ABTEM GUIDELINES FOR LARGER & WORKING HISTORIC OBJECTS LAUNCH EVENTS ANNOUNCED!

ABTEM is pleased to announce that its project to revise and update the old MGC Standards for the Care of Larger & Working Objects is almost complete!

The new ‘Guidelines for the Care of Larger & Working Historic Objects’ is due to be published on 15th February 2018 and will be available online from that date, with a hard copy option available from the Collections Trust. Further details of how to access the new Guidelines will be published shortly.

In the meantime, two regional events are being held to launch the Guidelines to the sector at the Aerospace Bristol Museum 22 February and Kelham Island Museum Sheffield (20 March)

More information and booking details are available at:

22 February – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/abtem-seminar-guidelines-for-the-care-of-larger-working-historic-objects-tickets-42240795356

20 March – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/abtem-seminar-guidelines-for-the-care-of-larger-working-historic-objects-tickets-42238404204

TWO WEEKS TO OUR LATE SPRING SEMINAR!

If you’ve not booked a place on our Spring seminar  ‘Overexposure – Caring for objects that have to stay outside’ there is still time!

Our meeting, being held at Wheal Martyn Museum in Cornwall on Friday 16th June will have as its focus, the trails and tribulations of looking after museum exhibits that have to stay outside, and the issues in caring for and conserving them.

There is an interesting mix of speakers and there will be the chance to tour the museum.

The event is FREE and runs from 10.30am until 4pm

To book a place, please visit: 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/abtem-spring-seminar-overexposure-caring-for-objects-that-have-to-stay-outside-tickets-33816141991

For further information about the event, pleasecontact Andy King (andy.king@bristol.gov.uk)

 

 

VACANCY FOR MUSEUM MENTOR AT SANDTOFT

The leading independent museum for trolleybuses is seeking to replace their Museum Mentor who is due to retire from this role in late May 2017.  The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft holds the largest collection of historic trolleybuses in the world and has been Registered and subsequently Accredited for many years. It is run entirely by enthusiastic volunteers, but also occasionally uses outside contractors, when necessary.

An operational Museum, rather than ‘glass case’ style, it attracts a number of unique challenges. Established in 1969, the Museum has been successfully expanding at a steady rate, but is now in the midst of a substantial development and expansion programme.

The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft is well connected within the transport community and has several associations to other related Museums and organisations.  The museum is based in North Lincolnshire, close to the M180 and just 10 miles from Doncaster

Do you think you can assist the Museum?

We are looking for:

• an experienced and dynamic museum professional who can both advise and support us in regard to museum professional standards
• someone who would enjoy working alongside such an extensive and unique collection
• a working knowledge of the Transport sector or industrial collections would be useful, but not essential.

Further details about the criteria for a Museum mentor can be located at:

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/accreditation-scheme/support-and-advice

Please send your CV and a covering letter or email to:
Bruce Lake
Company Secretary
The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft- (www.sandtoft.org.uk)

Belton Road, Sandtoft, Doncaster,  DN8 5SX

Or:  BruceLake@sandtoft.org

If you would like to find out more or would prefer an informal chat beforehand please contact Bruce Lake on 07788 642799. Note not always immediately available by phone due to working in current public transport, so an initial email or text to set up a conversation would be appropriate.

FINAL PROGRAMME FOR ABTEM SPRING SEMINAR ANNOUNCED

Final details of ABTEM’s spring meeting to be held on 16th June at Wheal Martyn in Cornwall have been announced. 

“Overexposure: Caring for Objects that have to stay Outside” will deal with the trials and tribulations of looking after large objects and pieces of machinery that museums cannot keep under cover.

Speakers include: David Eveleigh, Ironbridge Gorge Museums, Dave Morris, Fleet Air Arms Museum, Peter Bannister, Wheal Martyn and Kevin Baker from the King Edward Mine Camborne.

Helen Ashby from consultants IRHC will also give an update on our Arts Council-funded project to produce new guidelines for the care and operation of larger and working objects.

The event runs from 10.00 to 16.00 – places are limited to 40, so early booking is recommended.

For the full programme and to book a place, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/abtem-spring-seminar-overexposure-caring-for-objects-that-have-to-stay-outside-tickets-33816141991

SAVE THE DATE: ABTEM LATE SPRING SEMINAR ANNOUNCED

The next ABTEM seminar will be held at the Wheal Martyn Museum, Carthew, St Austell, Cornwall, on Friday 16 June.

 The seminar is titled ‘Overexposure – Caring for objects that have to stay outside’ and will deal with the trials and tribulations of looking after objects that sit outside museums

Full details and list of speakers will follow shortly, but there will be plenty of opportunity to network and exchange ideas and strategies, and to catch up on the progress with the Arts Council-funded revision of the Standards in the Museum Care of Larger and Working Objects project being undertaken by ABTEM and consultants IRHC.

The day will also include a Guided tour of Wheal Martyn.

Why not make a weekend of it?

Industrial & Transport Collections Study Day at British Motor Museum

Scrap Metal and How to Avoid it!

 An Introduction to Caring for Industrial and Transport Collections

 Thursday 16th March 2017

 Supported by Arts Council Museum Resilience funding, the British Motor Museum is running a study day for museum professionals and volunteers caring for industrial and transport collections. The course will cover issues around collecting, conservation and storage and is the first of a series of events run by the Museum.

The event is suitable for those new to the industrial and transport sector or those with limited experience of working with industrial and transport collections and will include practical exercises and discussion. The study day is a free event and runs from 10.30pm to 4.30pm at the British Motor Museum in Warwickshire.

Refreshments will be provided and bursaries are also available for the event covering travel costs for delegates attending the event.

Early booking is advised to avoid disappointment as places for the study day are strictly limited.

To book a place, please contact:

 Julie Tant, Resilience project coordinator

Tel: (01926) 927840

E-mail: Julie.tant@britishmotormuseum.co.uk

 

SHCG Annual conference 2017: ‘Changing tides’- Call for Papers

SHCG Annual conference 2017: ‘Changing tides’

Reading Museum, Reading Town Hall, The University of Reading and The Museum of English Rural Life

29th and 30th June 2017

2016 has been a monumental year for the world as a whole and the effects of its events on museums are likely to be wide-ranging in their consequences. The vote for Brexit and the moves to both the left and the right of the political spectrum across the world will all have a significant effect on visitors, museums and how we adapt to stay relevant in the future.

Call for papers

Call for contributions, papers, workshops, roundtable discussions and other presentations on the theme of:

 Museums and Cultural Identity in a post-2016 landscape

This year we’re looking for any presentation, talk or concept that relates to the topics outlined in the downloadable document at the bottom of this page. The more thought provoking, unusual, practical and insightful the better.

If you have an idea that you think might be appropriate for this conference, then please submit it as we’ll read and review every application. We believe that insights into how others are working, their successes, their failure and their practices can be of benefit to many others within the wider museum and cultural community.

Contributors are invited to offer perspectives from local, national, international or global context. Contributions that are presented in an a different, interactive or discussion, way will be happily accepted and we keen to accept more contributions that are seen as showing ‘out of the box’ thinking and allow delegates to reflect and think about Social History Curation and its future.

Important dates

Return to Nick Sturgess and Rebecca Lucas conferenceshcg@gmail.com by 25th February 2017. If you have an idea which you’d like to talk through with us before submitting your proposal, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

All applicants will be notified by the 4th March 2017

Curator of Transport Job Vacancy at the Black Country Living Museum

Please see details of a vacancy for a Curator of Transport and Industry  at the Black Country Living Museum on their web site.

The closing date is 10 February 2017.

https://www.bclm.co.uk/about/jobs-at-the-museum/4.htm

 

Martyn Heighton

ABTEM members will be sad to hear the news that the Director of National Historic Ships UK, Martyn Heighton passed away suddenly on Monday 7th November.

A stalwart of the historic ships and museums sector, he will be sadly missed and the association sends its condolences to his family and colleagues at NHS-UK.

More information is available at: http://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/data/files/2016/Martyn_news.pdf

Great Response to ABTEM Autumn Seminar!

Over 70 people attended our autumn event held at the Dana Centre at the Science Museum in London.

Titled the ‘Death of the Machine’, the meeting debated some of the issues surrounding the continuing success of museums with collections of machinery and how they might be sustained in the future.

As well as thought-provoking presentations from Oliver Green, Ben Russell, Laura Musgrave and Daniel Martin, there was also a lively debate discussing some of the issues raised in the meeting!

Thanks are due to the Science Museum for their support and to Lee Hutchinson for his help in organising the event.

ABTEM are also supporting another seminar at the National Waterways Museum on the 7th December – details to be posted shortly!