Contemporary Collecting: an ethical toolkit for museum practitioners

The CoSoPho project is happy to have contributed to the toolkit : Contemporary Collecting: an ethical toolkit for museum practitioners, which has just been published online. The project in general is presented and the three case studies: #mygandrup by Aalborg City Archives, the Stockholm Terrorist Attack by the Stockholm Läns Museum and the Nordic Museum, and Social Media Diaries by The Finnish Museum of Photography are presented as cases to learn from in the toolkit.,

The toolkit has been organised by the Contemporary curators network in the UK with the support of the Arts Council England. Editors are Ellie Miles, Susanna Cordner and Jen Kavanagh. The Authors are from a long range of British Museums (see below), The National Archives (UK) and the University of Leeds. You find the toolkit here as pdf: https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/assets/downloads/Contemporary_collecting_toolkit.pdf

The Contemporary curators network presents the toolkit: ”Contemporary collecting involves people making decisions about preserving lived experience, knowledge, stories and objects and as such can venture into complicated ethical territory.
The toolkit aims to be a useful resource for people embarking on contemporary collecting or with some previous experience of the practice. It is also for anyone wishing to learn more about some of the processes. It offers insight from practitioners who have been leading this work and have reflected critically on their practice.”

List of content:

Theme 1. Hate, ‘both sides’ and the idea of balance Introduction by Ellie Miles
Collecting ‘hate’: questions for consideration by Jen Kavanagh
Case study: Sam Jenkins, People’s History Museum
Theme 2. Decolonisation of museums Introduction by Ellie Miles
Top tips for decolonial practice in contemporary collecting by Rachael Minott, The National Archives (UK)
Case study: Charlotte Holmes, Birmingham Museums
Theme 3. Climate emergency Introduction by Ellie Miles
Climate emergency questions and prompts by Ellie Miles
Case study: Laura Boon, Royal Museums Greenwich
Theme 4. Trauma and distress Introduction by Susanna Cordner
Working with trauma by Matt and Jess Turtle, Museum of Homelessness
Case study: Jen Kavanagh, Kingston Centre for Independent Living
Theme 5. Digital preservation Introduction by Susanna Cordner
Getting started in digital preservation by Bill Lowry, Museum of London
Top tips for ethical digital collecting by Arran Rees, University of Leeds
Case study: Elisabeth Boogh, Stockholms Läns Museum; Anni Wallenius, The Finnish Museum of Photography; and Bente Jensen, Aalborg City Archives