Category Archives: Uncategorized

RMN’23 – Disability in rural museums – Past and present narratives

The Spring 2023 Rural Voices Seminar Series concluded with the opportunity to explore how rural museums can better represent D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people in our museums and using our collections. Karen Sayer, Professor at Leeds Trinity University presented on … Continue reading

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RMN’23 – Utilising Intangible Cultural Heritage to actively support rural crafts

The Spring 2023 Rural Voices Seminar Series continued with a thought-provoking session exploring rural crafts, some of which are becoming endangered, and consequently being added to the Heritage Crafts Red List. Heritage Crafts is the national charity for traditional crafts skills … Continue reading

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RMN’23 – In Your Words – Breathing new life into the Survey of English Dialect

To kick off the Spring 2023 Rural Voices Seminar Series, we were delighted to be joined by a fascinating panel of speakers to explore the topic of dialect. The Dialect and Heritage Project is a national project based on a partnership … Continue reading

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RMN’22 – Conservation Conversations with George Monger ACR

A lively discussion and information sharing session ensued as we welcomed George Monger ACR to discuss conservation problems facing rural museums across the UK in the December 2022 Rural Voices Seminar. Rural Museums Network members and guests were asked to … Continue reading

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RMN’22 – Rural Museums as Catalysts for Sustainable Development

Rural communities – and their museums – face particular social, environmental and economic challenges. These are often ‘lost’ in museum-sector discussion, which often speaks from an urban/city perspective, but does not reflect the realities of rural museums, people or communities. … Continue reading

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RMN’22 – Wretched Huts and Despicable Hovels; pre-Improvement farmhouses in Scotland

Tracing the history of the longhouse in Scotland from the earliest examples through to survivors today, we were delighted to welcome Niall Logan to our October 2022 Rural Voices Seminar to explore how such structures were built, how they functioned, … Continue reading

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RMN’22 – Digging Deeper: Representing Gypsy, Roma and Travelling Communities in Rural Museums

Gypsies are England’s oldest minority: marginalised but never invisible. That’s a challenge for museum displays, because although non-Gypsies have been representing the Romany for centuries, this was very different from the way that people in the community portray themselves. The … Continue reading

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RMN’22 – Virtual Volunteering

For most of us, our work would not be possible without brilliant volunteers. They tend to plants and plots, muck out stables, provide hands-on opportunities with collections, welcome visitors, research and catalogue collections, and support and sustain almost every aspect … Continue reading

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RMN’22 – Digging Deeper: Telling the Stories of Rural LGBTQ+ Lives

In March 2022, we were delighted to welcome Norena Shopland back to the Rural Museums Network to build upon some of the discussions begun during our Telling the Stories of Rural LGBTQ+ Lives seminar. Norena explored in depth how rural … Continue reading

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Draft Animals in the Past, Present and Future

We’re delighted to share news from our friends at AIMA, the International Association of Agricultural Museums. In 2021, AIMA President Claus Kropp co-ordinated an international, digital conference which saw participants from all over the world discussing the history, preservation, training … Continue reading

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