Plans and work programme

The Renaissance East Midlands 2007 consultation priorities for collections included better documentation, peer reviews, documentation mapping, better standards of collections care, more exhibitions using collections, improved web-based resources and programmes of contemporary collecting; all things that Renaissance East Midlands will continue to support museums to improve and develop while making more of their collections accessible to more people. 

Collections access assistants
The collections access assistants (for more see the Collections Access Assistants page) will continue their great work with partner museums, but for 2008 – 2009 they will spend at least ten weeks supporting the collections work of local small and independent museums. This will mean at least 20 more museums in will benefit from practical collections advice and support.

With the support of the collections access assistants, at least 300 contemporary objects and ephemera will be added to the regions collections, ensuring they are relevant and fit for purpose.

Community groups and new audiences will become more engaged with museum collections through talks, handling sessions, websites and more traditional publications. This will include making accessible at least 1,000 objects that are not usually on public display or easily accessible to museum visitors.

In Leicester this includes the positions of world cultures curator and a new post of collections access manager. These posts will support the above work and deliver the Benchmarks in Collections Care recommendations to improve storage and access to the Dryad handicraft collections and other major collections

Collections access assistants, particularly those in Derby, will be utilising the MDA/MLA London initiative,  ‘Revisiting Collections’, to collect and record new and different interpretations of objects. 

Collections access assistants in Leicestershire will lead a touring exhibition venue audit to help assess the capacity and resources available for future regional and national exhibitions.

Collections strategic support
The collections team will also work with museums to help them achieve national standards including Spectrum, Accreditation and Benchmarks in Collections Care.

There will be an ongoing emphasis on increasing access to collections and an increasingly strategic approach to collections care as the result of a mapping report providing a better understanding of regional museums’ collections. 

A new strategy will help the region to develop a range of ideas, actions and policies that will bring collections and communities together. It will summarise the content and regional distinctiveness of collections; identify areas of duplication and gaps in collecting; contribute to Renaissance East Midlands’ development work on users, workforce development and learning; consider current collecting policies across the sector; include digitisation of collections and virtual access; and consider relevant collecting issues, such as contemporary collecting.

Public Catalogue Foundation
Renaissance East Midlands will financially support the work of the Public Catalogue Foundation (PCF) in the region. The aim of the PCF is to give public access to the oil paintings in UK counties by producing a series of catalogues, which will give many collections their first comprehensive photographic record of their works of art. The collections access assistants in specific counties will work on this project in conjunction with the PCF county coordinator to get documentation records into shape. The PCF aims to put the project online with the help of partners and volunteers and to develop a series of resources and activities based around the new online assets.