The Collections Trust is an independent UK-based charity that works with museums, libraries, galleries and archives worldwide to improve the management and use of collections. It was established in February 1977 as the Museum Documentation Association (MDA) and re-launched as the Collections Trust in 2008. Its head office is in Shoreditch, London.

Mission and aims

The Collections Trust is a registered charity (Registered No. 273984). The charitable purposes were set out in 1977 and are: * To promote the education of the public by the development of museums and similar organisations by all appropriate methods; * To develop, promote, maintain and improve standards of collections and information management in museums, art galleries, heritage organisations and other collecting institutions; * To provide services and resources which improve the standards and methods of collections management and use.

Work

Standards and publications The Collections Trust developed the SPECTRUM Standard – the Museum Collections Management Standard – in 1994. The standard details how to manage collections and what to do with artefacts at each stage of their lifecycle in a collection. The Standard is now in its fifth edition and is used by the majority of museums. It has been translated into several languages including Dutch and Flemish. The organisation also produces collections management best practice guides and benchmarking tools. It has particular expertise in digital collections management and the use of new technology for museums, such as

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. Many of its resources are freely available on its website. Events The Collections Trust hosts a number of practical workshops and seminars for collections management professionals and an annual conference. At this conference the Collections Trust’s Awards are presented. Previous award winners include: 2012 * Collections Practice Award –

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

* Collections on a Budget Award -

Museum of British Surfing The Museum of British Surfing is in Braunton in the English county of Devon. The museum contains exhibits relating to the history of surfing in the United Kingdom. The Museum of British Surfing was founded by ITV News journalist and surfing histo ...

2013 * Collections Practice Award - Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery * Collections on a Budget Award - East Grinstead Museum * Participatory Practice Award - Beaney House of Art and Knowledge 2014 * Collections Practice Award -

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall, London, Gui ...

* Collections on a Budget Award - Hayle Oral History Project * Participatory Practice Award -

Public Catalogue Foundation Art UK is a cultural, education charity in the United Kingdom, previously known as the Public Catalogue Foundation. Since 2003, it has digitised more than 220,000 paintings by more than 40,000 artists and is now expanding the digital collection t ...

* Enterprise in Museums Award -

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) is a regional group of United Kingdom national museums and the county archives service located across the Tyne and Wear area of north-east England. They have been administered by a joint board of local author ...

* Collections Manager of the Year Award - Jamie Everitt of the Norfolk Museums Service * Young Collections Professional Award - Jenny Webb of

The Lightbox The Lightbox is a public gallery and museum located in Woking, Surrey, in the South East of England. Three galleries host a range of exhibitions, changing regularly and it has a free museum of local history - 'Woking's Story'. It was opened on ...

Funded projects The Collections Trust works on many projects that are funded by

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

and by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

. It is currently managing 20m Euros worth of EC projects, including Athena Plus, Digital Cultural Heritage Roadmap for Preservation (DCH-RP)], EEXCESS, EU Collections Competencies Project (EUColComp)], Europeana Food and Drink and Europeana Inside. The Collections Trust leads the UK’s involvement in the

Europeana Europeana is a web portal created by the European Union containing digitised cultural heritage collections of more than 3,000 institutions across Europe. It includes records of over 50 million cultural and scientific artefacts, brought togethe ...

project.

Key people

Directors * 1977

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* 19__ Andrew Roberts * 1989 Wendy Sudbury * 1997 Louise Smith * 2004 Nick Poole (CEO from 2008) * 2015 Kevin Gosling Current board members * Hadrian Ellory-van Dekker (Chair), Chair Arts Council England’s Accreditation Committee for museums and galleries. * Rob Avann, General Manager of the Open University Students Association. * Katie Childs, Head of Partnerships and Stakeholder Relations at the Imperial War Museums. * Camilla Hampshire, Museums Manager and Cultural Lead at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery. * Jennifer Jones, Collections Development Officer at the

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) is an independent registered educational charity based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, that came into existence in 1847 following the purchase of William Shakespeare's birthplace for preserva ...

. * Sarah Levitt, Head of Arts and Museums, Culture and Neighbourhood Services, Leicester City Council. * Chris Michaels, Digital Director at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

. * Tonya Nelson, Head of Museums and Collections,

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. * Deborah Potter, Head of Conservation, Collection,

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

. * Susan Raikes, Head of Learning and National Partnerships,

The British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

. * Rachael Rogers, Curator, Abergavenny Museum. * Taniah Simpson, Assistant Collections Manager in the Registrar’s Office at

. * Irene Walsh, former Managing Director,

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Financial Advisory Services.

History

The early team at the MDA was led by

and included researchers Andrew Roberts (who later became head of the MDA) and Richard Light. Early achievements included the production of the Social History and Industrial Classification Scheme (SHIC) in 1983 (in partnership with the SHIC Working Party), the MDA Data Standard in 1991, and the SPECTRUM standard in 1994.

Notes

External links