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 […]

Four images show, clockwise from top left: a red lipstick with an attached label that reads: "This lipstick was from my wonderful sister who was the first family member to accept and support my transition"; a street installation by the Museum of Homelessness with objects on tall white plinths on a pavement; Matt and Jess Turtle, founders of the Museum of Homelessness, standing in front of the steps of a church - the steps are lined with hundreds of small lights; E-J Scott, founder of the Museum of Transology, who holds a large label with the museum's name on it.

New Activist Museums

Please join us for an online event featuring the founders of two new activist museums. Thursday 6 May, 6pm. Book here. How do museums respond to the changing world around them? Featuring  the founders of two of these new museums, the Museum of Transology and the Museum of Homelessness, this panel explores the current flowering of museums which focus […]

Geoff Burton (RAF Ingham Heritage Centre), Anne Read (Museum of North Craven Life), Steve Allsop (Ingrow Loco Museum and Workshop).

Meet the founders and archive launch

Why would you open a museum? How would you do it? Enjoy an evening of interviews with the founders of small independent museums, hosted by the Bishopsgate Institute. Interviewees will include: Steve Allsop (Ingrow Loco Museum and Workshop), Geoff Burton (RAF Ingham Heritage Centre), and Anne Read (Museum of North Craven Life). This online event […]

Partial map of UK showing East Anglia with locations of museums marked

Going Public

After three-and-a-half years of intense research and development we will be publishing the Mapping Museums project on Tuesday 17th March 2020. To mark the event we will be having a panel discussion and a drinks reception at the London Transport Museum. Tickets are free but places are limited. Please book your seat at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mapping-museums-launch-tickets-88839716985 We […]

Small museums in a global context

In June 2019, the Mapping Museums team ran a half-day symposium, where specialists on Brazilian, British, Canadian, and Tibetan museums talked about museums of taxidermied gophers, the importance of place, alternative histories, and the factors underpinning the expansion of the museum sector, among other topics. If you missed the event you can now watch those […]

Mapping Museums Website Evaluation 2019

Can you help us to evaluate the Mapping Museums website? Mapping Museums is a large-scale research project that is based at Birkbeck, University of London, which aims at documenting at analysing the development of the museum sector from 1960 until 2020. We have now designed a database that enables users to browse, search, and visualise […]

Workshop: Museums Futures in a Time of Austerity

Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury 2-4.30pm, 24th February 2018 Museum closures are a matter for concern. The austerity measures introduced under the current government have resulted in local authorities reducing funding for museums and some have been forced to close. In this workshop we examine the landscape of closure within the UK. How do […]

AIM! I’m going to map forever…

Last week the Mapping Museums team attended the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) annual conference hosted at Chatham Historic Dockyard. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the foundation of AIM, which itself gives a good indication as to the moment when the growth of independent museums began to gather pace. As our project is […]