Programme information

On Mondays and the occasional Friday in Term 3. In the week of February 28, a week long excursion to Flanders is scheduled. Part time students have 3 extra weeks to complete their work.

During this module, students will work in small groups on a client-requested intervention with regards to a stated problem concerning sustainability, inclusivity or technology. Students collectively develop a design concept and try to obtain support for new approaches and ideas for museum and heritage interventions, taking into consideration the conceptual and practical challenges addressed in the previous modules and being taught the principles of project and change management at the same time.

The intervention can take the form of a collection management advice, a proposal for an interpretive concept, or maybe a combination of these. This way, students will get the opportunity to study and research specific dimensions of museum and heritage work of personal interest more in-depth, while working in small teams for a real client. Some students may wish to focus on innovative, future-oriented strategies of participatory collecting and deaccessioning, inspired by current developments in the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and community participation. Others will focus on interpretation, exhibitions and public programming, and will work with insights from visitor studies, storytelling and narrative exhibition development.

Parallel to these content-based seminars, principles of project and change management will be taught, including various approaches, team management, monitoring, and budgeting.

In the collection management-track of this module we will reflect on the basics of collection policy and collection management as well as on recent developments such as participative and contemporary collecting. The collection is seen as a dynamic resource that the museum must use to the (future) public’s best interests. This implies a complex balancing of historic values, limited budgets, vested interests, social responsibilities and rapidly changing contexts. With its collection, the museum has to deal with opposite ambitions like preserving the objects for many generations to come and make use of them to their best value for as many people as possible in the present time.

The interpretation-track of this module focuses on exhibiting and interpretive design with a keen focus on audience development. Interpretation aims to inform, provoke and inspire the audience. Design strategies play an essential role in communicating complex layered information, engaging the senses and stimulating visitor involvement. As we will see, the interpretative method links to the idea of exhibition as narrative space. Here objects and stories, a variety of media and multiple perspectives are joined in staged, sometimes immersive, spatial settings. In this dramaturgy, the visitor acts as the ultimate meaning-maker. As part of the module we will explore constructivist learning theories, in which the interpretive approach is strongly rooted. While part of this module deals with theory and practice of in-door museum exhibitions, attention will also be paid to exhibiting in non-museum settings.

The museum field is changing, and so are views on what a collection or an exhibition is or should be. An important change is the shift from object-based to story-based collecting and exhibiting. What is our view on items of intangible and digital heritage as items to collect? Are we really passing on what we inherited and why and by whom is this considered as important? How can heritage institutions meet the call for inclusivity and multivocality? What are the implications for interpretation and exhibiting? What is the position of the audience? What is the relevancy of learning, participation and co-creation? The assignment offers a concrete setting in which to explore such questions. A series of workshops and lectures will support the step-by-step development of a collection advice or an interpretive proposal. You will work in teams of three to four students, and present your joint proposal to the client in the final week of the module.

This year’s case is Museum van Loon, which is trying to grapple with its colonial roots and preparing for new exhibitions.

Part of this module is a week-long trip to the Flanders, for which you set your learning goals beforehand (full time students: as part of the portfolio in Engaged Professionalism; part time students: in a separate document). During this intensive study trip, we will explore, the heritage regime in Flanders addressing issues related to the case of Museum van Loon and individual learning objectives.

To be able to:

• identify (conflicting) interests, stakes and emotions of involved actors with multiple backgrounds;
• discuss various approaches to, and stages in, project management;
• discuss concepts and principles of interpretation and collecting in relation to various audiences;

To be able to:

• develop, in a diverse team and in a timely and collaborative fashion, a meaningful intervention concept;

To be able to:

• design a meaningful intervention within the museum and heritage field for a given client in relation to sustainability, inclusivity and/or digitality;

To be able to

• convincingly pitch your intervention ideas in professional English;
• write a proposal which considers the client in both tone and appearance;

To be able to:

• demonstrate awareness of, and critically reflect, on their own role in a collaborative process of intervention design.

Formative assessments

• Peer feedback and feedback by lecturers on the development of the proposal.
• Intervision sessions on the group dynamics and performance.
• Process evaluation report outline.

Summative assessments

• Intervention proposal (group work, 75% of final mark) which addresses the issues raised by the client in a meaningful way.
• Process-evaluation report (individual work, 25% of the final mark) in which you reflect on the project process in terms of teamwork, intercultural communication, delivery and personal knowledge and skills gaps and knowledge and skills gained.

No additional requirements.

All students are required to actively participate in the workshops and lectures. This is best achieved by thoroughly studying the required literature in advance of the meeting. Students are expected to submit their individual QAQR reports for each chapter or article mentioned under ‘mandatory literature’. The program includes three sessions on (recommended or self-chosen) literature. Each team is expected to prepare twice a discussion of one article or chapter, following the QAQR structure.

In addition, you are to take active and equal part in your team of about three or four students, taking up specific tasks and responsibilities. Your joint proposal is formally pitched to the client in the final week of the module. Halfway the module there will be a formal peer feedback session, in which you are to collectively discuss the process and contributions. During the project you are to build on the knowledge you gained in earlier modules and implement what you learned in a project setting. We expect you to work with and for the client and other clients in a constructive, respectful and ethical manner. There is an expectation of professional collaboration within the team where constructive feedback is appreciated and acknowledged.

Paul Ariese (coordinator), Marlous van Gastel, Mirjam Shatanawi, Ruben Smit.

A sample of literature used in the past.

Interpretation-track

• Austin, Tricia. 2012. ‘Scales of Narrativity’. In: Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions, edited by Suzanne MacLeod et al. 107-118, Abingdon: Routledge.
• Gonzales, Elena. 2020. ‘Introduction’. In: Exhibitions for Social Justice. 1-14. London: Routledge.
• Hale, Jonathan and Christina Back. 2018. ‘From body to body: Architecture, movement and meaning in the museum’. In: The Future of Museum and Gallery Design, edited by Suzanne MacLeod et al. 435-448. Abingdon: Routledge.
• MacLeod, Suzanne et al. 2012. ‘Introduction. Museum Making: The Place of Narrative.’ In: Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions, edited by Suzanne
• MacLeod et al. xix-xiii, Abingdon: Routledge. MacLeod, Suzanne et al. 2018. ‘Introduction: The future of museum and gallery design’. In: The Future of Museum and Gallery Design. 23-30.
• MacLeod, Suzanne et al. 2018. ‘An ethical future for museum and gallery design: design as a force for good in a diverse cultural sector’. In: The Future of Museum and Gallery Design. 34-53.
• McLean, Kathleen. 2018. ‘Examining process in museum exhibitions’. In: The Future of Museum and Gallery Design. 170-182.
• O’Neill, Mark. 2006. ‘Essentialism, adaptation and justice: Towards a new epistemology of museums’. In: Museum Management and Curatorship, 21 (2) June. 95-116.
• Samis, Peter. 2017. ‘Introduction: Setting the stage’. In: Creating the visitor centred museum. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Walklate, Jennifer. ‘Anxiety’. 2019. In: The Contemporary Museum: Shaping Museums for the Global Now, edited by Simon Knell. 214-231. Abingdon: Routledge.

Collection management-track

• Eijnatten, J. van, and Marije de Nood. 2018. ‘Shared Stories : Narratives Linking the Tangible and Intangible in Museums’. International Journal of Intangible Heritage13: 94–110.
• Knell, Simon J. 2016. ‘Altered Values: Searching for a New Collecting’. In Museums and the Future of Collecting, 1–46. London: Routledge.
• Price, Emily. 2019. ‘Heritage Properties’. In The Curation and Care of Museum Collections, edited by Bruce A Campbell and Christian Baars. London: Routledge.
• Purkis, Harriet. 2017. ‘Making Digital Heritage about People’s Life Stories’. International Journal of Heritage Studies23 (5): 434–44. doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2016.1190392.
• Tekgül, Duygu. 2016. ‘Fact, Fiction and Value in the Museum of Innocence’. European Journal of Cultural Studies19 (4): 387–402. doi.org/10.1177/1367549415592893.
• Vagnone, Franklin D, and Deborah E Ryan. 2016. Anarchist’s Guide to Historic House Museums. London: Routledge.

Project Management

• Bos, Jo, Harting, Ernst and Hesselink, Marlet. 2014. Project Driven Creation (First Edition). Schiedam: Scriptum.
• Verhaar, Jan and Iris Eshel. 2013. Project Management: A professional approach to events (third edition). Amsterdam: Boom.