The Collections Trust is an independent UK-based charity that works with museums, libraries, galleries and archives worldwide to improve the management and use of collections. It was established in February 1977 as the Museum Documentation Association (MDA) and re-launched as the Collections Trust in 2008. Its head office is in Shoreditch, London.

Mission and aims

The Collections Trust is a registered charity (Registered No. 273984). The charitable purposes were set out in 1977 and are: * To promote the education of the public by the development of museums and similar organisations by all appropriate methods; * To develop, promote, maintain and improve standards of collections and information management in museums, art galleries, heritage organisations and other collecting institutions; * To provide services and resources which improve the standards and methods of collections management and use.

Work

Standards and publications

The Collections Trust developed the SPECTRUM Standard – the Museum Collections Management Standard – in 1994. The standard details how to manage collections and what to do with artefacts at each stage of their lifecycle in a collection. The Standard is now in its fifth edition and is used by the majority of museums. It has been translated into several languages including Dutch and Flemish. The organisation also produces collections management best practice guides and benchmarking tools. It has particular expertise in digital collections management and the use of new technology for museums, such as

3D imaging In computer vision and computer graphics, 3D reconstruction is the process of capturing the shape and appearance of real objects. This process can be accomplished either by active or passive methods. If the model is allowed to change its shape i ...

. Many of its resources are freely available on its website.

Events

The Collections Trust hosts a number of practical workshops and seminars for collections management professionals and an annual conference. At this conference the Collections Trust's Awards are presented. Previous award winners include: 2012 * Collections Practice Award – Victoria & Albert Museum * Collections on a Budget Award -

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2013 * Collections Practice Award - Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery * Collections on a Budget Award - East Grinstead Museum * Participatory Practice Award - Beaney House of Art and Knowledge 2014 * Collections Practice Award -

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* Collections on a Budget Award - Hayle Oral History Project * Participatory Practice Award - Public Catalogue Foundation * Enterprise in Museums Award -

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums North East Museums (previously Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums / TWAM) is a regional group of United Kingdom National Museums of the United Kingdom, national museums and the county archives service located across the Tyne and Wear area of north-ea ...

* Collections Manager of the Year Award - Jamie Everitt of the Norfolk Museums Service * Young Collections Professional Award - Jenny Webb of The Lightbox

Funded projects

The Collections Trust works on many projects that are funded by

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

and by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. It is currently managing 20m Euros worth of EC projects, including Athena Plus, Digital Cultural Heritage Roadmap for Preservation (DCH-RP)], EEXCESS, EU Collections Competencies Project (EUColComp)], Europeana Food and Drink and Europeana Inside. The Collections Trust leads the UK's involvement in the

Europeana Europeana is a web portal created by the European Union containing digitised cultural heritage collections of more than 3,000 institutions across Europe. It includes records of over 50 million cultural and scientific artefacts, brought togethe ...

project.

Partnershps

Collections Trust is one of three partners in the Museum Data Service, launched in September 2024.

Key people

Directors * 1977 Martin Porter * 19__ Andrew Roberts * 1989 Wendy Sudbury * 1997 Louise Smith * 2004 Nick Poole (CEO from 2008) * 2015 Kevin Gosling Current board members * Hadrian Ellory-van Dekker (chair), Chair Arts Council England's Accreditation Committee for museums and galleries. * Rob Avann, General Manager of the Open University Students Association. * Katie Childs, Head of Partnerships and Stakeholder Relations at the Imperial War Museums. * Camilla Hampshire, Museums Manager and Cultural Lead at Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery. * Jennifer Jones, Collections Development Officer at the

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. * Sarah Levitt, Head of Arts and Museums, Culture and Neighbourhood Services, Leicester City Council. * Chris Michaels, Digital Director at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

. * Tonya Nelson, Head of Museums and Collections,

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. * Deborah Potter, Head of Conservation, Collection,

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. * Susan Raikes, Head of Learning and National Partnerships,

The British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. * Rachael Rogers, Curator, Abergavenny Museum. * Taniah Simpson, Assistant Collections Manager in the Registrar's Office at

. * Irene Walsh, former managing director,

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Financial Advisory Services.

History

The early team at the MDA was led by Martin Porter and included researchers Andrew Roberts (who later became head of the MDA) and Richard Light. Early achievements included the production of the Social History and Industrial Classification Scheme (SHIC) in 1983 (in partnership with the SHIC Working Party), the MDA Data Standard in 1991, and the SPECTRUM standard in 1994.

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control Charities based in London Museum associations and consortia Shoreditch