is not applicable (i.e. you are a non-accredited museum), you acknowledge that in the event that training is oversubscribed, priority will be given to museums or heritage organisations in the Arts Council England Accreditation Scheme.
• It is a condition of receiving the training provided without charge that the evaluation form is completed by the specified deadline in the email notification, unless a paper evaluation is specifically provided on the day of the training session for completion before the end of the session.

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What is the Getting Your House In Order Training Programme?

Good collections documentation is the key to a smooth-running museum service, ensuring that any museum collection is accountable and manageable in practice.

The training will model best practice and through the framework of Spectrum 5.0 and its procedures bring a focus on the planning and work involved to get your collections documentation in good order.

We will also be bringing in Professor Janet Ulph, Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Leicester, who will bring a different perspective to the legal and ethical issues associated with dealing with collections.

There will be six training sessions delivered online, which are open to staff, board members, trustees and volunteers from museums in the south and east of England which are Accredited or formally working towards Accreditation.

The ‘Getting Your House in Order’ sessions are not just for museums who are facing Accreditation application deadlines, but they act as a great refresher for teams wanting to improve their documentation standards, and we hope that they will serve as a reminder of why this work is so necessary.

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Session delivery and access

Using a virtual platform (Zoom), the facilitators will use a combination of PowerPoint slides and attendee participation with an opportunity for questions and group work in breakout rooms. Auto-transcription will be enabled as standard.

Please make us aware of any access requirements you may have as early as possible to enable us the maximum time to make arrangements and book professional services, if applicable.

Examples of possible requests include, but are not limited to; audio description, advance copy of presentations or resources, resources in specific accessible formats, e.g., Large Print, specific colour contrast.

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Contact

If you would like more information on the training please contact our Lead Liaison via the details below.

Juliet Thomas

Assistant Manager/Museum Development Officer

[email protected]

07483 165685