Wooden packing cases of different sizes with stencilled text and labels stand in front of a blank wall

Funding success for the Mapping Museums team

We are pleased to announce that the Arts and Humanities Research Council has awarded £1million to the Mapping Museums research team for their project ‘Museum Closure in the UK 2000-2025’.   The new research will use trans-disciplinary methods to analyse closure and collections dispersal within the UK museums sector. Its aim is to examine the geographic […]

Letter on Museum Closure

Our researcher Mark Liebenrood recently wrote a letter to The Guardian about museum closures. His letter is below, or you can read it on the Guardian’s site with other letters about the value and plight of museums in Ukraine and Sudan. Charlotte Higgins is right to highlight the straitened circumstances of the UK’s museums (War […]

Hands holding a tablet computer. On the screen is the word 'connect' with a grid of social media icons

Was there a ‘swing to the digital’? Museums and social media in the pandemic

In the course of the pandemic there were reports of museums boosting their online activity. ArtFund’s 2021 report (download) on the impact of COVID-19 noted most of the respondents felt they had ‘made a significant leap forward’ in relation to digital engagement, and anticipated further development in the future.  The Network of Museum Organisations (download […]

The UK Museums Boom (and what happened next)

The Mapping Museums project is coming to an end. Please join us for the closing lecture:  ‘The UK Museums Boom (and what happened next)’ Thursday 17th November 6pm Clore Management Centre, Birkbeck, 27 Torrington Square, London WC1E 7JL (Map) Chair: Isabel Wilson, Arts Council England Speaker: Prof Fiona Candlin, Professor of Museology, Birkbeck Respondent: Lisa […]