Inspiring with the ancient world

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Much of our first contact with archaeology happens in museums. But how should we inspire the public with the ancient world? A new symposium on March 16 - 17 at the Fitzwilliam Museum is asking experts and members of the public to join them in discussing how to engage audiences.

The University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) has spectacular antiquities including Greek, Roman, Cypriot and Egyptian collections. In addition to presentations at the Mill Lane Lecture rooms, the symposium will include an evening reception at the Museum of Classical Archaeology, followed by a tour of the ancient collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum and the galleries of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the next day.

Audience engagement is one of the most important concerns of any public museum. It looks at how to inspire the public with collections, how to get them to participate, and how to present facts for different groups or ages.

The symposium will explore many questions, including:

Is the ‘Ancient World’ suitable for all ages and audiences? Do visitors find the way we present ancient artefacts fascinating and exciting or daunting? Are there types of objects that we should keep largely unseen? Is everything on display suitable for education and outreach programmes? Presentations will be given by many European museums and three UCM museums. They will explore the range of ideas used by European museums to engage their public with ancient material culture. They will also look at how academic and curatorial work is influencing how museums engage with the public. There will also be presentations from European museums that have undergone recent major refurbishments, to share how the redisplaying of antiquities is shaping a new relationship with their audiences.

‘Material Cultures in Public Engagement: European perspectives on public engagement with collections of the Ancient World’ takes place March 16 - 17. For more information and how to book click here.

The Symposium is jointly organized by the University of Cambridge and the Topoi excellence Cluster in Berlin. Topoi is a knowledge transfer hub for Museum identities and Museum Research and is home to an extensive network of Museum Curators and professionals in Germany.