2015 Education and Outreach Forum

The IMA Forum: Education & Outreach 2015 took place on Friday 19 June at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin 7.

Celebrating its 10th year, the Education and Outreach forum has firmly established itself as a key event in the calendar for museum educators to meet and discuss topics of interest to their programmes. From discussing resources to individual projects, the IMA education and access forum provides an informal platform to share your findings and engage with your colleagues and others working in museums, galleries and cultural institutions. It is intended as a place for critical engagement, examination and experimentation of ideas, where a lasting contribution can be made to the development of education in the museum context.

Speakers were selected from an open call for papers and presented examples of new and innovative access, outreach / education project that have been happening on the ground - or examples of creative engagement and learning - in museums and galleries across Ireland (click on presentation titles to download slides):

Helen Beaumont Education and Outreach Officer, National Museum of Ireland  and Ruairí Ó Cuív Public Art Manager, Dublin City Council: Beyond PebbledashDominique Bouchard Education and Outreach Curator, The Hunt Museum:Embedding Engagement in Educational Practice Collette Brownlee Education Services Officer, Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum: We May be Courtin’ but Are we Engaged? Sarah Carson  Collections Access Officer, Coleraine Museum: Engaging with 17th Century Coleraine (Speaker's notes)Tadhg Crowley Curator of Education, Lewis Glucksman Gallery: Art to Inspire: The Certificate in Contemporary Living Course Beth Frazer Community Engagement Initiative Trainee, Mid Antrim Museums Service: Ways of Seeing, a Sense of Place Donna Gilligan Freelance Heritage Educator, Heritage in Schools Programme (The Heritage Council): Bringing the Museum into the Classroom Bairbre-Ann Harkin Education Curator, Butler Gallery: Making the Visible Audible Rosalind Lowry Arts Development Officer, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, & Director, The Braid Arts Centre: Arts Ambassadors: Engaging Churches Through the Arts

This year we particularly welcomed presentations on projects that enhanced engagement with collections by a diverse range of communities and the day concluded with a special presentation and workshop on intercultural engagement, presented by Jenny Siung Head of Education, Chester Beatty Library (CBL) and Justyna Hanna Chmielewska Education Assistant, CBL: Making Museums Relevant to Culturally Diverse Communities. Click here to download a list of resources.

Click here for schedule, speakers' biographies and presentation abstracts