Thoughts and Highlights Involving an Urban Museum Education Partnership and a University

This chapter examines the partnership between an urban art museum and a university. It involves museum educators, art education faculty, and undergraduate students. It specifically explores the development of hands-on museum activities for elementary students created by the university participants. The chapter is written from a higher education perspective. It provides a description of all facets of the partnership from its planning to the completion of the museum activities. The partnership provided the university students authentic museum experiences and ways to make professional connections with museum professionals. Recommendations for those who wish to develop university/museum partnerships are shared.

Etnesjøen – en førromersk landsby på Vestlandet

In the summer months of 2013, the University Museum of Bergen conducted an archeological excavation of a large prehistoric settlement area at Etnesjøen in Etne parish, Western Norway. By use of mechanized top soil stripping numerous buildings, inhumation burials, cooking pits and kilns were uncovered. The site dates from the Late Bronze Age to Early Medieval Period. The focus of the article is the discovery of a Pre-Roman Iron Age village, formed of up to six farms chronologically spanning up to five generations of continuous occupation. At the time of the excavation, this was only the second pre-historic village of its kind found in Norway, indicating a significant and important discovery.

Synergies: University-Museum Collaborations

The purpose of this report is to provide documentation of the University-Museums Synergies Initiative between a Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences and a Museum of Natural Sciences.The goals of this initiative were to 1)identify specific projects and opportunities might be developed to strengthen the collaboration between institutions and 2) gain a betterunderstanding of MEAS researchers’ and Museum employees' perspectives onuniversity-museum partnerships.

“But why paint a dinosaur blue?”: Envisioning the Cretaceous— A vitalizing, multidisciplinary project in a university museum

ABSTRACT In 2017–2018, two fine arts undergraduate students, Todd Rowan and Moesha Wright, conceived and created a mural for the Dunn-Seiler Museum at Mississippi State University, Mississippi, USA, under the supervision of art professor emeritus Brent Funderburk. Students researched, conceptualized, and painted Mississippi Cretaceous Panorama, which interpreted the Late Cretaceous landscape that once surrounded the university and the momentous extinction event that brought the Mesozoic Era to its close. The project necessitated creativity to address several chal lenges, including funding, space constraints, and a local population with Young Earth views. The completed mural engages museum visitors with a mosasaur, ceratopsian dinosaur, and a meteorite impact—illustrating the local, terminal Mesozoic geologic history in a nonthreatening venue that can improve community geoliteracy.

The history of transport education in the exhibits of the Museum of the Russian University of Transport

One of the oldest transport universities in the country — the Russian University of Transport (RUT (MIIT)) — is 125 years old. The history of the university and transport education in general is reflected in the expositions of the university museum.The main historical periods of the development of the museum, starting from 1896, are noted: tsarist Russia, the soviet period until the Great Patriotic war of 1941-1945, the war and post-war years, the post-soviet period.The RUT Museum (MIIT), being the same age as the university, today is one of the oldest museums in Moscow. The collections of items collected in its funds are striking in their diversity and uniqueness. The museum has over 12,000 items, 7,000 of which are on permanent display for visitors. All cultural heritage sites are inextricably linked with the rich history of the university and the history of Russia. Most of the museum's collection is traditionally collected thanks to the help and support of the university staff, as well as its graduates from different years, who honor the traditions of the Alma mater and carefully preserve the history of the university for posterity.Taking into account the specifics of the museum, it is obvious that the number and themes of its expositions will only expand over time, which means that it will not lose its relevance for a very long time and will be of interest to guests of all ages and professions.

A Historical Collection of Termites in Ferrara: Recovery, Cataloguing and Geographical Analyses

Termites are an insect group relevant for recycling of organic matter, but they are also biodeteriogenic and may cause serious damages to wooden structures (including historical buildings and ancient libraries) in anthropogenic environments. The collection of Italian and foreign termites gathered over the years by Antonio Springhetti, Professor of Zoology at the University of Ferrara (Ferrara, Italy) and internationally renowned entomologist, contains over 44,000 specimens, collected by Springhetti during his field campaigns or donated by other entomologists from all over the world. The collection is currently preserved at the Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology of the University of Ferrara. Unfortunately, all documents, publications and notes concerning the Springhetti Collection were lost; thus, in 2020, the collection was completely re-catalogued within the University Museum System and analyzed in detail. The collection contains specimens dating back to 1878 and represents not only a valuable scientific tool for studies on these ecologically relevant insects that may cause damages to historical buildings, ancient books and artworks but also an important cultural asset for the University Museum System.

It's our museum too: co-producing research in a university museum through a nursery residency programme

PurposeThe authors draw on Howard and Thomas-Hughes' (2020) framework for quality assessment of co-produced research, to interrogate our assumptions and processes and to reflect on our project. They consider if they achieved our planned outcomes around developing practice, enabling a range of voices and perspectives within their research, and enacting change within the university museum.Design/methodology/approachThe authors’ early years residency programme explores the potential of collaborations with community groups to transform knowledge and practice through action research. As museum educators, the authors find synergy between the participatory pedagogies underpinning their practice and the co-construction of knowledge within action research. Both are committed to enabling diverse interpretations within a collective and supportive framework. Within their project, practitioners from the museum and playgroup worked collaboratively to collect video footage, photos, children's artwork and reflective journals and memos.FindingsThe process of action, observation and reflection revealed much about the authors’ different perspectives and they found variations in both pedagogy and practice. Although the authors had a shared commitment to providing high quality, memorable, exciting opportunities for the children, the exploratory nature of the project meant that they did not agree what these experiences might look like in advance, and so they had different understandings of what they saw.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the authors’ methodological framework was designed to make their research collaborative, structural challenges and the contexts of the art museum and university reinforced long established hierarchies. While some felt supported by the research process and the prestige of working with a university museum to gain legitimacy for their practice, others were disempowered by these same structures. The authors consider their obligations as practitioner-researchers to become aware of the role they play in maintaining, as well as challenging, hierarchies and assumptions.Originality/valueYoung children in museums is a growing area of study and this practitioner-led action research project develop a new strand of enquiry within this field. Through this research the authors can collaborate with community partners to record, analyse and make visible the many different ways in which young children experience the museum. As research led institutions, university museums are ideally placed to develop research in partnership with local public bodies and community groups. However, future work in this area would benefit from a more explicit consideration of the constraints implicit within the institutions within which they all operate.