ITP 2021: Fellow led time

Written by George Peckham, ITP Assistant

From previous ITP evaluations, fellows have spoken about how they would like some time in the programme to share their skills and knowledge with their colleagues. For ITP 2021, we had a session called ‘fellow led time’ to allow this knowledge sharing to happen.

We hope that the fellow led time has some useful benefits to ITP fellows. It gives the fellows an opportunity to practice their presentation skills, to share their skills and experiences, get some useful feedback or advice on a project or piece of work, and open up future opportunities for future collaborations.

A number of the ITP 2021 cohort kindly offered to led a session about a subject of their interest or expertise:

Siddhant Shah, Museum Access Consultant, Access for ALL, led the first session of the day which was all about making museums accessible. In this session Siddhant focused on how the current situation with COVID-19 is an opportunity for public spaces, including museums, to be more inclusive and accessible digitally. Some examples of the tips Siddhant shared for online content included making sure video content has captions for audiences who are deaf or hard of hearing. He also suggested considering the colour contrast on visual content makes text easy to read.

Next we heard from Uktamali Ravshanov, Head of History Department, Bukhara State Museum Reserve. Uktamali talked about a collection of art pieces from Bukhara which he has been studying. He presented these miniature paintings of Abdullah II, who ruled the Bukhara Khanate in the 16th century. It was during this time that miniature and calligraphy schools formed in Bukhara, where artists mostly from India and Iran would create works in the image of Abdullah II.

We were joined by Aimée Bou Rizk, Museum Assistant, AUB Archaeological Museum who is here working with the BM’s conservation department for the Beirut Glass Project. Aimée gave a session which shared some of the devastating damage caused by the explosion in Beirut in August 2020. The AUB Archaeological Museum was damaged in the explosion. Large cabinets of glass objects were knocked over in the explosion, shattering the collection of glass objects the cabinets displayed. Aimée discussed the work she is involved in to recover and restore some of these glass objects.

Mario Tuki, Collections Manager, Rapa Nui Museum (MAPSE), spoke next about his work and his museum. Mario’s session was more of an open discussion about the various challenges of his work environment and how some personal skills help him in his role. Mario showed some photos and videos of his museum and his work, while the group shared some of their own similar experiences in their institutions.

Finally, we heard from Nosiba Mahgoub Osman, Curator, Sudan National Museum, in a session about making Sudan National Museum more accessible. Nosiba led a discussion on how she can help make the museum more inclusive to all visitors, especially those with disabilities. The rest of the cohort gave their input and suggestions, with the hope that this will lead to more collaboration on this subject after the programme.

It was great to have the fellows lead sessions on subjects of their choice, and we thank those of the 2021 cohort who took the chance to present a subject. We can see that this is a valuable aspect of the annual programme which allows to group to learn more about each other and their work.