GEM/SMC GRASS ROOTS PROJECT
Update 3 - Grass Roots to continue for a further year
I am happy to announce that the GEM/SMC Grass Roots project and, therefore also my post, is continuing for a second year thanks to continued funding from the Scottish Museums Council (SMC) to the Group for Education in Museums (GEM).
The two organisations have agreed to continue to work in partnership on this project for a further year, to increase and enhance the learning services on offer by their museum and gallery members. The chief objective of Grass Roots is to achieve a lasting legacy of material and intellectual resources to support ongoing, confident and continually-improving access and learning provision in Scottish museums and galleries. This legacy will be of ongoing value and use to staff and volunteers implementing SMC and GEM access and learning initiatives. The project is overseen by a project committee which consists of GEM, GEM Scotland and SMC representatives.
Evaluation
The decision to continue the Grass Roots project was informed by an
independent evaluation commissioned by SMC towards the end of last financial
year. The evaluation report together with feedback from training events,
resources and verbal feedback from members, shapes year two of Grass Roots.
Improvements include:
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ensuring activities reach as great an audience as possible, including more entry-level users
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more promotion of the use of the website and its resources, and of the Grass Roots project across the wider museum community, and the introduction of a Grass Roots newsletter
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changing title of post from Education Officer to Learning Development Officer
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adopting the terms ‘core skills’ and 'developing skills’ to classify the training courses (instead of using the terms ‘specialist’ and ‘non-specialist’) to show whether they are aimed at early or intermediate career stages and to make a formal link to the GEM Scotland programme, which will now be called ‘skills plus’
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partner organisations working more collaboratively when planning and signposting training and events to enhance what is on offer to users.
Training
A total of 189 people attended Grass Roots training events over the past
year. This included museum and gallery professionals from a range of museums
and backgrounds, including curators, education, learning and outreach officers,
directors, rangers, cultural co-ordinators and freelancers. They came from a
variety of organisations including local authorities, universities, independent
museums, national museums, galleries and schools.
Events ranged from training designed for museum staff with limited educational expertise to more experienced learning professionals, providing a more in-depth look at issues such as becoming more inclusive to people with special educational needs, developments in the schools’ curriculum and examining how museums, galleries and artists work together.
The results of the evaluations of the training events have been very positive. Overall confidence in delivery, benefits to work, ability to contribute more and ability to work in partnership were all rated highly. People also said they enjoyed the training days and their practical approach.
Resources
A number of resources and guidelines have been developed over the course
of year one which are now available on the Grass Roots section of the GEM
website. They are labelled as either
‘advice notes’ (more guidance on where to find information, what policies and procedures you should have in place, etc) such as advised rates of pay for hiring artists or
‘how to guides’ which are more practical step by step guides, such as ‘organising an educational event’ or ‘how to design loans boxes and handling kits’.
The resources and guidelines all contain case studies with practical advice from organisations such as the Open Museum, West Dunbartonshire Council and Learning and Teaching Scotland. Hard copies can be obtained by contacting the Learning Development Officer directly.
I should welcome any feedback from GEM and SMC members regarding any area of Grass Roots.
Susan
Galloway
Learning Development Officer
GEM/SMC Grass Roots Project
Friday, 19 May 2006