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From a VR version of Viking life and what you can learn from gaming, to describing collections in military museums to the range of independent museums and the passions of their founders for everything from old engines to bakelite, witchcraft to shells. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough looks at new research into a range of collections, why more are opening and what is missing.

Fiona Candlin is Professor of Museology at Birkbeck, University of London. She leads the MAPPING MUSEUMS research project and has so far documented over 4,200 of the UKs independent museums, all opened in the last 60 years. She gives us a glimpse into the rich variety of topics covered by small museums around the UK, and discusses how they chart social change.
http://museweb.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/home

Henrietta Lidchi is Chief Curator at the National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands and principal investigator on the AHRC-funded project Baggage and Belonging: Military Collections and the British Empire, 1750 – 1900 with National Museums Scotland. She tells us what makes the collections of Military museums unique.
https://www.nms.ac.uk/collections-research/our-research/featured-projects/collecting-practices-of-the-british-army/

And Sarah Maltby is Director of Attractions at the York Archaeological Trust. She’s leading research aimed at taking the JORVIK VIKING CENTRE online. How does a museum famed for recreating the physical realities of the Viking world using smells and re-enactment re-imagine itself virtually?
https://www.jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk/

Edward Harcourt talks about the project to create a virtual museum of objects and ideas suggested by the public. The Museum of Boundless Creativity will launch fully later this Autumn. https://ahrc.ukri.org/innovation/boundless-creativity/museum-of-boundless-creativity/

You can find Free Thinking discussions with museum directors from Russia, USA, China, France, the UK and Singapore in the playlist called Visual Arts /programmes/p026wnjl
and a whole host of programmes about museums on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Arts Museum Passion# Collection /programmes/p08bqqfr

Producer: Helen Fitzhenry.