University Museums Training Week- Shanghai (UMTWS)
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Qian Xuesen Library & Museum of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (QLM-SJTU), in partnership with University Museums and Collections of International Council of Museums (UMAC-ICOM) runs an annual professional training program: University Museum Training Week-Shanghai, an initiative that is tailored to university museum professionals and researchers in China and beyond. With the support of China’s National University Museum Education Alliance (NUMEA), the program was first held in April 2017, bringing together international researchers and professionals, as well as 23 participants from different university museums all across China, to explore the most dynamic and pivotal relationship between a university museum and its parent institution.
In the foreseeable future, the program will mostly tackle with problems and issues in the settings of China. UMTWS was created in response to a strong emergence of new university museums in China. The trend is a combined result of the urgency of preserving university culture and advocating university values, as well as the nation’s strategy of promoting cultural confidence and cultivating global talents who are also aware of their national identities. UMTWS addresses the need to develop a cadre of university museum builders and professionals who are capable of confidently and skilfully creating and managing university museums.
UMTWS is supportive and developmental, but creates a space that is provocative and challenging - it intentionally disrupts how participants think, working on conceptual, organizational and methodological levels. The program enables participants to break old habits, create new ways of thinking and behaving, to develop skills suited to their own situations.
To discuss further the program please contact the program coordinator, Wenjia Qiu, qiuwenjia@sjtu.edu.cn.
UMTWS 2018
General introduction
The university museum landscape is going through considerable changes worldwide. New university museums are being created and old ones are being restructured and reorganized. Many universities are increasingly looking at museums, collections and heritage as important tools to implement their educational and cultural strategy, as well as meaningful windows between academia and society. For the University Museum Training Week Shanghai 2018(UMTWS 2018), UMAC-ICOM and the Qian Xuesen Library and Museum (QLM-SJTU) have prepared a broad program that goes deep into what it means to be a university museum today, through a combination of case-studies (Chinese and international), field visits, debates and a contemporary bibliography. Thanks to the sponsorship by China’s NEAUCM and SEAUCM, this training program intends to explore the following questions: What are the important issues to be considered in strategic planning, management and policies? What role can collections, exhibitions and educational programs play? What works and what doesn’t – for the museum, the university, and the community?
Goals and Prioritization: Strategic Planning in University Museums
Training will be conducted as a planning workshop where each participant will have developed a draft of a master plan for their own university museum at the end of the session. All participants are asked to bring copies of any existing documents (mission statement, governance structure, master plan, collection policy) in English and in language of origin.
To discuss further the program please contact the program coordinator, Wenjia Qiu, qiuwenjia@sjtu.edu.cn.
UMTWS 2019
General Introduction
UMTWS (University Museums Training Week Shanghai) results from a partnership created in 2017 between ICOM-UMAC and the Qian Xuesen Library and Museum of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (QLM-SJTU) in China. UMTWS courses aim at promoting professional development among university museum professionals from China and Asia. The courses happen every year in April and last typically one week.
UMTWS alternates between BASIC and ADVANCED courses. UMTWS-Basic courses offer broad transversal training in university museum functions while UMTWS-Advanced courses aim at focusing on a particular museum function, discipline or theme of interest. Training methods are always diverse, encompassing theory and practice, case-studies, lectures, roundtables and workshops. Lecturers come from China and abroad.
In 2019, UMTWS will offer a basic course, covering the most important functions of university museums: Preservation, Research and Teaching, Communication and Management.
Faculty
Andrew Simpson, Macquarie University, Australia
Jill Hartz, University of Oregon, USA
Marta C. Lourenço, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Sébastien Soubiran, University of Strasbourg, France
Xiangguang Song, Peking University, China
Zhongmou Li, Shimao Group, China
UMTWS 2019 program (click here)
To discuss further the program please contact the program coordinator, Wenjia Qiu, qiuwenjia@sjtu.edu.cn.