GEM Conference 2006
REACHING OUT AND
WORKING TOGETHER
5 to 9 September
2006 in Durham
How
are museums, libraries and archives working together?
What
effect is Renaissance having in the region?
How
well do we reach out?
This conference aims to address these issues in a very practical way by looking at the innovative partnerships and projects happening within and between museums, libraries and archives.
As well as focusing on the north east, we shall be looking outwards and taking in the global perspective.
The conference will be based in the beautiful and historic city of Durham, seat of the Prince Bishops, in the north east of England; an ideal location from which to explore this hub of culture and creativity. The region prides itself on its passion for heritage (with such outstanding examples as Hadrian’s Wall and Durham’s magnificent Cathedral), as well as its passion for innovation (with the Sage, Baltic and Seven Stories).
The North East of England – it’s not just about Romans and Football!
Conference Report 2006
John Reeve GEM Trustee
This is just to give a flavour of conference for those who weren’t there, or can’t remember too much. Full details, with reports from the bursary holders, will be posted soon on the GEM website. Professor Richard Ennals’ paper, ‘Going Global with GEM’ is in JEM 2006.
First, thanks to everyone involved in organising this conference and especially to Sarah Gouldsbrough and Sarah Price at the helm. Anyone who has organised a GEM conference knows what an immense amount of extra work it involves on top of the day job.
We were offered a wide range of visits and speakers, and remarkable places to eat! We spent two evenings in the world heritage site at the heart of historic Durham – when did you last eat out in both a castle and a cathedral?
We spent the last evening with a barbecue on the Hartlepool quayside (an intriguingly post-modernist bit of constructed heritage). We were welcomed with a demonstration of how to fire firearms from lady gunners, and then given the opportunity to knock ourselves out on the low beams of the beautifully restored frigate HMS Trincomalee. Does each GEM conference now need a nostalgic nautical event?
We were challenged to think globally about heritage by Professors Peter Stone of Newcastle and Richard Ennals of Kingston, who proposed a closer link between GEM and his organisation CEWC (Council for Education in World Citizenship). We also found out more about world heritage sites actual and potential in Durham and at Jarrow (Bedesworld).
We had previews of the Birmingham exhibition on Equiano, and the abolition of the slave trade, and from Frank Field MP of the Government’s forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review which, combined with the DCMS focus on expenditure on the Olympics, is a big concern for all of us. He emphasised the importance of lobbying your MPs and keeping up your local profile with the media.
This conference was a good opportunity (as at Winchester) to see Renaissance in action in one of the most coherent of the hubs. Sue Wilkinson updated us on the national situation and we heard about it in practice from Tyne and Wear Museums.
It was especially heartening to hear a very positive endorsement of GEM and its aims from Alec Coles, Director of TWM. Anyone who hadn’t been to Newcastle recently (or ever) was in for a shock- another bracing example of regeneration physical and cultural, symbolised particularly by the quayside combo of Baltic (a less dour younger sister of Tate Modern), The Sage concert hall and arts centre, and the new bridge.
Hurtling around the Northeast it was difficult to believe how much heavy industry had once belched and blasted here, including around where the Angel of the North now spreads its arms like a secular version of the Christ that presides over Rio de Janeiro.