The British Museum’s Africa Programme has issued their Spring 2013 Newsletter. You can download it here: BM Africa Programme newsletter Spring 2013 

And to find out more about the Africa Programme, you can visit their webpage.

Last month Neal Spencer and I travelled to Cairo to interview Egyptian candidates for this summer’s International Training Programme.

The interviews went very well and we had the opportunity, not only to select our participants for 2013, but to see friends and colleagues at the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs.

Nevine Nizar (ITP 2012) kindly organised a very instructive tour of the conservation and storage facilities that will form part of the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) which is currently under construction. It was lovely to see Nevine, to be introduced to her colleagues and a great privilege to have such access around the new museum.

View from the Grand Egyptian Museum site

Grand Egyptian Museum building

 

We also had the opportunity to see Mostafa Kamal Mousad Gadelmoulaa and Khaled Ahmed Sadek Ali (ITP 2010) at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC). After two interesting presentations, one on the principles and progress of NMEC and the other on the Museums refurbished storage facilities, we enjoyed a tour of the Museum site.

Many thanks to all those we saw and helped make our week so interesting – and apologises to those we didn’t have the chance to see this time.

Claire

The Art Fund has anounced the shortlist of 10 organisations in the running to win the £100,000 prize for Museum of the Year 2013. Click here to find out more.

ITP participants will be familiar with two of the nominated finalists: Horniman Museum & Gardens, London which hosts us on a lovely day-trip every year, and the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow which hosts participants on their 10-day UK Partner placement. Congratulations to both of our ITP partners!

The winner will be announced live on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row from the award ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on 4 June.

Drawing from an album of drawings of antiquities, formerly belonging to Edward Dodwell; lekythos decorated with a meander, palmette and ivy leaf pattern, Pen and ink and watercolour; 1805-1806 (circa)

At this week’s staff breakfast, Ian Jenkins, Kim Sloan and Celeste Farge talked about the Prints and Drawings exhibitions ‘ In search of Classical Greece: Travel drawings of Edward Dodwell and Simone Pomardi, 1805-1806′. An exhibiton currently on show in Room 90 of the British Museum. The exhibition  looks at Greece through the eyes of the classical scholar Edward Dodwell (about 1777–1832) and his Italian artist, Simone Pomardi (1757-1830). During their travels in 1805-6, they recorded the country and its people in a series of fascinating and spectacular drawings and watercolours.
Click for more info.

The International Training Programe team are delighted to announce that Eileen Ondusye Musundi, Curator, The Nairobi Gallery in Kenya and Exhibitions Designer, National Museums Kenya, will be joining us this summer on the past-participant training opportunity 2013.

Eileen first came to the British Museum on the ITP 2008 when she was based in the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Amercias with Julie Hudson and Katherine Coleman. For her UK Partner placement she went to Cardiff and was hosted at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales by Melanie Youngs. Eileen also took part in the Cairo Conference in 2010 and wrote an insightful essay for the ITP book.

In the years following the ITP, Eileen has helped organise permanent, temporary and touring exhibitions for National Museum Kenya and she is now curator in charge of The Nairobi Gallery.

We are delighted to welcome Eileen back this year and hope this will become an annual opportunity for a past-participant to further their training and to re-engage with staff at the British Museum and colleagues and friends around the UK.

The annual ITP day-trip destination has been named second best World Heritage site in the world for visitors by Which? Travel magazine. The sites were judged on 25 criteria, including visitor experience, the preservation of the site and the holiday appeal of the local region.

Last summer’s ITP trip got rained out, and unfortunately we missed visiting Avebury, but I know that previous years’ participants have many a happy memory there!

You can read the BBC article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-21107977

Aba visiting Avebury during ITP 2009

Njeri, Bulent and Shezza at Avebury in summer 2010

  

This morning’s staff talk by Dominic Oldman, Deputy Head of IS and Development Manager, was titled A History of the World in 100 Million Objects.  This light-heartedly refers to the to the recent British Museum and BBC project A History of the World in 100  Objects, and  takes is to the larger scale of the vast quantity of objects in museums worldwide.

Dominic explained the new developments of Semantic Web technology, which can use the Internet to bring together data from multiple cultural heritage organisations to provide a fresh look at history using quantitative analysis and modelling of data against the linked digital information.

The British Museum is at the forefront of using this technology for cultural heritage research which has the potential for changing the way that humanities research is conducted by removing organisational barriers, allowing new knowledge to be inferred through semantic data harmonisation and allowing new and bigger ‘Enlightenment style’ questions to be proposed. This technology requires that the Internet is used for its original purpose – as a network of knowledge. This means developing new and more appropriate models to the ones that currently restrict the development of collaborative humanities work on the Web.

Take a look at the project’s website Research Space to find out more information on the institutions taking part and project updates.

Dear ITP friends and colleagues,
Thank you very much for making 2012 such a successful year for the ITP! Your support and involvement have been invaluable to the Programme and are sincerely appreciated.

As 2012 draws to a close, we are pleased to deliver this year’s annual report (you can download the pdf using the link below).

ITP Report 2012

We would also like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours all the very best in the coming year.

Sincerely,
The ITP team

We are pleased to announce that for summer 2013 we are able to offer a fully-funded placement for a past International Training Programme participant to join us again at the British Museum.

The aim of the placement will be for a past-participant to bring their invaluable experience of the Programme, of London and the BM partner museums to next year’s ITP.

We will offer you:-

• the opportunity to re-connect with colleagues at the British Museum and UK Partner Museums,
• invaluable experience of organising and delivering a training programme; the flexibility needed to adapt to participants needs and requests; working to immoveable deadlines; and communicating with colleagues from around the world.
• the opportunity to work with us so we can show, in principle and practice, how the programme is funded, the courses developed, the logistics arranged, the programme delivered, evaluated and finally, reported back to stakeholders.

You will agree to:-

• prepare and deliver a presentation on your experiences of the ITP and its role in your career and your institution’s development,
• to blog on a daily basis to create a diary of your role, experiences and achievements and be part of the increasing on-line presence of the ITP.
• to help evaluate the Programme both from a personal perspective and to feedback on comments from programme attendees and facilitators
• to write an entry for the ITP annual report.
• assist the ITP manager and assistant with administrative, logistical and practical tasks throughout the Programme, including occasional weekend and evening events

We would hope that the successful candidate would join us 10 days before the ITP starts on to assist in the preparation, and to stay for two weeks after the end of the programme to work on the evaluation and annual report.

As with the ITP, we will cover the cost of flights, your UK travel, accommodation, subsistence and any visa related expenses and will make all necessary arrangements for you.

To apply:-

• you will need to be available for the following dates, 29th July to 5th October 2013 (tbc).
• have the permission of your institution and immediate line-management.
• ensure that you are able to obtain a visa for this period .
• write 500 words on why you would like to take up this opportunity with the International Training Programme team, focussing on the following areas:-
  What you can bring to the role. Please give details of any training courses or events you have organised before. What digital experience you have. How you will be able to use what you will learn on your return home and how this will benefit you and your institution.

Please submit your CV along with the statement no later than 18th January 2013 to itp@britishmuseum.org

Dates for the International Training Programme 2013

12th August to 21st September 2013 (Partnership UK placement dates, 11th – 20th September 2013)

The participants were asked to develop a proposal for a small temporary exhibition based on an object or group of objects in the British Museum’s collection. The participants drew on their own interests, cultures and recent experiences of the International Training Programme at the British Museum and other UK museums. On the last day of the 2012 ITP, they presented their exhibition ideas to their fellow participants, staff from the BM and Partnership UK museums and some of the ITP sponsors.

You can view their interesting and varied presentations by clicking on the titles below.

‘Continuing Tradition’

Rajeshwari Shah (Independent Researcher and Curator, New Delhi, India)

Asad Hayee (Curator, Rohtas 2 Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan)

 ‘The Messages in African Textiles’

Saadu Hashim Rashid (Head of Public Programmes, Coast Fort Jesus World Heritage Site, Mombasa, Kenya)

 

 

‘Reflection’

Ayman Al-Shweiki (Student, Birzeit University Volunteer, Birzeit University Museum, Palestine)

 

 

‘Balance It Out’

Lina Abdel-Kader (Student of Architecture and Archaeology, Birzeit University, Palestine)

Nathalie El Alam (MA student of Museology and Conservation Techniques, Lebanese University, Beirut)

Ren Zhuo (Head of Exhibition Department, Sichuan Museum, Chengdu, China)

‘Measure the Time’

Abdel Rehim Hanafy (Curator, Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, Egypt)

 

 

‘Crown’

Makbule Ekici (Research Assistant, Selçuk University, Department of Archaeology, Konya, Turkey)

 

 

‘Bad News, Good Gods’

Dai Penglun (Project Assistant, Arts Exhibition China, Beijing)

Alejandro Gonzalez Villarruel (Deputy Director, National Museum of Anthropology, National Institute of Anthropology and History, Mexico City, Mexico)

‘Sudanese Beads’

Huda Magzoub Elbashir (Curator, Sudan National Museum, Khartoum)

 

 

‘Mithras: Cult and Mysteries’

Shambwaditya Ghosh (Archivist, EKA Cultural Resources & Research, New Delhi, India)

 

 

‘Footprints’

Hind Younes (MA student of Museology and Conservation Techniques, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon)

 

 

 ‘Sex in the Museum’

Halah Mohammed Abbas (Archaeologist, Iraq National Museum, Baghdad)

Akram Ijla (Director General, The Palestinian Department of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Rammallah, Palestine)

 ‘Nursing Mothers: A Visual Guide from Ancient Egypt’

Nevine Zakaria (Egyptologist Text Writing Team, The Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza, Egypt)

 

 

 

‘The Game with Many Names’

Paul Michael (Museum Education Officer, The National Museum of Tanzania, Mwalimu J K Nyerere Museum)

Ishaq Mohammad Bello (Principal Technical Officer (Education), National Museum Kaduna, Nigeria)

‘All about one deity’

Ma Shengnan (Associate Reseracher, Department of Court History, Palace Museum, Beijing, China)

 

 

‘Ba Houses in Ancient Egypt’

Marwa Razek Mahmoud (Associate Registrar for Movements, The Registration, Collections Management and Documentation Department, The Egyptian Museum, Cairo)

 

‘Nigerian Pottery and its Significance’

Eunice Barminas (Assistant Chief Museum Education Officer, National Museum Jos, Nigeria)

 

 

‘Olympic Heroes’

Salem Masoud (Department of Archaeology, The Museum of Libya, Tripoli)

Saleh Mahmoud (Archaeologist, Department of Antiquities, Benghazi, Libya)