Saira Ahmed describes how curators of the departmental collections worked together at University College, London
Our four museums and numerous departmental collections have traditionally operated independently of one another - partly because they are dispersed around the large and complex UCL campus; also because many are funded by individual departments with different remits and operational procedures.
Inspiring Learning For All gave us a unique opportunity to assess our individual areas of strength and weakness and then to share them. We formed a Museums and Collections Team to assess our collective strengths and weakness. We began to talk about what each collection was doing to support learning within the university and more widely, with the non-academic community.
We started to communicate more regularly, using a common language (e.g. lifelong learning, audience consultation, evaluation, access). We started to plan activities and events together, and to share examples of good practice.
As a result of working with Inspiring Learning for All we employed a marketing consultant to work with us in creating a UCL Collections Marketing Strategy. We had our first Museums and Collections away day to evolve a mission statement and review our Strategic Plan.
Inspiring Learning For All has really helped us to create a cohesive and focussed team.
You may still need to convince some of your colleagues about Inspiring Learning for All. The next section, 'Convince colleagues', will help you with this.
