The Museum as Method

On November 5th and 6th Pacific Presences hosted museum professionals from around the UK, mainland Europe and the US for a two day workshop on the theme Museum as Method. One of the participants Rachel Barclay from Durham University Oriental Museum reflects on the main themes and outcomes of the workshop:

It was a real pleasure to participate in the ‘Museum as Method’ workshop hosted by the Pacific Presences project and the MAA. It was great to have the opening session of the workshop in the museum galleries surrounded by the wonderful collections but there was no risk of being distracted by the displays as Nick Thomas gave the sort of thoughtful, and thought-provoking, introduction to the workshop that anyone who has heard him speak or read his work would expect.  Nick built on the themes he outlined in his 2010 article in Museum Anthropology entitled ‘The Museum as Method’ but widened his thoughts beyond anthropology collections to consider museums, and particularly university museums, more broadly.  Nick asked us to reflect on two key areas over the course of the workshop:

  • What kinds of research do collections empower? What is distinctive about museum-based research and what does it add to other forms of enquiry?  Are there methods empowered uniquely by museums?  What is their potential and how can it be fostered?
  • What contributions do university museums make to research and is there scope for university museums to be more ambitious in shaping, supporting and collaborating in research?

The workshop group included participants from museums in the UK, Europe and USA and Nick’s introduction sparked a lively discussion on the topic of the museum as laboratory – a space for experimentation and risk taking.  The group was quite divided on the positive vs negative connotations that the concept of a lab might have when applied to the museum, but this became a recurring theme over the two days.

Day one, Nick introduces the workshop.

Day one, Nick introduces the workshop.

The second day began with two presentations that addressed the question of what kind of research collections empower.  Two strongly contrasting case studies were put forward.  One a small exhibition in the MAA’s micro gallery, the other a $1million, decade long project at UCLA, involving loans from more than 40 institutions and private collections worldwide.  While few of us will ever have the luxury of the kind of budget and time available for the UCLA project, both projects clearly demonstrated the potential for museum collections make unexpected connections and as a natural home for cross-disciplinary working.

The exhibition as a site for knowledge creation, a place for research to be undertaken as much as communicated, resurfaced in the second session.  The two case studies – the development of the anthropology galleries in the new Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus and the plans to develop Kelvin Hall in Glasgow to create storage, teaching and research spaces for the Hunterian Museum collections – both demonstrated very clearly just how ambitious university museums can be.  They also highlighted the importance of having a distinct offer that will attract funders and visitors as well as the need for risk-taking and experimentation – the museum as laboratory again.

The final session of the day focused on connections and collaborations emphasising the positives and negatives of the climate in which university museums in the UK exist, particularly with regard to funding.  Limited core funding has pushed many of us into a constant cycle of applying for project funding.  This leaves us with many masters to please, all with widely varying demands, and little chance of pleasing them all.

The whole workshop was very thought provoking and I do hope that plans for a larger conference go ahead.  I would certainly attend.  We are all struggling with the same questions of how to most effectively realise the research potential of our collections and how we contribute something distinctive to our universities.  Sharing thoughts and experiences with colleagues in university museums of widely varying size, type and location provides a wonderful opportunity to be inspired to take a risk and experiment. Museum as laboratory?

Rachel Barclay, Oriental Museum, Durham University.

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