We look at museums to explore what is kept for the future archive. Museums especially face profusion when dealing with the products of mass production and consumption.
We look at museums to explore what is kept for the future archive. Museums especially face profusion when dealing with the products of mass production and consumption. This is the case for museums with Social History collections, which is one area of focus. To understand how museums deal with prolific collections, and make decisions about what to acquire, we researched key topics in practice and policy. This includes review and disposal, contemporary collecting, museum storage, and collection plans. We also looked at when homes and museums interact to decide what to keep for the future. Times when they come into direct contact include when curators are involved in household clearances or when people donate things to museums.

Association of Independent Museums
AIM is a national charitable organisation which connects, supports and represents independent museums, galleries and ...

Anthropology of Art Research Centre, Chinese National Academy of Arts
We collaborate as partner researchers with the Anthropology of Art Research Centre at the Chinese ...

York Museums Trust
York Museums Trust was formed in 2002, as an independent charitable trust to manage the ...

Anthropology Institute, Minzu University of China
We collaborate as partner researchers with the Anthropology Institute, Minzu University of China in Beijing

Arts Council England (Yorkshire)
Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s ...

The New School House Gallery
Paula Jackson and Robert Teed co-founded The New School House Gallery in 2009 and are ...

The National Museum of World Cultures
The National Museum of World Cultures (Netherlands) comprises three museums on three different sites- the ...

Transforming Loss: Knowledge Exchange at Orford
Uncertainty
Transformation
Profusion
Diversity
Natural Heritage Management
Built Heritage Management
Museums
Biodiversity
Sharon Macdonald and Jennie Morgan. 2018. How can we know the future? Uncertainty, transformation, and magical techniques of significance assessment in museum collecting. Assessment of Significance. Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum, pp.20-26
10/04/2018
Perspectives on Disposal: Decluttering
16/10/2017
A guest blog entry from Sharon Macdonald and Jennie Morgan for the Collections Trust. Based on the Heritage Futures Curating Domestic Profusion workshop.
Techniques of Worlding: Categorization Knowledge Exchange at Kew
28/02/2017 — 02/03/2017
The Heritage Futures team hosts a Knowledge Exchange workshop at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
A Berlin Thought Experiment: Heritage Futures Visits CARMaH
26/04/2017 — 28/04/2017
A Heritage Futures Knowledge Exchange Workshop, held in partnership with the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage in Berlin.
Uncertainty
Transformation
Profusion
Diversity
Nuclear Waste Management
Deep Space Messaging
World Heritage Site Management
Natural Heritage Management
Built Heritage Management
Homes
Museums
Biodiversity
Cultural Diversity
Curating Profusion: From connoisseurship to mediation?
— 16/01/2017
Sharon Macdonald and Jennie Morgan will be speaking at the Museumslabor Seminar Series at the Humbolt-Universität zu Berlin.
Afterlives Salon
02/03/2017
This salon to accompany the current Octagon exhibition Cabinets of Consequence will explore how heritage and other related forms of conservation practices (including nuclear waste management) make futures. How do we use material culture to stitch futures from pasts? What do we conserve? What do we get rid of? What do we allow to change? This Salon will be staged as a series of conversations across various themes currently being explored within the Heritage Futures research programme,Event held at Haldane Room, Wilkins Building , Gower Street WC1
Rodney Harrison
Cornelius Holtorf
Caitlin DeSilvey
Sefryn Penrose
Sarah May
Jennie Morgan
Nadia Bartolini
Antony Lyons
Kyle Lee Crossett
Uncertainty
Transformation
Profusion
Diversity
Nuclear Waste Management
Deep Space Messaging
World Heritage Site Management
Natural Heritage Management
Built Heritage Management
Homes
Museums
Biodiversity
Cultural Diversity
The 100,000 Year Question
Uncertainty
Transformation
Profusion
Diversity
Nuclear Waste Management
Deep Space Messaging
Built Heritage Management
Museums
Biodiversity
What Museums (can) do
27/10/2015
Talk by Sharon Macdonald at ‘Wissensort Museum. Traditionen – Positionen – Perspektiven’ at the University of Gottingen.

From the Vault to the Archive
Uncertainty
Transformation
Profusion
Diversity
Nuclear Waste Management
Deep Space Messaging
Built Heritage Management
Museums
Biodiversity
Cultural Diversity
Curating domestic profusion
17/03/2016
The New School House Gallery, York
Curating museum profusion: looking to ethnography of domestic excess for new collecting futures
04/07/2016
Clutter Culture
25/04/2016
Interview about the Profusion theme with Sharon Macdonald and Jennie Morgan featured on the University of York website