Integrating Forms of Care: Building Communities of Practice around Reserve Collections

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'Integrating Forms of Care' follows on from an earlier collaborative research project 'Who Cares? Interventions in 'unloved' museum collections'. This initial project worked with the Science Museum, the Museum of English Rural Life and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust to explore the role of enthusiasm, creativity and affection in the stewardship of 'unloved' or under-appreciated collections. 'Who cares?' exposed the significant role that enthusiast experts (independent researchers with a clear expertise in and passion for a particular subject or collection) play in caring for museum collections, particularly those which others may find difficult to engage with due to their repetitive or specialist nature. Despite the majority of museum staff being dedicated to improving collections access, negotiating a suitable level of physical access and playing a part in decision making processes around the reserve collections could be challenging due in part to a potential clash of cultures between enthusiasts and professional museum staff. It was this finding in particular where a clear but unexpected pathway to impact and engagement emerged.In order to help democratise heritage decision-making and open up reserve collections to a wider audience, this follow-on project will bring together a group of museum curators and enthusiast experts into a single collaborative working group. Together this group will form a unique community of practice embarking on a programme of knowledge exchange events which focus on the Science Museum Group's (SMG) 'Energy' collections, a diverse group of objects dispersed across its sites in London, Manchester and Wroughton. The working group will come together regularly through the schedule of project activities, visiting each of the SMG's stores in turn and taking part in focussed discussions which 'problematise' these reserve collections from multiple perspectives. The project activities will be based around three strands of knowledge exchange: community asset mapping, collaborative problem solving and activities to facilitate wider public engagement. We recognise that members of the working group may have very different frames of reference and priorities concerning reserve collections, one of the key aims of the project is to acknowledge these and give them space to be heard and understood. Through the example of SMG , the working group will ultimately devise a clear set of policy guidelines for wider museums and heritage organisations on how to design more flexible forms of preservation policy that allows for potentially more varied forms of access and 'use' of objects.Over the course of the project the working group will be accompanied by Creative Practitioners who will facilitate the discussions and create visible reference points, such as a publically accessible dynamic map, which aims to capture the complexity of these conversations. The creative practitioners will also create a project documentary to be hosted on the project website, giving visibility to enthusiast research practices and skills and encouraging new users to make use of reserve collections.'Integrating Forms of Care' will work alongside the SMG's large scale 'Collections Review Programme'. This is a timely opportunity to influence forward-thinking and sustainable collections management practices in a National Museum context, which will ultimately aid the recognition of the plural values that museum collections represent. However, the focus of the project will be outward looking and felt by a much wider group across the Museum Sector. Through dissemination of project's collaborative outputs by the project team and working group at a Public Workshop and via social and professional networks, this knowledge exchange programme will have a wider societal and professional impact to other museums in the UK and beyond.