We are thrilled to announce a renewed partnership with the Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO). This collaboration will involve the establishment of mentoring partnerships for international NEMO members, fostering cross-border connections within the vibrant museum community. NEMO stands out as a dynamic network comprising museum organisations and museums from across Europe, collectively representing over 30,000 museums. NEMO aims to ensure that museums become integral components of European life, advocating for their significance to policymakers and offering valuable opportuniti ..read more

Many visually impaired people often feel disconnected and isolated from their environment making them one of the most vulnerable groups during the Covid 19 pandemic. Blind and visually impaired people often experience high levels of anxiety when visiting public spaces. “Sensing the Past,” funded by Wessex Museums Partnerships was created to connect participants with a shared interest in an environment where they felt safe and supported. Members of the Dorset Blind Association (DBA) were given two on line talks by Earth Scientist and Wessex Museums Partnership engagement lead Dr Anjana Khatwa a ..read more

Working with colleagues in Wakefield Council and external partners, we have introduced a wide range of measures to make our sites and programming more inclusive, accessible, and welcoming. Accepting that we can’t do everything at once, we’ve committed to making small changes that achieve big impacts for visitors. Background Wakefield Council implemented a new EDI Action Plan in 2022 and as a team, we decided to implement our own Action Plan, which aligned to the wider council plan but included specific actions for our service. An external audit of our displays and interpretation, carried out b ..read more

© Historic Royal Palaces Schools across the UK have been on the edge of their seats waiting for the winners of the national Coronation Benches competition to be announced. Today, Historic Royal Palaces can reveal that fifteen winners have been selected from over 1,500 fantastic entries, to be developed with global public art producers Wild in Art and installed at the Tower of London during the Coronation celebration. Chair of GEM Caroline Marcus, who was invited to be one of the judges along with Alison Bowyer from Kids in Museums, and Catherine Ritman-Smith from Young V&A, shares her re ..read more

As part of the Careers for All Programme, the team at Leeds Museums and Galleries wrote a series of ASMR workshops. In this blog, Carl Newbould, Learning and Access Officer, is sharing the insights on using ASMR for engaging SEND-audiences in museums. What is ASMR? Well, that is the question! I had no idea what it was until the topic was brought up in a staff training session. To be honest, I am still unsure if I entirely understand it now. The short answer is ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, meaning an automatic response your brain has towards something you see, feel, sme ..read more

Should we be funded the six micro grants will be in the region of £10k each, partners will be expected to commit staff time in kind contributions to the project and will be actively involved in the development of an application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). Context As health inequalities continue to widen across the UK, museums have a crucial role to play as community assets that can profoundly impact the social determinants of health . For this role to be effective, museum and heritage settings need to be able to build meaningful, long-term relationships with health, social ca ..read more

The Academy is for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities. Since 2016, the University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GL&M) have collaborated with staff and students from the Oxford-based school to co-develop a programme of creative learning opportunities and project work based around the University’s collections. The exhibition, ‘Curious about Calculation’, features a number of mathematics-based instruments in a museum standard display case including a Chinese abacus, Lightning Adding Machines, and a Britannic Calculating Machine from the HSM w ..read more

If you are a member of the GEM Jiscmail list you will know it has many intriguing, useful and occasionally downright strange threads on museum learning (my favourite has to be the 2003 extended Friday afternoon discussion on sterilising toilet roll centres for workshops). You will also have observed that there are frequent posts all asking a version of the question ‘How do I contact teachers?’. Teachers are highly influential in the lives of pupils everywhere in the UK. Thanks to the generous support of the Clore Duffield Foundation, over the 2021-22 school year at Art Fund we set out to work ..read more

The Horniman Museum and Garden’s vast Handling Collection of 3,500 objects has formed the backbone of our successful schools programme for over 30 years. The collection was built with sporadic purchases, deaccessioned objects, and donations. Objects are often made in traditional ways and reflect a bygone way of life (food preparation, survival in extreme temperatures, traditional clothing), yet through our workshops, these objects become the tangible representations of people across the world… we risk sharing reductive and outdated portrayals of these ever-changing communities.   If we t ..read more

Mansfield’s high levels of deprivation includes women experiencing trauma from domestic violence and abuse. MARAC (multi-agency risk assessment conference) repeats have increased from 25% to 33% between 2020 and 2021 due to the increased volume of high risk cases (DA Partnership Board 2022). Our project focuses on participatory activities for such groups in the museum to explore how we can learn from each other and make positive change. We deliver creative experiences for at-risk women, inspired by the museum’s collection and directed by the participants’ interests. Facilitated by the Communi ..read more