Looking Back on ITP+ Aswan (Claire Messenger, ITP Manager)

Written by Claire Messenger, International Training Programme Manager

Now we are all back from Aswan I wanted to share some photographs and thoughts with our ITP network.

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From Tuesday 23rd to Thursday 25th October, based at the Nubia Museum in Aswan, the ITP+ course in Museum interpretation used a series of case studies, a visitor experience activity, four workshops, two label writing sessions and a panel discussion to think about the types of interpretation being used in museums across the globe.

By the end of Day 3 we enjoyed a fun evaluation session – involving lots of post-it notes, of course!! – and some of the feedback from our colleagues is below:

“The outstanding outcome of the workshop for me was sharing the experience”

“I most enjoyed the way we can make our objects tell stories and share information”

“I enjoyed the inspiring enthusiasm and examples of great work”

“We achieved a great amount”

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The event closed with a study trip to Philae Temple and the tombs at Qubbet el-Hawa which gave the opportunity for an overview of the culture and heritage sector and the diversity of sites in Aswan.

The course brought together ITP fellows from Egypt, India, Sudan and Uganda and a team from the UK including colleagues from the British Museum, Manchester Museum and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.  We were also delighted to welcome 13 museum professionals, selected by the Ministry of Antiquities, from institutions across Egypt.

It was wonderful to re-connect with our ITP network and to meet new colleagues and we wanted to thank everyone for contributing to the case studies, workshops and the discussions.  The skills, experiences and challenges they all shared were fascinating and I know we all learnt so much over a memorable 4 days.

We will now begin putting together a report and toolkit on the event which we will look forward to sharing with the ITP alumni and our wider global network.

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Finally, we would like to extend our thanks to the Ministry of Antiquities, Egypt and the Nubia Museum for so kindly hosting us and to the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust for supporting the International Training Programme and making these kinds of legacy projects possible.

 Claire