The beautiful mineral Cuprite, from Phoenix Mine, Cornwall. (© Plymouth Museums, Galleries, Archives).
Post-Conference Blues
It’s been a few months since our 2018 conference and AGM at Leeds City Museum. It was wonderful to see so many people there – to catch up with old friends and to meet new ones. And as always, I am so sad when it is over. I guess this is why it’s nice to revisit what went on for the two days. There have been a few different write ups about the conference:
David Waterhouse, Senior Curator of Natural History, Norfolk Museums Service, wrote his first blog post ever all about his time at the conference here.
Glenys Wass, Heritage Collections Manager at Peterborough Museum wrote about her summary of the conference talks here.
Jan Freedman (me), Curator of Natural History, at Plymouth Museums, Galleries, Archives, shared my experiences of the conference here.
Plus, the talks from the conference will be written up either for the NatSCA blog, the Notes & Comments, or the Journal of Natural Science Collections.
The Future of Museum Collections
Leading on from the conference, one talk by Alistair Brown at the Museums Association, looked at where collections will be in 2030. This new research project will be working with museum staff to understand issues that currently face museums and where they want them to be in less than 15 years time. A write up of the Collections 2030 project can be found here.
Caring for Natural Science Collections
There’s a great one day conference coming up on 17th October 2018, which is looking at the advances in natural science conservation. Held at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, this day will be looking at how natural science conservators help preserve the future.
What Can I Do?
There are a lot of interesting events coming up…
There is a fantastic-sounding four day course in July, at the University of Sheffield, which will be looking at the history of British fauna. Here you will find out all about the animals that lived here from the Pleistocene to the Present, as well as looking at human interactions and introduced species.
There’s a great workshop where you can learn how to make replica fossils. Really handy if you are creating some handling boxes, or want some for your shop stock. It will take place on Wednesday 25th July, BGS, Nottingham, with an optional field trip the next day.
There is also a job to apply for, that just got advertised. The Natural History Museum London is looking for a Curator of Ores. The deadline is the 28th June.
Written by Jan Freedman, Curator of Natural History, at Plymouth Museums, Galleries, Archives
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