Practical ways to engage new audiences!

16 August, The Library of Birmingham
10am - 4pm

How we engage new audiences with our museum collections is a problem that can be difficult and time consuming to tackle. We all want to extend our visitor base and encourage new users into our museums, but are there some simple ways of doing this?

Join us for a one day workshop, with a variety of speakers, exploring how different museums have tackled this and discover some practical ways to broaden audiences to our sites.

Sarah Brown, Outreach Officer Collections Trust, will be joining us to look at the concept and principles of Revisiting, which is a toolkit for opening up collections to different or new audiences.  

Bring along an object to participate in this practical session!  This can be an object you find inspiring, that provokes emotion or an object that you just find generally interesting. It may be something from your museum’s handling collection or even an object from home.

Are you in need of a pair of Expert Eyes?

This is your invitation to take part

The Expert Eyes programme is designed to support the development of collections knowledge and expertise amongst museum staff in the West Midlands Region for underused collections. West Midlands Museum Development (WMMD) is looking for four accredited museums to work with experts from Specialist Subject Networks to raise knowledge and awareness of specific collection areas in order to improve access to, and engagement with, museum audiences.

Last year WMMD supported four museums to work with experts to look at their collections. Experts from the fields of ethnography, ceramics and agricultural collections worked with collections staff to identify objects, improve documentation and offer advice on display and exhibitions.

“The project has given us the confidence to feel we can do something really good.”
“Some great ideas, and nice to have an external view on the processes and actions we are planning to take.”

For 2016 four different collection areas have been identified as underused or considered to be at risk due to a lack of staff expertise. These are; costume and textiles, arms and armour, numismatics and archaeology. 

If you would like support with these collections as part of the project please contact helen.johnson@staffordshire.gov.uk for an expression of interest form. 

All forms must be completed and returned by 2 September.

For more details on the project please contact Helen and she will be happy to help.