Professional Development Program for University Museum Professionals in China

2017年04月17日

23 participants from 20 university museums across China gathered in Shanghai from April 10 to 14 for a training week. University Museum Training Week Shanghai is a professional development program co-organized by University Museums and Collections (UMAC) of ICOM, National University Museum Education Alliance (NUMEA) of China and Qian Xuesen Library & Museum (QLM) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. This professional development program is a long-term collaboration between UMAC and QLM. 

This year’s training program is themed as “university museum and university: to understand and to reconstruct”. The topics covered in this year included the relations between university and university museums, reading objects, collection significance assessment and university museum construction & management. The five-day session featured a group of lecturers from both home and abroad, to bridge China and the rest of the world. 

A special meeting was also arranged between UMAC and Shanghai University Museum Alliance. University museum directors and staff from different universities in Shanghai met UMAC president Marta C. Lourenco at QLM to have a deep exchange of museum working conditions, staff make-up, featured collections and exhibitions. Marta introduced UMAC and invited more Chinese university museums to present themselves in their new database system. Representative from Shanghai University Museum Alliance agreed that it was a shared mission to have more China’s university museums and collections seen and heard in the global stage. 

This year’s training program is a starting point of more collaborations between QLM and UMAC in the coming future. Professional development is essential for museum staff in the higher education sector, and China is no exception to contribute its own share.