Engaging Curators project and the Museum Ethnographers Group

Man's jacket made of sponges in 'Curious Case' exhibition, pre-1857, Pescadore Island China Seas, Great North Museum Hancock

The Museum Ethnographers Group is a SSN, or subject specialist network, relating mainly to anthropology collections in museums. One of the ongoing projects of the group has been the 'Engaging Curators: the ethics and practice of working with and responding to communities'. The first workshop took place at the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, London and the second is taking place at the Great North Museum Hancock today, June 20.

The workshop will work through how museums can proactively and productively work with communities, balance public participation, and build community relationships. The point of an SSN is to bring together people with similar interests and specialist skills to help solve issues and also move forward in practice. The aim for the current project will be to draft a framework of skills and resources for how these goals can be moved forward. Today will bring together curators, researchers, and public programming specialists from major museums such as the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, National Museum of Ethnology Leiden, the Horniman Museum, and many other institutions to think through issues of key importance for the future of anthropology collections and museums.