Outline of the Day

The aim of this skills sharing day is to introduce participants to a selection of creative and effective solutions for the safe storage and handling of ethnographic collection material.

Important: this is a practical session and all participants will be required to use cutting tools and sewing equipment.

This skills sharing day is for people working or volunteering within the museum and heritage sector who would like to develop their knowledge and understanding of the various methods that can be used to safely store objects.

Important Note:

The British Museum’s National Partnerships skills sharing activity is grant funded to allow us to offer free training for museum staff for non-commercial use. These sessions are available only to those working in a paid or volunteer role in museums, galleries and heritage organisations with collections.

We regret that the following are not eligible to apply for this training:

• students / those on study placements

• independent consultants

• conservation studios

• those working or volunteering at the British Museum

These courses are proving extremely popular, and places are therefore limited to:

• a maximum of two places per organisation for one skills sharing session.

• a maximum of three sessions per individual, per year.

Delegates will be required to commit to attending the session in its entirety, in order to get the full benefit of the training. We encourage you to share your learning with colleagues in your workplace so that we can all achieve the maximum impact from these sessions.

Programme of events:

09.30 Arrive at the British Museum

09.45 Collection from the Info Desk in the Great Court

10:00 – 10:30 Introduction to the Africa, Oceania and the Americas collection

10:30 – 11:00 IPM and Storage projects

• Case Study: South American jewellery and feather headdresses

11:00 – 11:20 Break

11:20 – 11:50 Introduction to storage methods and materials

• Create your own library of materials

11:30 – 13:30 Practical Session

• Introduction to padded board making

13:30 – 14:30 Lunch (not provided)

14:30 – 16:30 Practical Session

• Mounting objects onto padded boards
• Introduction to Tyvek duvet and sleeve making

16:30 Finish

By the end of the day participants will:

Understand the principles of good object storage for ethnographic collection material.

Have an awareness of the various materials available for storage of ethnographic collection material and their uses.

Have had practical experience of padded board construction and mounting objects onto a padded board.

Important: this is a practical session and all participants will be required to use cutting tools and sewing equipment.

Travel bursary:

There are a number of travel bursaries available for each skills sharing session. Bursaries are subject to availability and must be requested as soon as possible, no later than 2 weeks before the date of the session. If you wish to apply please email UKPartnerships@britishmuseum.org

This skills sharing session is part of the British Museum’s National Partnerships skills sharing activity, and has been made possible through the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund.