In March 2018 we started a project funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Collections Fund called 'Multaka-Oxford' here at
the Pitt Rivers and at the Museum of History of Science. You can read more about Multaka on the Pitt Rivers website. The aim of the project is to create volunteer opportunities based around the museum and its collections.
We had a busy first few months doing outreach and
building networks with some brilliant organisations who are working with us
and supporting volunteers into the project. They include Connections, RefugeeResource, Asylum Welcome and Sanctuary Hosting. We are also greatly benefiting
from the expertise of one of the museum’s ‘Community Ambassadors’ Nuha Abdo. There are now 13 active volunteers on the project who have given an amazing 164 hours of their time.
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| Photo of team of Multaka-Oxford volunteers and staff in the Research Room © Tammam Aboukerech |
It is really important that the volunteers find roles in the museum that play to their strengths, skills and interests. The museum provides a really unique place for people to come and learn, engage with heritage and meet other people, whilst also gaining useful work experience and transferable skills. These first volunteers through the door have been incredibly patient with us as we have tried to get this right. In fact, last week we held the first Multaka Advisory Panel where we are seeking help from the volunteers and community partners to improve what we are doing.
One of the roles that volunteers have been doing is helping with collections research and documentation. We are in a unique situation that the items of
textiles from the Middle East we are working on are newly gifted to the Museum by textiles collector Jenny Balfour Paul, and have not been accessioned yet. Volunteers are being involved from
the very start of welcoming these objects into the museum. For example, Mohamed has been volunteering alongside Abigael
to measure items and describe them as she enters these into the database.
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| Laying out textiles to be measured for database. Dress from Bethlehem (2018.37.18) ©Pitt Rivers Museum |
Tammam has been learning new skills in museum inventory photographs - learning how to take photos of the textiles to go into the database. He is also taking lots of wonderful photos of the project unfolding and beautiful close-up photos of objects he loves.You can see some more of Tammam's photos on the Multaka-Oxford tumblr site.
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| Close up of silk embroidery on chest panel of dress from Bethlehem (2018.37.18) © Tammam Aboukerech |
A number of volunteers have been doing research on the collections. Abdullah has been focusing on some items from Damascus and Aleppo to find out more about silk production in Syria. His research will be entered into the museum database to ‘enhance’ the object record. Niveen has also been finding out about a collection of face masks from Oman. You can read some of her research in her blog.
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| Face mask from Sultanate of Oman (2018.37.22) © Pitt Rivers Museum |
We have also been running monthly ‘Collections Workshops’ for volunteers and staff. At these sessions we bring out items of the collections and a big group sits around the table in the research room and discusses them. It is a social event and a chance for everyone to get up close to objects. The museum also gains some amazing insights and knowledge during these sessions.
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| Workshop with volunteers and staff discussing items in the collection. Here we are looking at a silk ikat coat from Aleppo in Syria (2018.37.2). © Tammam Aboukerech. |
And with all this knowledge and personal experience being shared here inside the museum, we are also finding ways to get this all out to a wider audience. We had a stall at Oxford Mela where volunteers talked with people about the objects. You can read Mohamed's blog about the experience on our tumblr site
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| The Multaka-Oxford stall at Oxford Mela 2018 ©Pitt Rivers Museum |
We also held an event in June during 'PittFest' where volunteers spoke with lots of people about some of the textile pieces they had been looking at.
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| Abdullah talks with visitors about a Syrian dress during an event in June 2018 ©Pitt Rivers Museum |
Volunteers have also been busy writing and uploading blogs, photos and – shortly – audio about the project on our tumblr page and tweeting on #MultakaOxford.
Our next steps will be training up volunteers as tour
guides, creating a display of the textiles, running more events and
building up the skills and capacity of the volunteer team.
Next year we will be running a sharing event and symposium for museums people and other relevant sectors.
Blog written by Rachel Harrison
Multaka Community Engagement and Volunteer Officer
Pitt Rivers Museum and Museum of the History of Science
Multaka Community Engagement and Volunteer Officer
Pitt Rivers Museum and Museum of the History of Science
