This month our interview series is introducing the ICOM UK Committee members who are planning and organising this year’s online Working Internationally Conference.
Organised in collaboration with NMDC and with curatorial support from Barker Langham, instead of a single day, the conference will take the form of online sessions spread over three days, 16 – 18 March 2021. Each conference day explores a key sector theme – Social Justice, Sustainability, and Futures, and is chaired by an ICOM Committee member or partner.
Claire Messenger talks to ICOM UK Secretary and Interim Vice-Chair, Catherine McDermott.
Q: Catherine, thank you for talking to us. Will you tell us about your current curatorial work?
A: I work as an independent curatorial consultant. Recently I have been working on developing the narrative story for the Brighton Dome and Festival. During lockdown, I started a role for the National Gallery working as a curatorial editor for the Jan Matekjo exhibition. Currently, I am a Visiting Professor at the China Academy of Art University in Hangzhou, developing the programme for their Design Museum and for over a decade I have built up experience working with Chinese organisations.
My original training was in Leeds on the decorative arts degree at Temple Newsham House. It was a hands-on experience that I still benefit from. Most of my career has been in museum education and I was given the Sir Misha Black Award 2016 for my work developing the new discipline of design curation. The curatorial programme I developed with Kingston University and the Design Museum has trained leading curators now working across the international museum sector.
Q: Would you talk to the members about the ICOM UK committee and your work? We would particularly like to hear about how the committee is delivering value and support to members over the last year.
A: Over the last few years, led by Carol Scott and then Tonya Nelson, ICOM UK has been growing from strength to strength, building our membership base and events programme. We know that members value the international ICOM card and the committee felt very strongly that during lockdown we had to deliver a relevant and exciting conference to members.
Q: Catherine, I know you helped develop the conference programme. Would you tell us a little more of what members might expect in March?
A: We started the planning with a sense of what we did not want because we all felt a bit ‘Zoomed out’ with online conferences and wanted something different. We felt very strongly that we wanted to avoid the traditional format of talking head presentations. The format we decided, which is the same format for each day, is designed to offer something a little different. Each morning starts off with ‘In Conversation’ which sees two sector experts interrogate a theme together, Tonya Nelson (ACE / ICOM UK) and Skinder Hundal (British Council) discuss the recovery plans from Arts Council England and British Council while Mary Robinson and Baroness Natalie Bennett focus on museums and sustainability. Before lunch is a series of specially commissioned films from national and international projects, which we have called ‘Live From…’. We’ve chosen less well-known projects and we are really excited to present Pride UK for Social Justice and the Panama Canal Museum for Futures. The day’s final session gives an important space to future voices. We all felt strongly about including less familiar voices such as the mentoring charity Arts Emergency and Culture&‘s New Museum School alongside the internationally respected Leicester University and University College London museum and heritage courses.
Q: Catherine would you tell members about the new conference partnership with Barker Langham?
A: Over the last few years the ICOM UK Ccommittee has been building the future of ICOM UK through strong partnerships, including DCMS, British Council and the Museums Association. For the conference, we are pleased to announce a new partnership with the international cultural consultancy, Barker Langham. Led by Eric Langham, each day the consultancy has put together a series specially made films with expert guests to explore global responses to our conference themes. We are really looking forward to their sessions!
Q: How do you see the future for ICOM UK?
A: We know that all of our members will be thinking about their priorities and future and we are determined to work hard to make ICOM UK a relevant and integral part of re-opening the sector. We must ensure members are kept up to date and that we offer events and content they want.
ICOM UK, ICOM and NMDC members can book free conference tickets via Eventbrite. Tickets go on sale to non-members from 16 February.
