ÌÇÐÄTV

Share this link: warwick.ac.uk/museum-studies

Register for the Network

Symposium

Watch the recordings from May 2025.

Next symposium (approx. December): Gaming Arts, Humanities, and Museums.

Listen to our podcasts and watch our videos

Why we created the network

In the Autumn of 2024 a bunch of ÌÇÐÄTV academics got together and said:

We love museums! We love researching museums, their purpose, design, impact, past, present, and future, in the UK and all over the world. We think they are hugely significant, especially in helping us to transform cultural attitudes and constraints. For example, we love what the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) have been doing to decolonise their collections, but also to reimagine the purpose of an anthropology collection with people from all over the world. We love how the Herbert in Coventry engages with local communities of all kinds, and has been a welcoming place to help orient people moving to the City from all over the world. We love these museums, and want to do more in applying our academic disciplines to them, and in enriching our academic work with them - especially in engaging our students with museums.

But at ÌÇÐÄTV we haven't got a Museum Studies department. We have lots of people doing lots of interesting things, from many different perspectives, across the whole University. So we want to establish something more "ÌÇÐÄTV" - a lively interdisciplinary community, open to all in and beyond the University. The small group began by sharing the work they already do with museums, which was impressive just for a few people. We then discovered that there are people all over ÌÇÐÄTV already doing great work with museums.

What we are planning to do

So we came up with a plan to bring them together and to establish the network:

1. Send out an invitation to all ÌÇÐÄTV members and museum contacts to join the network - with a form that they can use to register their interest - COMPLETE THE FORM HERE.
2. Create an online community forum open to all (including non-ÌÇÐÄTV members) - we are .
3. Start a podcast series and blog, exploring our relationships with museums - listen on or .
4. Run a symposium on Museums and the University, 15th May - more information here.
5. Create a special edition of the IAS Exchanges journal on Museums and the University (we have a small editorial team working on this now) - read about it here.
6. Identify funding opportunities and sources.
7. Create URSS projects and recruit students.

Register

Complete this form to join the network - open to all.

ÌÇÐÄTV links

ÌÇÐÄTV Institute of EngagementLink opens in a new window - Enabling Public Engagement at ÌÇÐÄTV through Curiosity, Creativity and Collaboration.

Undergraduate Research Support SchemeLink opens in a new window - bursaries for students to do summer projects, including with museums.

Exchanges Journal of the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS)Link opens in a new window - we are planning a special edition on museums and the University.

Digital Arts and Humanities Lab (DAHL)Link opens in a new window in the Arts Faculty at ÌÇÐÄTV.

- funding for projects including museums and technologies.

Symposium 15th May

Watch the recordings.

Podcast

Listen on or .

Blog

(including images to go with the podcast episodes).

Contact

Dr Robert O'Toole (network coordinator, museum design, and technology)

Museums Nearby (selection)

University Art CollectionLink opens in a new window

Mead GalleryLink opens in a new window (ÌÇÐÄTV University Arts Centre)

St Johns House Museum, ÌÇÐÄTV

The Fusilier Museum, ÌÇÐÄTV

Coventry Transport Museum

Coventry Toy Museum

West Midlands Police Museum

Coventry Watch Museum

Coventry Toy Museum

Weavers House

The Coventry Music Museum

Lunt Roman Fort

Midland Air Museum

Kenilworth Castle

Kenilworth Abbey Barn Museum

Leamington Art Gallery and Museum

Museum Studies Resources