Why Museums Matter - The Irish Museums Association

Why Museums Matter
Irish museums are repositories that contain objects
considered unique, precious and significant that tell the story
of this island and of its people. This is important because
people care about heritage as never before. Museums
owe their name to the ancient Greek temple of the Muses
(mouseion) where a person’s mind could reach a higher plane
from everyday affairs. Museums today display objects both
for aesthetic pleasure and enlightenment (to educate people
visually, socially and historically) and function as accessible
places to welcome people of all ages.1
Why do museums matter? For their extraordinary artifacts
and fine buildings, their research, exhibiting and interpreting
endeavors, and for their ability – when managed creatively
– to engage the public, celebrate their achievements and
transform people’s lives. How could anyone not be affected
after experiencing the impact of confl ict at the Soldiers and
Chiefs exhibition at the National Museum? Is not learning
and enjoyment the memory retained after a visit to W5,
Belfast’s Science Centre? What about the welcome extended
to different communities in the multicultural galleries at
the Chester Beatty Library? Doesn’t everybody celebrate
the wonders of human achievement gazing at paintings by
Paul Henry in the Ulster Museum, Lucian Freud at the Irish
Museum of Modern Art, Vermeer at the National Gallery of
Ireland or James Barry at the Crawford Gallery Cork? It is our
job to try and ensure that everyone can experience the benefits
of our museums. These museums matter to our quality of
life because they have links to their local community within
which they play an economic, educational and social role.
The proof of this is the amount of state and local authority
investment in museums, demonstrating the importance of
arts and culture to the status of Ireland as a nation, and to
the economic and social progress of the country.
There are critical issues that are impacting on museums, such
as the pace of modern society as fresh audiences emerge, the
outcome of an improved economy, immigrant populations,
free education and an increasingly mobile public seeking new
experiences. This includes people with extra leisure time, the
expanding ‘families’ end of the market and the desire, not
only of the working population, but of people in later life to
make more worthwhile use of their free time. Schools and
colleges are part of this equation because they want cultural
programmes for their students and are turning to museums as
central education providers to the whole country.
Museums are ideally placed to excel in providing a quality
experience with their diverse collections, exhibitions, websites
and proactive events. The public’s positive reaction to exciting
new venues has been seen at the Hunt Museum Limerick;
Waterford Museum of Treasures; Cork’s Lewis Glucksman
Gallery; Model Arts and Niland Gallery Sligo; Galway City
Museum; OPW’s Farmleigh Gallery and the National Museum
of Country Life in Castlebar. The numbers of people currently
visiting our museums convinces even the most sceptical person
of the significance of culture to people’s lives.
It is evident, therefore, that museums matter to Irish
society, at a time when multiculturalism, gender equity
and reconciliation are revealing museums to be inclusive
institutions, part of a country seeking to accommodate
shared futures together. The circumstances of today’s
living - technology, leisure, tourism, cultural awareness,
educational provision and personal resources – are the
best to date for museums to provide ‘pleasure through
enlightenment’ and attract the public to the collections
of our great Irish heritage institutions.
Dr. Marie Bourke Chairperson, Irish Museums Association
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A Museum is a non-profit making permanent institution in the service
of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires,
conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for the purposes of
study, education and enjoyment, the tangible and intangible evidence
of people and their environment. International Council of Museums,
2006, Paris.
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Making Museums Accessible to Everyone
I welcome the Irish Museums Association’s decision to
mount a touring exhibition on the theme of Museums Matter:
Accessing Ireland’s Heritage. The exhibition provides an ideal
opportunity for the public to view and appreciate high
quality images of the wonderful objects and works of art,
from the early bronze age to contemporary life, that are
housed in our cultural institutions. Our museums provide
entertaining and enlightening days out by showcasing
priceless objects and making learning fun and enjoyable.
In this way they contribute to the community as accessible
places in which to welcome people of all ages.
For many people their first experience of a museum is with
their family or on a school visit. Museums work to ensure
that these visits are fun, interesting and enjoyable so that
they form an affectionate and lasting memory of family life
and school days. I hope that this exhibition will encourage
all citizens, and in particular young people, families, older
members of society and our new nationalities, to explore
their local museums and become even more fascinated with
the history and heritage in their area.
A major feature of this innovative project is the touring
programme which will demonstrate to the public that
museums and galleries are relevant to people of all ages and
that they promote greater access to the arts and heritage.
The support materials and programme will encourage
further interaction with the displays. This in turn should
form a catalyst in directing people to visit and use their local
museums.
The Irish Museums Association has worked within its NorthSouth remit to ensure that images from the museums and
galleries in all four Provinces are widely represented. It is
to be welcomed that the Association is benefiting from all-
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Creativity for all ages in the museum.
island support from both the Department of Arts Sports
and Tourism together with the Department of Culture, Arts
and Leisure.
I salute and commend the work of the Irish Museums
Association in this area and I look forward to the exhibition
gathering many new enthusiasts and leaving many lasting
legacies for people at the venues on its tour.
Martin Cullen TD,
Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism
The Value of Museums to Society
As Minister for Culture for Northern Ireland, I am pleased to
give my support to the Irish Museums Association’s touring
exhibition, Museums Matter: Accessing Ireland’s Heritage.
It is an excellent opportunity to bring the treasures of our
local and national cultural institutions to many communities
across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
In the dim and distant past, museums were often well kept
secrets and visited only by a minority of people. Often they
were austere and unwelcoming, and seen as the preserve
of a few. However, over the years museums have changed.
They have realised that they cannot reach new audiences
unless they widen their appeal. By replacing old methods
of presenting exhibits, introducing new techniques and
modes of communication, they are fulfi lling their role of
educating and informing people far beyond their normal
catchment area.
This touring exhibition lifts exhibits and information out
of our museums and takes them on the road, using local
libraries and galleries in which to exhibit.
Museums should be social organisations and like libraries and
galleries they should be involved in education, the economy,
the community and family life. This project reaches out into
society and encourages citizens of all ages, particularly young
people, to explore the links between their heritage and the
new identities that are forming our community.
Participating museums can add their own artefacts,
including objects originating from within their community
and in this way ensure that the exhibition is meaningful to
the lives of local people. As the social makeup changes in
our communities, museums have an important role to play
in reducing barriers between people from culturally diverse
Harvest knots, exchanged by lovers, Armagh Museum.
Photo courtesy the Trustees of National Museums Northern Ireland.
backgrounds. In this way museums can help people to make
sense of their world.
As my Department work to ensure that as many people as
possible experience and appreciate the excellence of our
cultural assets, it is hoped that the exhibition will serve as an
illustration of the significant contribution that the arts and
heritage can make to a rounded cultural experience.
Museums working together — locally, nationally and
internationally — are an important part of our cultural
landscape. Partnerships between the Department of Arts,
Sports and Tourism and the Department of Culture, Arts and
Leisure through agencies such as the Irish Museums Association
will help to promote and support the museum landscape of
the future.
Edwin Poots MLA
Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure
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What do Museums do?
‘Museums are the repositories of our
cultural heritage. Without them we would
be adrift in time – no past, no future’.
Kevin Roche, Architect
There are more than 400 public, private, institutional and
voluntary museums in Ireland whose role it is to display
varieties of collections and exhibitions, host engaging
programmes of activities and events, publish catalogues,
websites, worksheets with facilities like cafes, shops and
parking. They attract millions of visitors every year and it’s
easy to see why. Museum collections and exhibitions tell
us about big issues like birth, violence, death, religion and
politics, and they explore interesting things like fashion,
pop music, technology and games. Irish museums address
the natural world from the smallest microbe, to the most
distant constellations, and in so doing, help us to explore
where we fit in the world of today and yesterday. Museums
matter, because they deal with everything.
Museum subjects
Natural history
Archaeology
Science and Technology
Social history
Folklife
While many collections have been built up by individuals,
public spaces where collections are housed, such as
museums, houses, libraries and art galleries also have a very
long history. In Ireland, our biggest museums and galleries
date from the mid nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Museums collect photographs, fine art, manuscripts,
audio-visual archives, and most importantly, objects. Some
collections are huge. For example, the Natural History
Museum in Dublin has a collection of more than 2 million
animals while the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in
County Down has more than half a million photographs.
Costume
Transport
Marine life
Decorative Arts
Visual Arts
Museum staff build up collections, based on research,
and fieldwork. Objects collected for museums have to be
documented and conserved. All this work is made public
through permanent collections, exhibitions and temporary
displays, websites and publications, conferences, lectures
and proactive events. In this booklet, we will look at the
diversity of collections in Irish museums and at what it is
that museums actually do.
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People have collected things for many hundreds of years
– artworks, treasures, exotic objects, and curiosities. A
collection can be a financial investment, a treasure trove, a
hobby or even an obsession! It can be a record that we use
to make sense of the world of today and yesterday.
The Derrynaflan Hoard, County Tipperary. This was discovered in
1980. The treasures date from the eighth and ninth centuries.
Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Ireland.
‘By visiting museums, we can explore
the themes evoked in the images leading
to a greater understanding of other
cultures, thus promoting inclusion’.
Marie Hartnett, Primary School Teacher
Children enjoying an exhibition
of prints of the Bayeux
tapestry. Photo courtesy of the
National Print Museum, Dublin.
Why Collect Things?
Ceremonial barrow, presented to Charles Stewart Parnell in 1885.
Car display. Photo courtesy of Beaulieu Car Museum.
Photo courtesy of Clare Museum.
Museums that deal with the recent past and the present,
depend a lot on sound, written and visual material, but
almost all museums are concerned with collecting objects.
Objects have the power to connect us directly with the past,
and the people who used them. They are one of the ways we
can make sense of our world.
Gold and Ruby Salamander
from the Girona, an Armada ship
that sank off the coast of Antrim
in 1588.
Photo courtesy the Trustees of National
Museums Northern Ireland.
To an imaginative person, an inherited object
... is not just an object, an antique, an item on
an inventory; rather it becomes a point of entry
into a common emotional ground of memory
and belonging. It can transmit the climate of
a lost world and keep alive in us a domestic
intimacy with realities that otherwise might have
vanished. The more we are surrounded by such
objects and are attentive to them, the more richly
and contentedly we dwell in our own lives.
Seamus Heaney
The Sense of the Past (History Ireland 1, 4 (Winter 1993), pp.33-37)
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‘In a culture so fixed on the present moment,
museums help to reconnect us with our buried
selves, with all that we once were. In doing
that much, they also remind us of our own
strangeness. By helping us to embrace the
stranger within, they also encourage us to
befriend the stranger without’
Professor Declan Kiberd
Caravaggio The taking of
Christ,1602 (detail).
Courtesy of the National Gallery of
Ireland and the Jesuit Community,
Leeson St, Dublin who acknowledge
the generosity of the late Dr. Marie-Lea
Wilson. Photo © National Gallery
of Ireland.
Museums – What do you Think?
Samuel McCloy Paddy the Piper. Photo courtesy of Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum.
Sir Cahir O’Doherty’s sword, c1600. Photo courtesy of Derry City Council’s
Heritage and Museum Service.
‘My 4 year old grandson loves to visit museums
with me – we try everything - animals,
worksheets, pictures, computers, antiquities, the
shop and always finish with lunch in the café’
Breda Dunne, grandparent
‘Museums are a mark of civilization. Ignorance
of your country’s past is like not knowing who
your parents are’
Frank MacNally, Irish Times Columnist
‘Museums are immensely enjoyable’
M. Darby, visitor
‘Museums and Galleries are interesting, peaceful
and relaxing places. It’s nice to broaden your
horizons, as there is so much to see and learn,
and kids love the children’s activities’
Anne Costello, Visitor
‘Museums matter because they hold the national
patrimony in trust for the people. I frequent
them for both information and inspiration’
Robert Ballagh, Artist
8
‘Visiting museums and Galleries is sometimes
fun, scary (parts of Natural History), and
never boring’
Enjoying art workshops at the
National Gallery of Ireland.
Amy, age 8
Photo courtesy of the National Gallery
of Ireland.
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Museums and Everyday Life
We cannot tell what future generations will want to know
about us, but we can be pretty sure that certain objects will
seem typical of our times: throwaway fashion and designer
accessories; mobile phones and MP4 players; hybrid cars
and recyclable coffee cups, doc marten boots and bodypiercing studs, convenience foods and computer games.
Will these object feature in future museum displays?
All of us are surrounded by our past – photos, souvenirs,
old furniture and kitchen ware. These objects remind us of
events in our life, the things that give it shape and meaning.
Museums extend this work, giving us more ways to make
sense of our experiences.
Cooking on an open fire, Killarney. Photo courtesy of Muckross Traditional Farms,
Co. Kerry (Toddy Doyle).
Many local and regional museums collect objects that
people have used in their everyday lives, and these reflect
different ways of life, between town and country, for
example, or rich and poor. When we visit local museums,
we often find familiar things that show what is distinctive
about our own area.
Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal
Pouring redemption for me, that I do
The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,
Grow with nature again as before I grew.
The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third
Party to the couple kissing on an old seat,
And a bird gathering materials for the nest for the Word.
Patrick Kavanagh
Canal bank walk. Collected Poems (Martin, Brian & O’Keefe, 1972), p.150
Creating art from everyday objects. Photo courtesy of the Lewis Glucksman Gallery,
University College Cork.
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‘In the midst of this turbulent world museums
still give us a chance to marvel and remind
us of the achievements of the civilizations
of humankind’
Emiko Hongo, visitor
Below: Maeve one of the four
biggest steam engines in
Ireland, built at Inchicore in
1938. Photo courtesy the Trustees of
National Museums Northern Ireland.
Below: Shipbuilding, Harland
& Wolff, Belfast, 1913.
Photo courtesy the Trustees of National
Museums Northern Ireland.
Above: A model of the Titanic,
which was built in Belfast in
1912. Photo courtesy the Trustees of
National Museums Northern Ireland.
Museums and the Past
Drawing room, 29 Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin.
Photo courtesy of Electricity Supply Board and the National Museum of Ireland
‘Have you seen Hugh
The Connacht King, in the field?’
‘All that we saw
Was his shadow under his shield’
Frank O’Connor Kings, Lords and Commons
(Gill and MacMillan: Dublin, 1959 (1970)), p.44.
When we move from the recent past to
investigating more ancient times, sources of
information such as photographs and fi lm
are obviously no longer available, and even
documents are much more scarce. When
we try to discover how people lived in the
distant past, museum objects are often
the only source of evidence available.
Archaeologists and historians divide
the past into major periods such
as Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze
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Malone Hoard of polished axe heads, dating from the Neolithic
period. Photo courtesy the Trustees of National Museums Northern Ireland
Age, Iron Age, early Christian, Medieval, Post-Medieval
and the Modern era. A tiny number of Irish people may
have understood written texts in the late Iron Age, but it
was not until Christianity came to Ireland in the early 4th
century AD, that written texts become a significant source
of historical evidence.
The objects that we depend on for so much of our
knowledge of these different periods are some of the
most spectacular pieces of art and craft that have ever
been produced in Ireland. For nearly two hundred
years, museum curators have been piecing together
the evidence that can be derived from these objects
and placing them in their proper historical and
cultural contexts. Curators are also drawing
upon the fine art collections in many of our
galleries, arts centres and historic houses to
aid in this process.
Bell from Bangor Abbey, ninth century.
Photo courtesy of North Down Museum.
‘We are in danger of living too much in the
‘today’, of becoming detached from process,
of losing the perspective that history allows us.
A visit to a museum or a gallery discourages
the hubris of the present. I enjoy museums not
just for their visual and intellectual stimulation
but as venues of peace and reflection’
Myles Dungan, presenter, historian and writer
Young people having fun in the
museum.
Museums and Cultural Diversity
The Ballinderry sword. This was made in the ninth century. It is
inscribed with the maker’s name, Ulfberth.
Strawboys. Men in disguises visited houses at Christmas and
weddings to play music and pranks.
Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Ireland
Photo courtesy the Trustees of National Museums Northern Ireland.
The heritage of Ireland is built up from contributions by
many different cultures; Gaels, Vikings, Anglo-Normans,
and Scots. Smaller groups of people, such as Jews, French
Huguenots and German Palatines have also played
important parts in building the shape of Ireland’s heritage.
On the other hand, throughout history, Irish people have
travelled to Europe and further afield, and had major
cultural influences wherever they settled. This became more
obvious after the Great Famine of the 1840s. Since then,
more than five million Irish people have emigrated to other
lands, and in countries like America, Australia and England
they have had a huge impact on political, economic, social
and cultural life.
During the last few decades, Ireland has experienced an
influx of peoples from places as far apart as Central and
Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia. These communities have
had a significant influence, for example on our food and
music. All of this contributes to the richness of the heritage
of Ireland, and should be researched, collected and
displayed in our museums.
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Tapa cloth figure from
Easter Island.
Photo courtesy the Trustees of
National Museums Northern Ireland.
The Vikings came to Ireland
in the early ninth century.
This silver hoard shows their
influence on Irish design.
Photo courtesy of the National Museum
of Ireland.
‘In centuries to come when historians and
archeologists browse over the bones of a
past society, it will be the surviving cultural
artifacts that will inform them about the
nature of that society.’
Robert Ballagh, Artist
Museums and the Natural World
Dinosaur exhibition. Photo courtesy the Trustees of National Museums Northern Ireland
An Irish red deer. Photo courtesy of Mike Brown
Irish people have celebrated the wonders of nature for as
long as we have written records. In the Early Christian period,
for example, monks sometimes wrote little poems in the
margins of manuscripts. These express a delight with nature
that connects us directly with the poets who wrote them.
Some of our largest museum collections and displays also
celebrate the variety and richness of our geology, natural
vegetation, and wildlife. In institutions such as the Natural
History Museum and the Ulster Museum, collections show
how Ireland fits into the global environment.
The Blackbird by Belfast Lough (9th century)
Int én bec
The little bird
ro léic feit
has whistled
do rind guip
from point of beak
glanbuide;
bright yellow;
fo-ceird faíd
sends a cry
os Loch Laíg
over Loch Laíg
lon do chraíb
blackbird from branch
chrannmuige
in wooded plain
Protecting Ireland’s natural heritage has become a major
concern in recent decades. Ireland escaped the worst
environmental damage of the global industrial revolution of
the past three hundred years, while our position on the west
of Europe ensures that we receive most of our weather from
the Atlantic. However, recent prosperity has led to major
road building, industrial and housing developments. We
have become acutely aware of how small and vulnerable our
beautiful wild places are, and how easily they can be reduced
to bland anonymity, or even worse, ugliness. Museum
researchers have taken a lead in researching and raising
awareness of environmental issues.
Opposite: Peter the Polar Bear.
Photo courtesy the Trustees of National Museums Northern Ireland
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‘I like to visit museums not
to live in the past but to
learn from the experiments,
mistakes and achievements
of past generations.’
Frances Brooks, parent
‘Going to museums and galleries, I can
switch off, relax, reflect and live in the
moment - in this environment I can learn
without difficulty’
Maura Higgins, retired teacher
The Flight of the Bumblebee,
laser etched in glass blocks by
Beau Lotto at Science Gallery,
Trinity College Dublin.
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‘Museums are great especially when
they are interactive. For instance, W5 in
Belfast is amazing for all ages, while my
4 and 6 year-olds love the Family Packs
at the National Gallery of Ireland’
Nicole O’Kelly Gulmann, visitor
Viewing Peter Gallagher’s
3D sun at Science Gallery,
Trinity College Dublin.
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Housing our Museums
Enjoying contemporary art exhibitions. Photo courtesy Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Museums find their homes in a great variety of places. Some are
heritage buildings and others are housed in ‘state-of-the-art’
architect designed spaces. 19th century museums were often
based on classical designs, however, more recent museum
architecture has been inspired by the visitor’s experience.
The museum environment has to be carefully monitored and
controlled in order to protect the objects on display. This
includes issues such as heat, lighting and air conditioning
while at the same time ensuring the galleries are pleasant
places in which to be.
The pattern of new museum development incorporates
flexible galleries for displaying permanent collections and
temporary exhibitions, together with providing facilities such
as cafes, shops, IT interactive areas, workshop-studio spaces,
and services for people with disabilities. Smaller museums
may not have all these facilities but can provide an intimate
community-based experience.
The Tower Museum, Derry.
Photo courtesy of Derry City Council Heritage and Museum Service.
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The next time you go to a museum, think about the role
the building plays in your visit. Is it an uplifting space,
does the museum welcome people of all ages, and is it an
enjoyable experience.
‘Museums matter because I think they
provide places to house priceless collections
and to educate people about these
precious collections’
Dr. Roger Stewart
Galway City Museum.
Photo courtesy of Galway City Museum.
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Would you Like to Work in a Museum?
‘I have come to appreciate the work of artists
and objects of various eras and nationalities. It
is a pleasure to visit museums in other countries
for example, Canada, Australia, England and
France and compare them to our collections’.
producing temporary, permanent or touring exhibitions.
This is what’s known as a project management role. In larger
museums and galleries, exhibition officers may be specialists
working alongside a team of curatorial, educational and
marketing professionals. In smaller venues, the role can
involve taking part in lots of different jobs, including
curatorial work.
Mary Saunders, Museum Attendant
A curator’s job is to build up museum collections, often
in specialist areas. Curators document collections and
develop ways in which objects, archives and artworks can
be interpreted, through exhibitions, publications, events and
audio-visual presentations. All these tasks require curators
to work with other colleagues, in conservation, education,
design and marketing departments, for example.
The museum sector is a large and vibrant element of the
cultural and tourism economy that provides hundreds of
jobs throughout Ireland.
The museums community are the people – full-time, parttime, temporary and voluntary - who work in museums and
aid this social, economic, leisure and learning process.
Museums and galleries today are lively places in which to
work with interesting and engaging displays, busy schedules
of events and front-of-house staff to meet and greet visitors.
However, in any museum, some jobs require specialised training,
while others need a basic education and common sense.
Jobs in areas such as exhibitions, education and public
events involve working in teams with internal and external
staff, and departments including: curators, IT, finance and
HR, educators, registrars, contractors, marketing and press
people, conservators, librarians, archivists and publications.
Other areas include visitor services, information desks,
Friends’ organisations, and the museum shop and cafe.
The small museum is a multi-task environment in which
everyone plays a role.
A museum/gallery exhibitions officer, for example, is
responsible for planning, organising, administering and
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Museum educators are involved in finding ways to use the
collections to inspire people. They explain, interpret and
convey information on the collections by means of events
such as tours, lectures, seminars, workshops, publications
like activity sheets, and handling collections, that can offer
intense, lasting experiences. As well as providing advice, they
engage in education outreach to bring the collections to
wider audiences countrywide.
The role of the conservators is to care for collections
by applying scientific methods to conserve and restore
artefacts. They use their knowledge of the physical and
chemical properties of objects and storage materials to
control the environment in which artefacts are stored,
displayed and transported. They conserve artefacts that are
deteriorating. Some conservators work with a wide range
of objects. Others specialise in archaeology; ceramics and
glass; furniture and wood; gilding and decorative surfaces;
historic interiors; metals; paintings; paper and books;
photographic materials; stained glass; stone and wall
Museum staff on Fieldwork in
County Sligo.
Photo courtesy of National Museum of
Irealnd – Natual History.
‘I think Museums show artifacts that may
have been lost for centuries, or even millennia.
Actually, they acknowledge the importance of
our past, and inspire the imagination’
Alistair and Angela Williams, school students
paintings; textiles. Conservators also manage laboratories
and do research projects. Senior conservation work needs
specialist qualifications with a major science element.
Museum attendants are responsible for the security of the
collections as well as the safety of the public. Increasingly,
attendants and mediators engage with the public in
answering questions, providing directions, and in certain
cases, undertaking roles such as wearing period costumes
and giving demonstrations of craft skills.
Work Placements: some schools and colleges make
arrangements with museums, galleries and other venues,
for students to go on placements and gain work experience.
This is an invaluable way to find out the type of work that
takes place in museums and whether you might like a job in
this area.
Qualified school leavers can find basic work in museums,
but for any type of specialist work, it is necessary to have
a degree, a museum/heritage diploma, or post-graduate
qualifications. Universities and higher education colleges
offer numerous courses and some provide distancelearning.
Graduate Internships: some museums and galleries in
Ireland and overseas offer Graduate Internship Programmes
of between 3 months and a year. Most of these training
programmes are voluntary. You need to make an application
in writing to the museum following which you will be
interviewed.
i ma
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For information on training, career opportunities
and volunteering in museums see the Irish Museums
Association website www.irishmuseums.org
A conservator at work in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.
Photo courtesy The Chester Beatty Library
‘Going to museums and galleries, I can
switch off, relax, reflect and live in the
moment - in this environment I can learn
without difficulty’
Maura Higgins, retired teacher
Saddler working at Killarney.
Photo courtesy of Muckross Traditional
Farms, Co. Kerry (Toddy Doyle).
What can you do for your Museum –
Volunteering in Museums
All ages enjoy drawing in the museum
The National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks.
Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland.
Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Ireland.
Museums, galleries, arts and heritage venues welcome
volunteers of widely different interests, ages and
backgrounds. The value of volunteering includes helping
the organisation to reach out and provide services that may
not be possible without volunteers. Volunteers also offer
a range of skills that augments and complements those of
existing staff.
Volunteers can undertake a wide range of duties, from
providing information to assisting at the sales desk,
helping with the preparation of displays to sorting out
backlogs of material, introducing people to exhibitions,
helping to care for collections and assisting with events and
demonstrations.
Some volunteers might be mid-way through secondary
school, others are studying at university, while most people
volunteer when they have some time free or have retired.
Most volunteers want to do something worthwhile that
helps the museum.
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Individuals can take part in volunteer programmes by writing
to the Education, Visitor Services and the Human Resources
Departments of museums. They can also join a ‘Friends of
the Museum’ organisation.
‘After years spent volunteering in the education
department of a museum, I can honestly say
that it’s been some of the most worthwhile and
fulfilling time I have ever spent’
Mary Pat O’Malley, Volunteer
Enjoying art workshops in the
National Gallery of Ireland.
Working for Museums in Ireland
The Irish Museums Association is a 32 county voluntary,
not for profit association, founded in 1977. It is
dedicated to promoting the interests of museums and
the Irish museums community (those who work in and
are interested in museums) throughout Ireland, north
and south.
The IMA aims
• to promote professional practice in museum
management, collections care and visitor services
• to provide a platform for anyone interested
in Irish museums to provoke debate on museum ideas
• in co-operation with other professional bodies
and central and local government, to achieve a
sustainable level of museum provision and operation
in Ireland.
The IMA journal, Museum Ireland, contains information,
review articles and critical discussion pieces,
while a Newsletter, printed yearly, details current
developments and events in the Irish museum world.
The IMA also organises core training under its ‘Museum
Basics’ Programme, designed in association with the
Heritage Council Museum Standards Programme for
Ireland, in addition to other training events.
Since 8 June 2004, the IMA has been a limited
company, with Directors serving in a voluntary capacity.
For information contact:
Phone: +353 1 6633579; web: www.irishmuseums.org
Teachers, students and children can look at the IMA website
to download Museum activity sheets that can be altered to
suit any museum, historic house or gallery.
The IMA organises a calendar of events comprising
an Annual Conference in Spring, at which critical
themes relevant to the museum sector are debated.
Held at centres throughout Ireland, the Conference
provides an opportunity for members of the Irish
museums community to meet, network and get to
know each other.
The IMA Field Trip visits museums and historic houses
countrywide as a sociable and informative event each
spring, while the Museum Practitioner’s Forum:
Blow Your Own Trumpet, enables those interested in
presenting new concepts and projects to have a
platform to discuss their ideas. A key figure from the
international museums community is invited to speak at the
Annual Lecture in autumn. Special events and ‘Museum
Visits’ are organised in partnership with other museumrelated bodies.
28
Gold model boat from Broighter, beside Lough Foyle, dating from
the 1st century BC. Photo courtesy of the National Museum of Ireland.
‘Why do museums matter? They are the
showcases and battleground for the subjective
thinking, which is tied to our evolution’
Sean Scully, Artist
Sean Scully Wall of Light Orange
Yellow, (detail) (2000) Oil on linen,
274.3 x 335.3 cm.
Presented by the artist, 2006. Collection:
Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
© The Artist.
Acknowledgements
The Board of the Irish Museums Association is grateful to
the following
Credits
Support
Picture copyright © 2008 as listed per image
The Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
without the prior permission of the Irish Museums
Association.
The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure
The Irish Museums Association
Copyright © 2008 The Irish Museums Association
The Northern Ireland Museums Council
A record for this publication is available from the British
Library. ISBN 978 0 9522995 2 3
Launch Venues
Editor: J. Bell & M. Bourke
The Director and Staff of The National Library of Ireland
Exhibition Consultants: Maureen Mackin and
Jonathan Bell.
The Librarian and Staff of The Linen Hall Library, Belfast
Graphic Design: Vermillion
General
Printed in Ireland by Brunswick Press.
To the institutions that provided images and assisted with
the Exhibition Touring Programme.
IMA members and Local Curators’ Groups, who
responded to the exhibition survey.
Helen Monaghan, Brina Casey and Siobhan Feeney.
The Board of the IMA
M Bourke, K. Burns, C. Carr, B. Crowley, P. Doyle,
M. Edwards, N. Hickey, C. Kerrigan, K. Langan,
J. McGreevy, N. Monaghan and E. Verling.
30
i ma
Irish Museums Association
C U M A N N
M H Ú S A E I M
N A
H É I R E A N N
www.vermilliondesign.com
The IMA Administrators, M. Dowling and
N. NicGhabhánn
‘Museums are a part of our national
identity. Although they are spaces for
looking and learning, its great that they
also provide places where people can meet
for lunch, follow a tour and buy souvenirs’
Hazel Brown, college student
Union leader Jim Larkin addressing
striking dockers in Belfast, in 1907.
Photo courtesy of Belfast Central Library.
31
‘I love them! Museums!’
Sean Singleton, visitor
Ploughing with horses, County Down.
Photo courtesy the Trustees of National Museums
Northern Ireland.
32