International Training Programme 2015 Final Report Wesam Mohamed Abd El-Alim, Ministry for Antiquities Supported by the John S Cohen Foundation

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1 International Training Programme 2015 Final Report Wesam Mohamed Abd El-Alim, Ministry for Antiquities Supported by the John S Cohen Foundation Firstly, I want to express my appreciation to everyone working on the International Training Programme (ITP) and I am so grateful to be part of it. The ITP will always be one of the top highlights of my career and it will help me to continue with more creativity and organization. Many thanks to all those who contributed to this exceptional programmme. The ITP provided me with new skills and guided me to new approaches to use my skills, not to mention the great confidence I gained by being involved in many sessions and especially through my participation in the Room 3 exhibition proposals. The relations I built with my colleagues and the ITP team is something I appreciate and I hope we can use these relations in the future for the benefits of our work and institutions. Meeting new colleagues at the British Museum By the end of the ITP and after returning back to Egypt I started to continue my work in the Museums Sector in addition to prepare for implementing some other ideas, clarified as follows: Kom Oushim Museum: Part of my duties is to work on the renovation of some Egyptian museums. One of those museums is Kom Oushim Museum in El Fayum. In this museum I proposed to create a new exhibition scenario which can be related to the city of El Fayum and its people. I thought it will

2 be more relevant to connect the people with their museum in a way that can develop their lives by using the past for the improvement of the future. AT my UK Partner placement in Bristol I could experience what I thought about in a real life example. It was wonderful to see how Bristol Museums are working for the city of Bristol and its people. I felt the spirit of Bristol everywhere in the city and it was so clear to me that part of this was the role that cultural management can play in the city. It is worthy to mention that the Bristol experience will be in my mind whenever I work on regional museums. After returning back to Egypt, I started to complete my work in Kom Oushim Museum with more insistence to provide the people of El Fayum with a museum of their own which represents their spirit, discussing their problems and giving keys to improve their lives. I m aware that it is so hard to achieve all the targets in my mind due to the financial barriers and the lack of time, but we are trying our best to offer the people of El Fayum the best support we can carry out. The Airport Museum: By the end of October 2015 the Airport Museum will be opened to the public, which will be the first antiquities museum inside an airport in Egypt. I started to prepare for the exhibition in this museum before I participate in the ITP. After returning back to Egypt I started to write the objects labels. I used the examples I collected from English museums during the ITP to produce the most suitable type of labels that match the conditions in the Airport Museum. Egypt Documentation Project: The Egypt Documentation Training Programme is a two-year project, a collaboration between the Ministry of Antiquities (MA) and The British Museum (BM) and supported by the Arcadia Fund. This programme will train early-career archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities in the digital documentation of archaeological artefacts across six archaeological storerooms throughout Egypt. I applied to join the project before travelling to London and I was interviewed online while I was on my placement in Bristol. Fortunately I ve been assigned as the Project Registrar. Through this project we are planning to establish a sustainable office in Cairo for registrars trained on the database system and to train Egyptian staff on object cataloguing and documentation of archaeological material to international standards.

3 Virtual exhibition: The ITP offers a great intercultural dialogue by hosting a number of museums specialists from several countires and different cultural backgrounds. During the ITP we had many discussions, ideas and thoughts. Out of these disscussions, the common and mutual aspects of all those different cultures was so clear. As a result of my connections with my ITP colleagues and the BM staff, I m planning to submit to the British Museum a virtual exhibition proposal that will represent an idea to gather different cultures in the same topic. The exhibition will focus on the similarities between those civilizations in a way which may help increasing the spirits of tolerance and broadmindedness beween dissimilar countries. In this proposal I will work with other colleagues from the ITP 2015, and once we are ready we will submit the proposal to the BM for estimation. Additionally, the exhibition idea will reflect the vision of the British Museum of being a museum for the world. Workshop: In the near future I will start a workshop for a number of Egyptian museums to conduct Visions, Missions and Objectives for the participants museums. At the end of the workshop we will have the first set of museums in Egypt with clear visions, missions to operate and objectives to achieve. MA Thesis: During the ITP I attended a lecture in business planning. Although I m interested in planning for museums, it was unusual for me to use such expression in museums work. Part of this discipline is already related to my work at the museums sector and definitely I will use it in my work. As I m studying Master s in Museum Studies, I m obliged to select a topic for the Master s Thesis. Before the ITP I was thinking about the Museum Management as a large subject for the thesis because in my opinion we have a serious shortage in the field of management. In Egypt we have many of those who can work in documentation, exhibitions, etc. but then bad management comes to ruin everything! This is the first Master s programme in Museum Studies in Egypt and I believe that it will be so helpful for museums in Egypt to start using business planning in its organization, additionally I have a great chance to apply my study on my real work in Egyptian museums.

4 The Room 3 exhibitions: Before arriving to London we had been informed that we will prepare an exhibition proposal using one object of the British Museum collection. I thought that all what we will do is a presentation using PowerPoint or other software, but then the ITP team clarified to us the process of the Room 3 presentation. I think it s a brilliant idea to bring the objects to our presentation s space and to help us presenting all the print media. Through this approach we could feel the atmosphere of representing real exhibitions and it created a significant connection between all of us and the audience. From my point of view, the Room 3 exhibition is an exceptional idea to help museums with limited spaces to hold exhibitions with one object only and needing less facilities. In Egypt we face various difficulties to carry out large scale exhibitions, so I believe we can use the same idea for small noteworthy exhibitions. With the Room 3 Exhibition proposal Management: In Bristol, it was a great opportunity to experience how the management team is planning for all the work related to museums and houses by gathering a number of cultural locations to be managed by one team. I believe if we could do this in Egypt it will be a great development in all the work process. The barrier in this transform will be the official approvals, that it will be so difficult to get the approvals for such modifications.

5 Project Weekend: As part of my MA studies, I carry out some assesment tours to different museums in Egypt which is so similar to the idea of the ITP Project Weekend. The results of my assesment are usually submitted to the college only. Currently I m planning to perform some of the low cost recommendations and submit it to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, so it will be more easier for them to execute it. Egyptian ITP: This year, the ITP will celebrate 10 years of training museum specialists. In Egypt we have a number of museum specialists who participated in the ITP. Mostly those participants are working separately and most of them never had a chance to cooperate together in one project. From this point, I believe we have to establish an association for the Egyptian ITP participants. This association will be a home for several projects related to museums in Egypt as an approach for actual changes. The projects will mainly direct low cost ideas which can be implemented in the Egyptian museums. Being already employee of the Ministry of Antiquities will support us to put our work into practice, additionally we will open the way to other colleagues from the Ministry of Antiquities and other volunteers to join the association. At an ITP session on children and museums

6 Interpreting historical buildings: Some interpretation ideas in the houses we visited were so inspiring. It will be great if I can participate in applying such ideas in Egypt. Barriers will include funding those changes but we may prepare the needed work until the day we can find the financial coverage for this project. In gallery receptions: It s not usual in Egypt to host receptions inside the museum galleries. It was an uncommon experience for me and I d prefer to have similar events in our museums. It will be difficult to get the official approvals and definitely the whole process needs well planning. Ideas for Audio/Visual display: Some museums have amazing use for A/V. It may be difficult to apply it in Egyptian museums due to the financial matters but it is so helpful to keep it in mind for the future or for recommendation to other museums out of the Ministry of Antiquities. Staff engagement: One of the most useful tools I learnt during the ITP is how we can build connections between museums staff members. It would be so helpful for museums in Egypt if we could perform such engagement, as I think that we do need it. I don t think that we have any barriers to achieving this, only that it is uncommon! Volunteering Using volunteers on a large scale is not usual in Egyptian museums due to work regulations and legal issues. So, volunteering is not common and very occasional. I m planning to use volunteers as much as we can in any workshop or event in my charge while respecting law and work regulations. Acknowledgement: It s my honor to thank the John S Cohen Foundation to support my participation in the ITP; I appreciate their kind generosity. The foundation s support will open new opportunities for museums specialists in Egypt as well as helping develop the whole institution. I m so grateful for their kind contributions. Finally, thank you all for your kind support Wesam Mohamed