Derby Museums are to launch their first Future Museums Week to explore the topic through a series of talks, demonstrations and a symposium. Kicking of this evening, Jonathan Wallis, Head of Museums at Derby Museums will be hosting Museum Hour (@MuseumHour) on Twitter from 8-9pm with a discussion on the future of museums.
Then on Wednesday there will be 3D Scanning the Past from 11am-12noon at Derby Museum & Art Gallery, which will be a drop in demonstration of how 3D scanning processes allow Derby Museums to digitise its collection and provide new ways to explore our fascinating objects.
The big event of the week will be The Future Museums Symposium on Thursday from 5.30-8pm. The Symposium will host a programme of speakers including Andrew Simms from the New Economics Foundation and Katie Childs from National Museums Directors Council.
“As collections-based organisations, museums serve a public past, public present and a public yet to be born,” said Childs. “I’m looking forward to discussing why museums matter and how they can plan for a future where funding, society and technology will be quite different.”
The symposium will offer an insight into the evolving role of museums today and how the future of collecting, digital practice, public engagement, sustainability and the economy may affect the future of museums. Alongside invited speakers, Derby Museums’ own experts will be part of the line-up with Jonathan Wallis discussing contemporary and future museum collecting policies with reference to the Common Treasury exhibition – currently on show at the Museum & Art Gallery.
Following this the In Conversation event on Friday from 1-2pm will see Tony Butler Derby Museums Executive Director Tony in discussion with James Roberson from BBC’s East Midlands Today and will explore the future of museums, in particular museums in this city.
Butler said: “A combination of austerity, the ubiquitous use of personal devices and changing public expectations of what a museum experience should be, is causing us to explore new ways of how to thrive and survive. We’d like the public to hear and participate in these discussions.”
The event will conclude on Saturday with a What If? Machine 2016 from 1-5pm at The Silk Mill.
