Social History Curators' Group

Call for Papers: SHCG Conference 2010

More for Less: big impacts with small resources

Museum professionals are experts at utilising creativity, verve and imagination to overcome the potential limitations of small resources. At different times we are all likely to face the difficulties of shrinking budgets, limited funding options and overburdened resources.

This year’s conference tackles these problems head on, and shows you how you can rise to the challenge and provide high quality and engaging experiences for your visitors. Topics covered will include proven strategies from previous times of economic difficulty and recent case studies that have demonstrated innovation and inspiration despite various restrictions.

SHCG are pleased to invite proposals from across the museum profession, for presentations which address one or more of the core conference themes:

• Survival stories – how museums have coped with resource cuts and limitations
• Engaging and increasing your audiences without increasing your costs
• Creative ways of working with small budgets – examples relating to collections, interpretation, partnerships, learning and marketing
• Minimising the environmental cost – sustainability and recycling
• Developing partnerships with libraries, archives and children’s centres
• Digital technologies – new solutions for age-old problems

Please email proposals for presentations to Hannah Crowdy, hannah.crowdy@nmni.com, by 1st February 2010

Proposals for a 30 minute presentation should include a 200 word summary of the presentation, contact details and institutional affiliation (if any).

Speakers’ travel and subsistence costs can be reimbursed (travel reimbursed at standard fare rate) and there will be no attendance fee on the day of speaking.

The Social History Curators Group was formed to improve the status and provision of social history in museums and the standards of collections, research, display and interpretation. The group acts as a forum for sharing ideas and practical experience with others involved in social and local history in museums.