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Apply Now! Become a Citizen Curator in 2021.

“I have thoroughly loved being able to learn new skills surrounded by likeminded people… I have gained a lot more confidence as a result.” (Rob Palmer).

 “It’s made me review my life. I left school at 16, I didn’t go to university, I didn’t do anything. I educated myself through art.” (Carolle Blackwell).

 

Become a Citizen Curator in 2021!
  • Free online course to learn about museums and curating
  • January to June 2021 (fortnightly webinars plus working on museum projects)
  • Learn how to create great museum and digital stories and experiences
  • No experience or qualifications needed*
  • Just bring your curiosity
  • Shape and influence the Cornish National Collection
  • Research and share untold and under-represented stories
  • Champion the identities and diversity of Cornish society past and present
  • Sign up to Cornwall Museums Partnership newsletter to keep in touch.

This opportunity is for participants aged 18+ and resident in the UK.

*This opportunity is for people who have not benefitted from professional experience in museums, archives, heritage and related fields, including teaching in these areas or undertaking or have completed a Museum Studies, Heritage or related degree. If you are working in or have worked just in operational or front of house roles in museums, you are welcome to apply.

 

2021 themes:

  • Exploring Falmouth with Blind and Visually Impaired people – Falmouth Art Gallery
  • China Clay workers then and now – Wheal Martyn Clay Works
  • Climate change in Cornwall and the world – Royal Cornwall Museum
  • Conscientious objectors, Quakers and others during WW2 – Museum of Cornish Life
  • Black US soldiers and Jewish lives during WW2 in Cornwall – Bodmin Keep
  • Decolonising and telling the stories of marginalised people – Penlee House
  • Global stories of the telegraph, including British Empire – PK Porthcurno*

*Currently over-subscribed.

View the 2021 timetable and application questionnaire 

 

American GIs in Cornwall in WW2 (George Ellis Collection, Kresen Kernow).

 

The Citizen Curators programme is provided by Cornwall Museums Partnership in collaboration with seven museums. It is funded for three years by the Museums Association’s Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund (2018-21). The Programme Leader is Dr. Tehmina Goskar, Curator & Director of the Curatorial Research Centre. Successful candidates who complete the programme will receive a certificate endorsing their accomplishment.

 

Contacts at participating museums:

 

For enquiries contact: citizencurators@curatorialresearch.com or contact one of the museums above.

 

#CitizenCurators

 

Be sure to sign up to the CMP newsletter for all the latest on Citizen Curators and if you haven’t already, be sure to check out the blogs from some of our Year Two Citizen Curators.

Bethlehem pasty, Museum of Cornish Life.

Bethlehem pasty, Museum of Cornish Life.

 

Growing confidence and competencies

The Citizen Curators course is based on supporting participants grow their confidence and competence in five key areas of curatorial work. Using a coaching-style of teaching, based on Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, the programme participants will self and peer-assess the change they experience through the 6-month programme, supporting each other in their learning groups (5 per museum, per year).

By learning through doing, each cohort and group will be able to provide invaluable feedback to their museum in areas of the collection that have been obscured or new ideas and stories that have been discovered. Participants learn how to turn one-way conversations into two-way conversations leading to new content, new knowledge and new relationships which the museum will be able to harness in its audience-focused programming.

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