Networking meeting at Imperial War Museum North
On Friday 11th January, at the invitation of Graham Boxer, the director of the Imperial war Museum North in Salford, members of the Legacies of war team attended a networking day for academics from local universities.
Attendees came from a wide variety of institutions including Universities of Manchester, Salford Huddersfield, Leeds, MMU, Sheffield Hallam, Lancaster and Liverpool John Moore’s as well as colleges and art schools across the North West.
The day was exceptionally informative, giving us the opportunity to learn more about the museum itself and its research department, as well as education and exhibitions programme. Also the type of audience who attend the museum and what their main reasons for visiting are. The museum has a strong research output including Collaborative PhDs, seminar series and unique research into unexplored areas of military and social history connected with war since 1914.
We were asked to discuss ways in which we felt we contribute to a collaboration between the museum and various universities were discussed, ideas included: lecture and seminars; exhibition ideas and contributions to research for their interpretation and content; the forming of a database of researchers; artistic and performance based responses to the space and setting up a network on a more permanent basis.
In 2014 the Imperial war Museum will lead the centenary commemorations of the First World War, as of January 2013 the main museum in London is temporarily closed for redesign and refurbishment, however the IWMN has yet to confirm its plans and this could be an exciting opportunity for those involved with Legacies of War to help determine the shape of a national museums interpretation of this significant anniversary.