Museums: Bridging the gap in PPS5? - Contract and Academic Archaeology

[gwyl]

an environment where the few surviving curators can no longer keep track of anything happening on their patches, and the academic sector becomes more and more divorced from the archaeological 'real' world...

just a thought, not entirely unrelated and perhaps not wholly relevant, but maybe: how many academics submit WSIs/Research Frameworks/Programmes of Works to curators, in whose patches they are working?
such an attitude does not help foster cooperation between academic and private sector; i may be wrong about the curatorial division feel about such, but if i were a curator, i'd be a little bit underwhelmed not to see these sort of documents float under my nose...

[Carrickavoy]

@gwyl I think you've brought up a really good point. The museum sector in general has the ability to bridge the gap between contract and research archaeology, as well as the wider community.

I've been involved in county research framework, not in the U.

[BAJR]

Moved from another thread... This is an interesting proposition... one worth exploring in greater depth.

[TimberWolf]

Just a quick observation regarding the title of this thread. Surely all archaeology is research! A better title might have been Museums: Bridging the gap in PPS5? - Contract and Academic/Archaeology, with the term academic covering educational institutions, local societies and private individuals.

Whilst non planning led archaeology is not normally done to a brief issued by the local County Mountie anyone working in the area should at least let the Mountie know what is going on, its only polite and may reveal some useful information regarding recent work.

There is far to much 'them and us' we need to be complementing each other, not slagging each other off.

(BAJR Host edit: It has been done .. much better wording ... thank you)

[Dinosaur]

Good grief, a thread that starts with someone quoting me and hasn't turned into a Dinosaur-kicking-fest :face-approve:
-am sure it won't last....

It would require some pretty big changes in the way a lot of musuems are operated/funded to allow them to supply that service? A lot of the one's I've had dealings are mainly just horrified that we want to dump 300 boxes of non-displayable tat on them along with a big cheque, and don't obviously have the means to deal with the realities of field archaeology much beyond that (no insult to museum staff intended and I'm sure it varies widely, just my own limited personal experience) - don't forget that their curatorial role in that area was in general pretty much removed by the setting up of SMRs which was long enough ago that most museum staff are now of a generation which is unfamiliar with that concept as part of their normal workload

[vulpes]

Interesting.... kind of. But given that a lot of County Museums are funded by Councils who are facing huge cuts to budgets and staff. I'm not sure that the sector is in a position to take on the responsibilities of development management archaeologists, or indeed that they should, we have complimentary roles to play...

But, on the other point, yes, a lot of responsible academics do share their findings and indeed use HER data and PPG/PPS reports in broader studies.

[BAJR]

[QUOTE][-am sure it won't last.... /QUOTE]
Give us time...

But seriously... Development Control Archs and Museums could work well together... and admit it... better than today. Would this not be a good way to both bring sectors together AND create a framework for Research. I remember myself, driving past a site.. not a clue it was on... University of xxxxx another site... same again... perhaps they did not think they should. after all permissions had been given from Historic Scotland. The sectors have to join up in a way that is more than just - we hope they will. And lets not forget the local groups.

[vulpes]

you're right, but as Duncan Brown (I think) of the Society for Museum Archaeologists pointed out at the IfA conference a couple of years ago (y'know, back when local government archaeologists were allowed to stray that far from the office) both PPG16 and PPS5 place extra burdens on the museum sector without necessarily providing the funding to go with. There are lots of good examples of all sectors working together. For those not blessed with large teams or budgets it's really the only way to tackle outreach for example. As for local museums leading research in the form of excavation, at least in this region, I'd struggle to find an example - beyond perhaps London.

[Dinosaur]

Tyne and Wear Museum Service :0

[BAJR]

Are you able to furnish with example online? That would be helpful.. cheers