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

“综合护理形式”是早期合作研究项目“谁在乎？”干预“不受欢迎的”博物馆藏品。这个最初的项目与科学博物馆、英国乡村生活博物馆和铁桥峡谷博物馆信托基金合作，探索热情、创造力和情感在管理“不受欢迎”或不受重视的藏品中的作用。“谁在乎呢?揭示了爱好者专家（对特定主题或藏品具有明确专业知识和热情的独立研究人员）在照顾博物馆藏品方面发挥的重要作用，特别是那些其他人可能因其重复性或专业性而难以参与的藏品。尽管大多数博物馆工作人员都致力于改善藏品的访问，但由于爱好者和专业博物馆工作人员之间潜在的文化冲突，谈判一个合适的实体访问水平并参与围绕储备藏品的决策过程可能具有挑战性。正是这一发现，为影响和参与提供了一条清晰但意想不到的途径。为了帮助遗产决策的民主化，并向更广泛的受众开放储备藏品，这个后续项目将把一群博物馆馆长和爱好者专家聚集在一起，组成一个单一的协作工作组。这群人将共同形成一个独特的实践社区，开展知识交流活动，重点关注科学博物馆集团（SMG）的“能源”收藏，这是一组分散在伦敦、曼彻斯特和劳顿的不同地点的物品。工作组将根据项目活动计划定期聚在一起，轮流参观SMG的每家门店，并参与重点讨论，从多个角度“解决”这些储备藏品的问题。项目活动将围绕三个方面的知识交流：社区资产测绘、协作解决问题和促进更广泛的公众参与的活动。我们认识到，工作组成员可能对保护区藏品有非常不同的参考框架和优先事项，该项目的主要目标之一是承认这些框架，并为他们提供倾听和理解的空间。通过SMG的例子，工作小组最终将为更广泛的博物馆和文物组织制定一套明确的政策指导方针，指导他们如何设计更灵活的保存政策形式，以允许更多形式的接触和“使用”文物。在项目过程中，工作组将由创意实践者陪同，他们将促进讨论并创建可见的参考点，例如公共可访问的动态地图，旨在捕捉这些对话的复杂性。创意工作者还将制作一个项目纪录片，放在项目网站上，让热心的研究实践和技能可见，并鼓励新用户利用储备馆藏。“综合护理形式”将与SMG的大规模“收藏品审查计划”一起工作。这是一个及时的机会，可以在国家博物馆的背景下影响前瞻性和可持续的藏品管理实践，这最终将有助于认识到博物馆藏品所代表的多元价值。然而，该项目的重点将是向外看，并被整个博物馆部门的更广泛群体感受到。通过项目团队和工作组在公共研讨会上以及通过社会和专业网络传播项目的合作成果，这一知识交流计划将对英国及其他地区的其他博物馆产生更广泛的社会和专业影响。

'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.