News

Activity During Covid-19:

While the Coronavirus lockdown is a stressful time for many of us, it also provides opportunities to learn and reflect upon our practice. 

Over the spring and summer we had planned to run a series of skill sharing events, seminars, conferences and archive tours in partnership with museums, galleries, archives and private collections across the UK to share best practice, knowledge and skills, and to encourage sector networking.

We have had to postpone many of these events for now, so instead we have reached out to respected freelancers and photographic experts from the sector and to PCN's Steering Group to help us deliver a series of online events, which are offered for free and aim to be accessible to as many people as possible.

We would normally charge a ticket price for our events and like many organisations, staff, and freelancers and in the sector that we support, we are experiencing a loss of income right now. This is due to projects and events being cancelled, funding bids we that have been working on are unable to be submitted due to reorganisation of funds, and the loss of ticket income. We ask if you take part in our online events and feel that you can afford to donate, that you do so whilst making your booking. Every donation is appreciated, and will help us continue our work, and enable us to pay more speakers to run online events.

Additionlly we are updating our website, and working with experts to bring you more tool kits and expert advice, keep an eye on our website and twitter for updates.

If you have online events, activites, collections or information you would like PCN to share please get in touch.

If you would like to support PCN or collaborate with us please get in touch.

Recommened Links:

Redeye Photography Network, Coronavirus Photography Sector Resources: https://www.redeye.org.uk/opinion/coronavirus-resources
Arts Council Covid19 Support Package: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/covid19
Heritage Fund, Covid19 Response: https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/news/coronavirus-update
Museums Association, Practical ways museums can contribute during the crisis: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/26032020-practical-ways-museums-can-contribute-Covid-19
 

Art Fund have partnered with Whitechapel Gallery for the sixth year running to support their series of professional development courses, and are offering 50 bursaries to curators and museum professionals.

Running throughout June and July, these hands-on courses will draw on the expertise of staff from across Whitechapel Gallery, as well as other industry leaders. Each course will focus on practical training and use current projects as case studies. The Art Fund are offering 50 bursaries to museum professionals on the following one-day courses (five places available on each):

- How to publish exhibition catalogues
- Writing for the exhibition
- How to fundraise – grants and foundations
- How to curate participatory art projects – schools and teachers
- How to curate with communities (to be held at MIMA, Middlesbrough)
- How to curate public events and performance
- Curating moving image
- How to curate an exhibition – touring exhibitions and partnerships
- How to create a communications campaign
- How to curate an exhibition – archive displays

Full price places usually cost £195. 
Applications close 5pm, Thursday 30 May 2019. Read more / apply here.

To coincide with this month's Featured Collection of images from FORMAT19 FOREVER//NOW, our members' blogpost this month features a talk given by our director, Paul Herrmann, at this year's festival in Derby. Paul discusses how, through the work of the PCN, some worrying patterns about the the issues people and organisations were facing specifically about digital work have begun to emerge:

"The early days of digital promised something amazing: using the power of the link, no less than an interconnected and interwoven visual story of our era; the idea of the photograph as a node in a living network. But the reality, and the early conclusion of our research, based on interviews and surveys, is that that might not happen. If we do nothing, we will get a very skewed digital legacy. How will we access today’s born-digital photography in 100 years’ time?
 
I’m going to talk about three areas - personal photography; small private archives belonging to photographers, galleries and SMEs, and larger public collections. They have different but overlapping problems. And I’ll finish with a few examples of where the problems are being tackled, and some suggestions...."

To read the rest of this blog post, members can log in.

For full access to this article + much more, and to support the work of the network, join now for just £25 per year (£20 conc).

Museum Development North West are looking to appoint a Programme Assistant who will provide administrative support to ensure the successful delivery of the Museum Development Programme funded by Arts Council England.

Museum Development North West (MDNW) exists to support museums across the North West. The programme is managed by the Manchester Partnership and Cumbria Museums Consortium. MDNW is funded by Arts Council England and responds to its ten-year strategy Great art and culture for everyone.

MDNW works with all of the North West’s museums and helps them to provide a high quality experience for visitors, to have well run organisations with skilled staff and to play an important role in young people’s education.

Key Responsibilities, Accountabilities or Duties:
Financial duties:
a) To undertake day to day financial administration in line with departmental procedures and the University of Manchester’s financial instructions.
b) To raise and process requisitions, invoices, claims from suppliers.
c) To maintain associated financial records as required in line with internal and external requirements against the programme budget using electronic or manual systems as required.
d) To ensure financial systems and records are accurate and kept up to date.
e) To undertake training as required in response to changes in procedures.

Administrative duties:
a) To book meeting venues and events, manage bookings, joining instructions and related travel arrangements when required.
b) Maintain computer databases and spreadsheets relating to work of the team.
c) Word processing and copy typing correspondence, reports and other documents.
d) To devise and maintain efficient procedures / systems for filing, work processing, office administration etc.
e) To support the team to report to Arts Council England through analysis of workshop and programme evaluation, data capture and collation in line with GDPR.
f) Support the administration of the MDNW blog and helping to keep it up to date.

Other duties:
a) Maintain MDNWs impact database.
b) Support museum development projects and events administratively.
c) Support the team directly with local administration procedures and systems.
d) Collect, collate and present programme data for the team in line with GDPR.
e) Undertake training as required.

The essential knowledge, skills and experience needed for this role are:
• GCSE or equivalent in maths and English
• Competent in IT
• Experience of Microsoft Office programmes, in particular Excel
• Experience in financial administration
• Must have a flexible approach to working
• Organised and methodical

Based at Manchester Museum (location negotiable)
Salary: £20,836 to £22,659 (pro rata) depending on experience
Contract type: Fixed-term ASAP until 31st March 2020; Part-time – 17.5 hours per week
Closing date: Midnight on Wednesday 27th March 
Click here find out more / apply.