Partners

• ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property)
• SEAMEO-SPAFA (SEAMEO Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts)

Duration: 

Place: India

Participants
Seventeen professionals representing eight countries: Brunei Darussalam, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam

Aim
The field project aimed to provide didactic and practical tools and skills for sixteen professionals from Southeast Asia to implement improvements in their home institutions. It also aimed to make concrete improvements in the conservation conditions of the National Museum of Vietnamese History (NMVH), leading to durable and positive change in the long-term safeguarding of the collections in the museum.

Project activities

Module 1: teambuilding and project planning
This module aimed to create the best possible conditions for participants and team members to work efficiently together. Introductory sessions on stakeholder analysis, communication, presentation and teamwork skills were held. Participants were introduced to key concepts of the project and practiced effective communication in English. The focus then turned to the fundamentals of project planning and collections assessment. Using the collections of the National Museum of Vietnamese History (NMVH), participants studied the type of objects present in the collections, how these collections are used, and how they relate to the space that contains them. At the end of the week participants had an understanding of how the conservation conditions of the NMVH collections could be improved.

Module 2: knowing your collections and preparing for change
Participants discussed principles of risk assessment and planning. Specific themes included documentation, handling, storage materials and planning of storage space. The participants carried out practical exercises in the storage area of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. During the week-end they also visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, House and Museum as well as the Hanoi Citadels and Royal Palaces.

Module 3: from ideas to action
Participants made a work plan of the actual improvements to be carried out in the storage area of the NMVH. They defined priorities and created a Gantt chart of proposed actions. During the week-end, study visits were undertaken to Bac Ninh province and the Military History Museum.

Modules 4 and 5: Implementing Suggested Improvements
Participants implemented suggested improvements in accordance with the workplan made during Module 3. After making all the necessary cost estimates, they divided into teams and sourced the necessary materials. They then implemented the plan: they cleaned the storage area, prepared dust covers, made new boxes and light covers for ventilation windows, cleaned objects and installed new signs. A final report was drafted which the group presented to professionals from other Vietnamese heritage institutions on the occasion of an one-day seminar hosted by the Department of Cultural Heritage.

Main achievements

• Professional capacity-building: sixteen Southeast Asian professionals have increased their knowledge and skills to manage and care for collections;
• Institutional capacity-building: host institutions in Vietnam have further built their capacity to organize international training events;
• Networking: CollAsia 2010 network reinforced, through the participation of sixteen professionals from eight Southeast Asian countries, and an international project team of professionals from Chile, Laos, Netherlands, Philippines and Vietnam;
• Final evaluation results:participant evaluations show very high levels of overall satisfaction with project coordination, themes, materials, lectures and study visits;
• Impact: teaching and other resource materials have been made available on the CollAsia 2010 website; participants expected to disseminate results of the project through articles, presentations, reports and echo seminars, aimed at colleagues as well as other institutions and departments in their home countries.

updated on: 19 September, 2008