Title page
Contents
1. Executive Summary 4
2. Introduction 5
2.1. Background to the report 5
2.2. The national museums 6
2.3. The survey 9
3. Sharing Collections 10
3.1. Sharing collections in the UK 10
3.2. Sharing collections internationally 17
3.3. Sharing collections for research 19
3.4. Supporting new collections and acquisitions 20
3.5. Borrowing collections 20
4. Sharing knowledge 24
4.1. Partnering to build capacity and deliver professional development in the museums sector 24
4.2. Academic partnerships and collaborations 28
4.3. Acting as experts for government 32
5. Supporting audience engagement and social outcomes 36
5.1. Partnering to improve museum and cultural participation 37
5.2. Partnering to deliver education and learning 38
5.3. Partnering to support health and wellbeing 41
5.4. Partnering to develop skills and careers 42
6. Conclusions and looking forward 45
Appendix 1: List of images 46
Appendix 2: The Survey 48
Appendix 3: Useful Links 50
Figure 1. The 62 sites of the national museums included in this report 7
Figure 2. First World War Centenary Partnership conference at Aberystwyth University 9
Figure 3. Celebrating Ganesha at Brent Museum 11
Figure 4. Creating learning resources 12
Figure 5. The distribution of short-term loans throughout the UK in 2017/18, split by postal district. The percentage of loans to each UK region is given around the map 13
Figure 6. The distribution of Long-term loans throughout the UK in 2017/18, split by postal district. The percentage of loans to each UK region is given around the map 14
Figure 7. The type of UK institutions borrowing national museum objects on a short-term and long-term basis in 2017/18 15
Figure 8. Razor's Edge pop-up barber shop at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery as part of the Van Dyck: A Masterpiece for Everyone project 15
Figure 9. Farewell Dippy at Dorset County Museum 16
Figure 10. The international spread of all international loans active in 2017/18 17
Figure 11. M56352 on its first day in traffic on the North Norfolk Railway following its repaint 19
Figure 12. Scientist researching specimen collections at the Natural History Museum 20
Figure 13. The type of institutions in receipt of national museum research loans in 2017/18 21
Figure 14. Spread of national museum research loans in 2017/18 22
Figure 15. Exhibition at the National Library of China, Beijing 22
Figure 16. Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibition at Newcastle City Library 23
Figure 17. Face to face: China's First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors 23
Figure 18. Introduction to Iron Age & Roman Archaeology in Scotland workshop led by the Principal Curator of Prehistoric & Roman Archaeology 24
Figure 19. Formal ways that the national museum exchange knowledge and expertise 26
Figure 20. Location of the national museums' academic and research partnerships in 2017/18 29
Figure 21. Types of research partners in 2017/18 30
Figure 22. Frame Conservator with a Curatorial Trainee in the Framing Workshop 30
Figure 23. Underwater excavation of HMS Invincible 31
Figure 24. Troubles and Beyond exhibition 32
Figure 25. Location of partner universities for CDAs and DTPs with number of PhD students. 33
Figure 26. Poppies: Weeping Window installed outside Ulster Museum 35
Figure 27. Breakdown of goals of the national museums audience engagement partnerships 36
Figure 28. Types of organisations the national museums partnered with to deliver programming that supports audience engagement 37
Figure 29. Pocket Watch on display at Time and Tide Museum 37
Figure 30. Skateboarders perform at Plaza exhibition, MOSTYN 38
Figure 31. Connecting Stories dance group 39
Figure 32. Making a Mark Drawing on the Tees Valley project -Children work with an artist to explore perspective and scale at the Dorman Museum, Middlesbrough 40
Figure 33. Family carers explore the My House of Memories app 41
Figure 34. Roy Licht-Does-Time in Tate Exchange 42
Figure 35. ESOL Conversation Cafe 43
Figure 36. DesignLab Nation 44