by Flying Geese Consultant, Beckie Smith
Introduction
Hampshire Cultural Trust promotes Hampshire as a county that offers outstanding cultural experiences to both its residents and visitors. From museums to galleries and arts centres, they manage 24 attractions across the county and in addition to offering a varied engagement programme, they care for 2.5 million objects that relate to Hampshire’s rich and internationally important cultural heritage.
What are we doing?
Flying Geese is working with Hampshire Culture Trust to evaluate their Hunter Gatherers project which seeks to develop meaningful and impactful ways of engaging communities in the process of curatorship, gathering stories and memories before they are forgotten. The process will also see HCT develop new ways of working with volunteers, and improve best practice of guardianship around their collections.
Legacy and Impact
Our work evaluates whether volunteer participants have the opportunity to learn new skills and foster new understanding by actively participating in the curatorial process. We want to see if this process enables volunteers to gain a stronger connection with the
social History of Hampshire. We are testing whether the project prevents the risks associated with loss of knowledge and understanding, in a way that would not be available without the intervention.
And finally, we are evaluating the change in the capability and confidence in both staff teams and in volunteers as HCT trial and test new ways of working.