Welcoming the ITP cohort 2021 to the British Museum

Written by Claire Messenger, Manager, International Training Programme.

The ITP 2021 started at the British Museum on Monday 14 March. It has been a long wait to have international colleagues back in the Museum so it was wonderful to be able to welcome them and spend the day introducing them to the International Training Programme.

We spend our first morning in the Boardroom and after a welcome from the Director, our fellow enjoyed a tour of the Museum with two of our wonderful volunteers. Our fellows had lunch with their departmental colleagues and then had the afternoon, with their mentors to see their Object in focus objects and discuss their narratives and display.

During the day we also asked the fellows to take part in an expectations session to get a sense of their hopes and fears for the next four weeks.

We were delighted to see that our cohort had more ‘hopes’ than ‘fears’ but our challenge over the course of the Programme 2021 will be to make sure all their ‘hopes’ are realised and that we provide the support to help them through their ‘fears’.

Hopes	Fears
To meet new friends.	Four weeks is too short!!
Be updated.	Missing my friends and colleagues.
Upskill myself.	The thought of leaving the ITP after building beautiful friendships.
Improve my English	Managing my work AND taking part in the ITP (including the time difference)!!
Gain new experiences.	Nothing.
Become a better professional, a better person for my community.	Homesick all the time.
Meeting the ITP team and the ITP fellows.	Fear of Covid infection.
New ideas.	Jetlag!!
Exchanging experiences.	Missing my studio space – being away from painting and sculpting and being creative.
Meeting new people.	Stress about my responsibility as an ITP fellow.
Meeting new people to chat, share and exchange ideas.	Understanding the speakers in my second language.
To meet with colleagues from different regions of the world.	I will miss the activities for Ghana month
To get to know the British Museum.
To exchange ideas.
Networking.
Exchange ideas about the challenges in the museum sector.
Learn about each other’s cultures.
To be constantly challenged.