 Image courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council I've just recently started work on the evaluation of a year long programme hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University's Institute of Humanities and Social Science research. Entitled Creating Our Future Histories, the scheme sees 'early career researchers' (usually those who are completing a PhD, or are just about to start one / have recently finished one) working with Manchester community organisations. Each partnership is mentored by a more experienced academic. The partnerships are punctuated along the way by a series of weekend workshops combining into a professional development course on how community engagement between academics / researchers / communities might take shape. Each partnership is also expected to meet at least once between each workshop.
The partner-groups are developing co-constructed plans and activities which research previously uncharted areas of the organisation's heritage, and look towards incorporating their future in a way which will become part of their heritage in years to come - there's the 'Future Histories' part. Late next Spring each group will showcase their findings in creative and public ways - many yet to be decided; though ideas are already circulating about film, video, exhibtions, time capsules and more. I'm about a month in and I'm once again struck by the many rich and hidden histories of Manchester - industry, architecture, battle and radical action, many many things which show the inventiveness and resilience of this sometimes bloody minded and often ingenius city. You can find out more about the project here and I particularly recommend the research group pages and project blogs to find out more about the organisations involved and the progress and reflections taking place.
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 Gothic Manchester Festival Just when you thought there was nothing left for Manchester to festivalise, I'd just like to draw your attention to Gothic Manchester Festival 23-26 October, run by The Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.
I'm so excited about this on many levels. Not that excitement and goth really go together but... I currently have a number of clients who, in some shape or form, are involved in being part of museums who are trying to become better friends with their communities. In order to be able to assist them in this as well as I can, and refresh my own thinking on the topic, I assembled a quick list of everything I ever knew about this sort of work - what to look out for, what to do, what not to do. I then sent a call out to all the lovely and helpful members of the GEM email list to see what insights they had on the same theme. Three months later I've finally collated it all under sub-headings and here it is; a short paper on things to be aware of if you're a museum working with local communities. In fact I'm sure much of it will be transferable to other types of organisations. I would especially like to thank everyone who did respond to the GEM email request, and sent me all sorts of papers, reports, observations, anecdotes and ponderings, particularly those who trusted me enough with what, in some cases, were quite hard lessons for their organisations to learn. I'd very much like the discussion to keep flowing so please do add comments, or include links to other relevant papers, reports etc below... 04.03.11 update... for the few people who let me know they haven't been able to see or save the document below - it's now also available as a straight forward pdf to read or download here or drop me a line via the comments pageand I'll happily email it to you  I'm always interested in new ways to present information. People often don't have the time or inclination to read text heavy pages. Wordle is a great online application for creating visualisations of words known as Word Clouds. This illustration shows which terms become prioritised out of a number of different definitions of public engagement. As a tool for instantly starting to draw out key themes I find it works really well.
 Image:Jan Stadtmann from ‘Quatre Mains’ Andrew Dawson & Sven Till for ‘The Articulate Hand’, Wellcome Trust public programme
In order to create and lead some workshops / training about Public Engagement, on behalf of Flow Associates, I put a quick call out to the GEM (Group for education in Museums) list which came up trumps with a wealth of resources streaming in from some kind people who took a minute out to share what they knew.Thanks - here’s what was collated, hope it’s useful to others too: |
...BlogI'm most interested in how the public, your public, whoever that may be, engages with culture and creativity.
If there's a design angle (be it contemporary design, textiles, built environment, engineering, social history, visitor flow, use of space and architecture etc) then I'm even more interested. And if it nurtures creativity and develops personal, social or professional skills I'm absolutely all ears. 
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