Throwback Thursday – Our First Legacy Project

Towards a global network? Outcomes and legacy of the International Training Programme

To mark the fifth year of the Programme, a seminar was hosted in Cairo, bringing together fellows from 2006 – 2009 to share thoughts on how the programme has shaped or inspired their work and research in the following years. The seminar was also an opportunity to assess the legacy of the programme, consider future developments and how Partnership UK museums and other key stakeholders could benefit from these developing relationships.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities, now the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, generously agreed to host the seminar and invitations were sent to all 67 ITP fellows from the first four programmes.

Each of the 52 fellows who were able to attend gave an illustrated presentation focusing on what they had gained, both professionally and personally, from attending the ITP and what they had been doing since.  We also asked them to consider whether there might be future collaborations between participants and how the programme could be improved.  Fellows talked about how they were often involved in training their own colleagues upon returning to their jobs, whether formally or informally and many spoke about a notable improvement in their self-confidence.

As well as the presentations, our Egyptian colleagues arranged for trips and tours to some key museums and sites in Cairo – the Egyptian Museum, the Coptic Museum, the Textile Museum and Sharia al-Muiz quarter, the Giza Pyramids and the Citadel.  There was also a boat trip down the Nile enjoyed by many of the group although perhaps the singing and dancing that was reported later is best left back in Egypt but you know who you were!!!!

It was a wonderful event which allowed us to broker relationships and develop established partnerships with a key outcome being the creation of links across the year-groups, thus extending the global network even further.

And I would like to take the opportunity to thank Ahmed Amin, Photographer at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt for taking these amazing and memorable images.

Claire