Seasons Greetings and Reflections on 2023
Written by Claire Messenger, Manager, International Training Programme
We wish the global network of ITP fellows and followers Seasons Greetings and all the best for the coming year!
2023 has been an active and fulfilling year for the International Training Programme when we were able to return to a six-week summer programme for the first time 2019!!
ITP 2023 Annual Programme
The 17th annual ITP programme brought 18 culture and heritage professional from 14 countries to the UK from 3 July to 11 August, the British Museum and nine UK Partner Museums welcomed fellows from 14 countries, including Bulgaria, China, Egypt, India, Iraq, Kenya, Kiribati, Nigeria, Malaysia, Peru, Tunisia, Turkey, USA (Hawai’i) and Vietnam, to the UK.
This year we welcomed three new countries to our growing global network – being joined by fellows from Bulgaria, Kiribati and Vietnam – new connections that we hope will develop into long-term, sustainable and rewarding partnerships.
The ITP network now boasts 353 museum professionals from 60 countries!
We had a wonderful group of fellows for 2023 and we are already looking forward to working with them – and introducing them to the rest of the network – in the future through our legacy projects and programmes.
Our Senior Fellow this year was Ciprian Dobra, Alba Iulia Municipality Counselor and Cultural Objective Curator, Principia Museum (Romania, ITP 2019, Senior Fellow 2023) and it was a delight to have him join us over the summer.
You can read our ITP Annual Report HERE.
And you can see our ITP 2023 Fellows reports HERE.
Beyond the Annual Programme
This year we have been delighted to support members of our ITP network through our Research and Conference Grants. In 2023 the ITP has given grants for fellows to attend conferences covering a diverse range of topics including the Care and Conservation of Manuscripts; Museum Education and Outreach; the XIIIth International Congress of Egyptologists; Museums: Shaping the Future of Education and Current Research in Egyptology. We are also supporting research projects looking at Education Policies in museums in Pakistan and the marginalisation of women in the memory and representation of the South African heritage.
The 10th issue of the International Training Programme annual newsletter marked a significant milestone for our global cohort as a celebration of the voices and views across our network.
For 2023, the ITP team asked our global network to focus on Past and Present – a theme chosen and developed by our ITP Senior Fellow 2022, Roshan Mishra, Director, Taragaon Museum, Nepal. Roshan asked the ITP network to consider how museums, galleries and art institutions are undergoing a variety of transformations with past interpretations being re-narrated in the present context to create engagement with new audiences.
You can read our ITP Newsletter 2023, issue 10 HERE.
2023 also saw the creation of the ITP Advisory Board with the aim of enabling fellows to bring their skills, knowledge and lived experience of culture and heritage sectors around the world, to help shape the programme. Throughout 2023 the board members have worked to create the board’s terms of reference and guidance, to feedback on the annual programme 2023, to feed into the creation of the annual programme 2024, and to create a webpage where they can share their work with the wider global network.
In April, the ITP team were delighted to travel to Glasgow with Cynthia Iruobe, Chief Curator at the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (Nigeria, ITP Fellow 2010). Cynthia is currently in the UK for an MA in curating and joined the ITP team for the ICOM UK Conference 2023 which focused on Addressing the legacies of colonialism nationally and internationally.
And in May the British Museum hosted an event in celebration of the International Training Programme. The evening highlighted the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust’s vital support of the programme over the years and we were delighted to invite ITP fellows Barbara Vujanović (ITP fellow 2016) Chief Curator, Meštrović Atelier (The Ivan Meštrović Museums) and Pankaj Protim Bordoloi (ITP fellow 2018) Deputy Director, Art & Museum Section, President’s Secretariat Rashtrapati Bhavan to speak at the event.
In November 2023 we invited seven ITP Fellows to join us between 4 – 12 November 2023 at the Museums Association (MA) conference and exhibition, Gateshead. The conference took place on 7 – 9 November 2023 at the Sage, Gateshead and focused on The Power of Museums and there was also the opportunity to spend time at museums, galleries, and heritage sites in and around Gateshead with additional programming focused on our participants’ specific areas of interest.
We’d also like to thank everyone who supported the ITP in 2023 whether this was through their generous financial support or through sharing their knowledge, collections and spaces. The International Training Programme wouldn’t be possible without them and we are so grateful for the opportunities their support gives us to deliver both the annual programme and our legacy projects.
And in other news, we were delighted to share that our ITP Coordinator Anna, welcomed a beautiful little girl, Ottoline Ira, to her family in February 2023 and to be joined by Amelia, who has taken on the role of ITP Assistant while George covers Anna’s maternity leave.
Finally, we’d like to send our very best wishes to our ITP colleagues in Palestine and Sudan who have experienced so much sadness this year – we are thinking of you all.
Warm wishes to all!
Claire, George and Amelia