The Open and Learning Museum Conference

The first public event of the LEM project, “The Open and Learning Museum” Conference, is planned to take place in Tampere, Finland, on 12 October 2011.

The conference will deal with issues such as: Art, culture and well-being; Visitor studies and audience research; Intercultural dialogue in museums; The unemployed as museum visitors; Museums and the ageing population; Learning and technology.

Participation is free of charge and registration is now open using the following link http://www.museoliitto.fi/open-and-learning

Those interested in participating in the Conference by applying for a Grundtvig Grant, can search the Comenius Grundtvig Training Database (http://ec.europa.eu/education/trainingdatabase) looking for the conference code IT-2011-706-001.


NEWS IN FOCUS:
New materials on museums and intercultural dialogue available on the LEM website
The LEM partners have asked Simona Bodo, a well known researcher at European level, with a special interest in the social agency of museums and their role in the promotion of intercultural dialogue, to contribute to the LEM working groups, by providing resources – bibliographies, links to websites or publications, case studies – on the subject 'Museums and Intercultural Dialogue'. These materials are now published on the public area of the LEM website, while additional information relating to good practice case studies are available for LEM Partners and Associate partners in the reserved area of the website.

Please read on.

Science Knitting
The Science Museum and Stitch London are teaming up for Stitched Science. A weekend of knitting and stitching events, encouraging experts and novices alike to get involved in a range of activities which include helping to create a giant stitched solar system.

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The Event Driven Museum?
The article "The Event Driven Museum?" published June 2011 by Nina Simon, is on Museum 2.0 blog. Began in November 2006 the Museum 2.0 blog explores the ways that the philosophies of Web 2.0 (giving power to the participant) can be applied in museums to make them more engaging, community-based, vital elements of society.

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Millennial Intelligence for Museums
Every generation experiences the world in a different way, developing attributes that uniquely reflect who they are. The group aged 18 to 29, grew into adulthood at the beginning of a new millennium. Impacted by significant global trends including the explosion of technology.

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How Wikipedians-in-Residence Are Opening Up Cultural Institutions
Wikipedia's comprehensive entries have become the default source of collective knowledge on the Web as our attention spans and patience for deep archival research shrink in the digital age. Yet concerns over the encyclopedia's accuracy and consistency remain. That's where Dominic McDevitt-Parks comes in. The Simmons College graduate student recently joined the National Archives and Records Administration as a summer "Wikipedian-in-residence." McDevitt-Parks is tasked with integrating NARA's vast stockpile of primary documents and records — the bread and butter of history — with the sprawling ecosystem of collective knowledge and collaborative editorship that has defined Wikipedia.

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EVENTS IN FOCUS:
European Symposium Culture and Education: “Evaluation of cultural projects”
For the third consecutive year, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence is inviting teachers, students, artists and project leaders in formal and non-formal education settings and education managers to exchange on the evaluation of education projects.

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8th Hands On! Europe Conference Slovenia 2011
How does transition effect cultural heritage? Who defines cultural heritage and how is it transmitted from one generation to another? The moving of cultures through emigration: what is gained and what is lost? How does one define cultural identity in a world of diversity?

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Manchester International Festival
Manchester International Festival is the world’s first festival of original, new work and special events, and takes place biennially in Manchester, UK. The Festival launched in 2007 as an artist-led, commissioning festival presenting new works from across the spectrum of performing arts, visual arts and popular culture including group show Il Tempo del Postino, featuring artists including Matthew Barney and Olafur Eliasson and Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s Monkey: Journey to the West.

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Museums Association Conference and Exhibition 2011
The biggest networking opportunity for museum professionals in Europe. A number of leading figures in the sector are already confirmed as keynote speakers, including Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project, Althea Efunshile, chief operating officer at Arts Council England, and Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party.

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OTHER PROJECTS IN FOCUS:
MeLa - European Museums and Libraries in/of the Age of Migrations
The project is funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, which aims to delineate new approaches for museums and libraries in a context characterized by the continuous migration of people and ideas. Its main objectives are to advance knowledge in the field and to support museum and library communities, practitioners, experts and policymakers in developing new missions and forms of museums and libraries “in the age of migration”. The project website is www.mela-project.eu

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IBERMUSEOS. Ibero-American Cooperation Program
Latin America is one of the priority areas of cooperation of the Ministry of Culture of Spain in the field of museums. The actions focus on training programs for Latin American professionals, including courses, scholarships, and bilateral and multilateral professional meetings.

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Leonardo ITEMS - Innovative Teaching for European Museum Strategies
ITEMS is a Leonardo da Vinci Program multilateral partnership. It is meant to spread knowledge and expertise in the field of art education especially with regards to the cooperation between secondary schools and museum institutions. A special attention is given to the potential of new technologies in school and museum education.

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BOOK REVIEW:
The Participatory Museum
Published: 2010 by Nina Simon and reviewed by Kimberly Zahler. Turning the ethnographic lens on to museums as cultural artifacts themselves, Nina Simon presents a “how-to” guide for the new face of cultural institutions in their communities. Her work is celebratory, but looking below the surface is serious concern about the effectiveness of traditional museum paradigms.

Please read on.


Click here to view the entire LEM website