GEM Conference 2011
6 - 8 September 2011, Norwich
Thinking ahead and staying afloat
Reports of this year's annual conference will appear in the next edition
of the Journal of Education at the end of November but read John Reeve's
first impressions of conference below.
"This year’s conference in Norfolk was distinctive in several ways –
we weren’t squeezed into student rooms on a campus, but in a country
house hotel that looked mainly Jacobean but wasn’t; we didn’t rush
around in coaches; we had a small trade fair; we concentrated on
issues, and attracted some major speakers (including Carole Souter
of the Heritage Lottery Fund and Vanessa Trevelyan president of the
Museums Association and local museum director) and delegates from
Sweden, Canada and of course Holland. We were especially inspired by
Tony Butler of the Museum of East Anglian Life and his focus on
values and well-being, which also figured in Tom Schiller’s talk on
lifelong learning.
One of the many impressive features of Norfolk museums is its close
relationship with the University of East Anglia, about which we
heard from Terry Haydon and Collie Mudie. We also experienced the
silvery Sainsbury Centre by night and heard from Veronica Sekules
about its work, as a pioneering force for art gallery learning and
inventive programming right across East Anglia. Many thanks to the
Norfolk Museums Service, the Sainsbury Centre and to everyone who
contributed.
We discussed shifts in thinking- moving away from a national
structure with national polices, strategies and measures to a more
decentralised, localised set of shifting relationships; replacing
entitlement with bargaining, negotiation and advocacy- whether with
school heads, universities, training and skills providers, parents,
local funders or other cultural and heritage partners.
We especially talked about the challenges for us – as individuals
and as organisations and as GEM – to develop and sustain these
relationships. The next GEM Journal will be full of it!"
John Reeve