Members of PASCAL recently participated in the first ever jointly badged event of European Museums Academy (EMA) - PASCAL Partnership. The event was the 2018 conference & Heritage in Motion (HiM) Ceremonies of the European Museums Academy.

The conference was organized by the European Museums Academy which this year held its annual conference at Den Gamle By, Old Town, Aarhus in Denmark, an open air museum covering the period from pre-industrial times to the present day. The main conference events were in the Elsinore Theatre which quickly reminded me of the immortalised Elsinore Castle in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

Among the many attractions in the museum is the ‘1974 neighborhood’ where by visiting the apartments and shops, it is possible to experience how life was in different Danish homes at this time. It also gives you a real-life experience as you step right into someone else’s home and daily life. See https://www.dengamleby.dk/en/den-gamle-by/

The museum programme is also geared to meeting the needs of the community including marginalized groups such as people suffering from dementia. Many tourists also visit the museum.

The event provided an opportunity for PASCAL members to meet Karl Muir, Chair of EMA and Henrik Zipsane, Deputy Director of EMA, Chief Executive of the Jamtli Foundation, and Guest Professor in heritage learning and regional development at Linköping University, Sweden. Henrik is also leading the PASCAL SIG (Special Interest Group) on ‘Culture and Literacy Development’ with Catherine Lido, Senior Lecturer in Psychology & Adult Learning, School of Education, University of Glasgow.

A joint PASCAL - EMA workshop was hosted as part of the programme involving staff from the University of Glasgow (via the Internet) and EMA conference participants. The workshop discussed a range of topics including the increasing emphasis on widening access and participation in museums as well as the conflict which can sometimes exist between top-down policies to widen participation and the need to develop bottom up approaches to meeting citizen’s needs.

The PASCAL SIG hopes to organize further activities and events in the coming months. Please look out for further information.

Rob Mark

A report from Henrik Zipsane follows, together with photos from the event...

Museums are not what they used to be – so much is happening there!

The European Museums Academy has organised a highly successful conference in Aarhus, Denmark which took place from 20-23 September, 2018.

The conference centred around presentations from 24 different museums drawn from every corner of Europe. These museums were also candidates for two prestigious European Awards. The awards were the DASA award, which acknowledges recognition of successful methods of exhibition and education and the Micheletti award, which is awarded in recognition of successful work on the history of technology, industry or social movement. The 24 museums presented were drawn from a candidature of 35 nominated museums for the awards and by the end of the conference numbers were further reduced from the 24 to 10 finalists and finally two winners. The winners of the awards this year were Staatliches Museum fur Archaologie Chemnitz, Germany (DASA) and Chaplin’s World in Coursier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland (Micheletti).

An observation for those who are not museum professionals is about museums as they are today. The museums which presented are all outstanding and represent new trends in museum education today across Europe.

There are clear characteristics shared between museums and universities. Both provide a space for knowledge and learning, and both can use knowledge production and learning for engagement with the communities around them. Museums are lifelong learning hubs as they are often engaged in activities which promote social cohesion and have well developed lifelong learning strategies to reach out reach out to their communities.

Another reflection that comes to mind from seeing and listening to all the presentations is that developments since the 1990s in European museums on the one hand show continuing emphasis on increasing visitor numbers and on the other, facilitate access to ever wider audiences., Both have stimulated museums to redevelop their working methods which are today both analogue and digital and are used with great care.

Henrik Zipsane

Gallery of photos taken at the EMA conference in Aarhus (click to enlarge)