Widening social participation in conservation and display of archaeology at the Museum of London

Summary

Since the 1980s, the MoL conservators have carried out innovative projects to engage new audiences and involve the public in conservation activities. Large structures have been conserved in the galleries, with students providing interpretation.

Volunteer programmes have also been used to engage diverse audiences, offering the opportunity to handle archaeological material, take part in museum work and gain transferable skills. For the Galleries of Modern London, adults from an employment-support organisation also worked with staff to create a display of excavated objects.

In June 2012 the Museum opened Our Londinium 2012, its most ambitious collaborative display to date. A group of 50 young Londoners have "reinvented" the Roman gallery, using multimedia installations, modern objects and artworks to explore similarities and differences bewteen Roman Londinium and modern London. Every element - commissioning designers, planning installations, writing captions and marketing - has been done collaboratively with Junction, the Museum's youth panel.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Transforming Narratives and Globalizing Access: Curation, Conservation and Social Engagement   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 410