Museum Basics Course

The Irish Museums Association is inviting for expressions of interest to participate in our established Museum Basics course, aimed at enhancing skills of staff and volunteers, primarily working in community and volunteer-led museums or cultural heritage organisations.

Museum Basics is a foundation course that offers a practical introduction to the nature, context and operations of museums with the intention of providing practical examples and indicators of good practice and where and how further information can be found. It is bench-marked against agreed international standards and is relevant also to institutions embarking on the Heritage Council's Museum Standards Programme for Ireland (MSPI) or the NI Museum Council (NIMC) Museum Accreditation scheme. All the trainers are leading figures in their respective fields and working in the museum sector.

Devised by the Irish Museums Association (IMA), this course offers an introduction to the nature, context and operations of museums. The intention of the training is to provide practical examples and indicators of good practice and where and how further information can be found.

Museum Basics consists of eight online sessions of one hour and thirty minutes duration:

• Introduction to Museums: Positions museums in their historical, social and cultural context. Provides participants with an understanding of the function of museums and how they are organised in Ireland. Trainer: Lar Joye, Port Heritage Director, Dublin Port
• Management & Governance: Presents types of governance structures within the museum sector, the roles of executive officers (including curators), forward planning and project management. Trainer: Eithne Verling, Director, Galway City Museum
• Collecting & Collections: Examines the role of collections, why and how to collect and how to devise a collection policy. It also looks at the meaning and context of collections and the challenges of collecting intangible heritage. Trainer: Brenda Malone, Curator of Military History, National Museum of Ireland.
• Documentation: Introduces loan management and documentation systems, collection audits and writing facilities reports. Trainer: Felicia Tan, Registrar, Chester Beatty.
• Interpretation & Display: Participants are encouraged to look at interpretation strategies within their museums, as well as practical issues such as writing text, choosing cases, displaying objects and arranging lighting, and dealing with contractors. Trainer: Brian Crowley, Curator of Kilmainham Gaol and the Pearse Museum, OPW.
• Collection Care: Introduces broad collection care principles and offers a practical introduction to the principles of preventive conservation covering storage, handling and correct methods of display. Trainer: Sven Haberman, Wood object conservator and Manager, Conservation Letterfrack.
• Education & Access: Emphasises the centrality of learning as a function of museums. It gives an appreciation of the diversity of museum audiences and the different approaches required to connect effectively with each of them. Trainer: Catherine McGuinness, Research and Education Officer, Cavan County Museum.
• External Relations: Enables participants to gain an understanding of the place of the museum within its various environments and a practical understanding of how best to communicate with their audiences. Trainer: Carla Marrinan, Chief Executive Officer, National Print Museum.

This course is aimed primarily at those working within the smaller, community or volunteer-led sector, or those wishing to refresh or benchmark their practice against agreed best practice standards.

Course dates: 31 March – 3 April 2025, 09:30 - 13:00

Course Fee: €40 / £35 for IMA individual or Institutional members, €120 / £100 for non-members.

Applications: Participation is limited to 25 people. The Call for Expressions of Interest is a two-part process.

• Part 1: Please enter your details and email via the below form.
• Part 2: You will receive a link to the Expression of Interest Form for completion by noon, 20 January 2025.

We will aim to notify of the allocation of places within 14 days of the closing date on the 20 January.