Thanks letter to the Museum of University of Manchester and Whitworth Art Gallery

By Francisco Silva Noelli, Levent Boz and Joyee Roy

As participants of the ITP 2011 we would like to make public the great time we had whilst at TheManchester  Museum and at The Whitworth Art Gallery. The nine days we spent there were very intense with several activities. The staff and volunteers have also contributed tremendously to make our time in Manchester very productive.

We would like to give a special thank you to Bryan Sitch and Frances Pritchard. Their welcome was very friendly and the program they prepared allowed us to have access to different ways of managing museums and displaying exhibitions.

The manner in which the museum staff gave their presentations allowed for much dialogue, leaving us comfortable to exchange experiences and ideas.

All themes presented in the program were very interesting. Especially the education strategies, the relationships with communities, families, and the living cultures of other continents represented in Manchester.

We also appreciated their rather postcolonial perspective – both practically and theoretically – in the curating of collections, especially regarding the so called living cultures. We found particularly interesting the ways in which the Museum of Manchester makes use of social media in order to actively interact with the local communities and beyond. We found this approach very inspiring.

We would also like to emphasize that the accommodation offered to us was superb and very well located. A flexible schedule allowed us the opportunity to visit other interesting museums such as the People’s History Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry and Roman Fort. Additionally, it also allowed time to visit Leeds, York, Liverpool and your museums over the weekend.

Last but not least, we would like to express our most sincere thanks to all the staff and volunteers of The Manchester Museum and of The Whitworth Art Gallery.