Scotland

University of St Andrews

Consortium Coordinator

 

Universidad de St Andrews

Coordinador del Consorcio

As Scotland’s first university, the University of St Andrews has established a reputation as one of the world’s leading research and teaching centres.

EU-LAC MUSEUMS is coordinated through the Museums, Galleries and Collections Institute (MGCI) located in the eminent School of Art History.

 

Como primera universidad de Escocia, la Universidad de St Andrews se ha consolidado como uno de los mejores centros de enseñanza e investigación del mundo.

EU-LAC MUSEUMS está coordinado a través del Instituto de Museos, Galerías y Colecciones (MGCI) ubicado en la eminente Escuela de Historia del Arte.

Museums, Galleries and Collections Institute (MGCI) oversees the overall management and administration of EU-LAC MUSEUMS project, and is leading on new research into museum education for social inclusion and cohesion.   El Instituto de Museos, Galerías y Colecciones (MGCI) supervisa la gestión y administración general del proyecto EU-LAC MUSEUMS y lidera nuevas investigaciones sobre educación en museos para la inclusión social y la cohesión.
     

 

Museums, Galleries and Collections Institute, School of Art History: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/arthistory/

The EU-LAC-MUSEUMS project is being run under the auspices of the Museums, Galleries and Collections Institute (MGCI) in the School of Art History in the University of St Andrews. Dr Karen Brown is Director of the Institute and Coordinator of EU-LAC-MUSEUMS: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/arthistory/research/mgci/

The Museums, Galleries and Collections Institute (MGCI) was set up for research, education and training in cultural heritage, with a particular focus on museums, art galleries and historic houses, and their collections. It is the centre for research activities in museology.

The Research Institute was founded upon the expertise built up over many years from running our Museum and Gallery Studies courses, which have helped to establish St Andrews as Scotland’s leading centre for training and research in the heritage sector. The seaside location of our mediaeval town and university provides a beautiful setting for the study of museums, their history, purpose and contemporary development. Based in the School of Art History, we offer a range of full-time and part-time courses in Museum and Gallery Studies. Taught modules on the Theory and Practice of Museums are balanced with practical projects based either on the museum collections of this 600-year-old university, or at a local museum or gallery. Structured visits are an essential part of the programme and we are well placed for visiting museums, art galleries, historic houses, ships and other heritage sites: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/arthistory/prospective/pg/mgs/

Collections are at the heart of museums, and of our museum training. The importance of collections has been recognised in recent research and publications. Collections, in the widest context, are the starting point for the research of the Institute.

Aims of the Institute

  • to be a focus for quality research on the history, theory and practice of museums
  • to initiate, carry out and promote research
  • to facilitate the research of others
  • to encourage interdisciplinary and collaborative research
  • to research further the training needs of the sector
  • to enhance the teaching portfolio by developing short courses for CPD, career development and specialist expertise



Museums for Social Inclusion and Cohesion


Characterize and promote the statements about historic and family memory, cultural identity and material/immaterial heritage which are emitted by the museums of the Region of Los Rios, and other museums situated in member countries from the EU-LAC Museum Consortium. Pursuing the promotion of ancestral knowledge, the bi-directional transmission of knowledge and principles between the communities / museums / universities, and strengthening the working relationship of the network of Museums.

Technology and Innovation for Bi-Regional Integration

By allowing local community museums to create a network with other similar organisations, in both LAC and EU, our project, and in particular this work package, will significantly promote and aid the development of mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples, through digital (namely web) and physical in situ means. Museums are an invaluable tool in this process due to their capacity to connect the remote/digital with the present/physical understanding of the world, both in terms of its similarities and diversities.

Fostering Sustainable Community Museums

EU-LAC-MUSEUMS seeks to carry out out a comparative analysis of small to medium-sized rural museums and their communities in the EU and LAC regions, and to develop associated history and theory.

Exhibiting Migration and Gender

To empower institutional partners within the EU_LAC project with the necessary digitisation and communication technology training and tools allowing them to fully participate in and support the development of a virtual museum of the migration experience/s as informed by the experiences and trajectories outlined.
To conceptualise and develop new interpretation resources, utilising both historical and contemporary contracts (both memory and art based) in the development of travelling exhibitions and associated educational resources, making available through partnership arrangements with museums as identified.

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Galleries of 3D Artefacts

Objects, following certain criteria, are picked by museum staff to either be 3D scanned or photogrammatised. Scanning can be done only if the necessary equipment is available, which lends photogrammetry to be the preferred affordable method. Images are sent through open source software that creates a 3D file which then can be archived and uploaded to a social archiving site such as Sketchfab. As a social site, Sketchfab tracks a user’s followers, views and comments. All digital objects appear in a video player which can be embedded in websites easily.

EU LAC Virtual Museum

Created specifically for the EU-LAC MUSEUMS project by the University of St Andrews, the EU-LAC MUSEUMS Virtual Museum is a major research outcome that assembles digital media of cultural heritage; making it easy to access and use. 3D digital objects, 360° museum tours and community discussion videos populate the Virtual Museum as content generated from the 3D Workshops, held in three European, three Latin American and three Caribbean countries. By creating digital content from community museums all over the world, the heritage, objects and stories can be shared and appreciated by a global audience.

Tangible & Intangible database

One of the objectives of this initiative is to encourage small community museums to contribute to a global online inventory.
In community museums, the exhibited objects represent (or are part of) an intangible cultural heritage. We propose the creation of a database that integrates an object-oriented inventory with an intangible cultural heritage-oriented inventory.

The contents of the website will be easier to search and access if we place all the cultural heritage (tangible and intangible) in a single database, even though the registration fields are not all the same for these two types of cultural heritage. In addition, an item placed in the database may contain a publication, several image files, a video file or an audio file. Or just one of these elements.

Bibliography

Bibliography of Museums, Community and Sustainability [Database + PDF]

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