Collections Significance Assessment Toolkit launched for Welsh museums

The Welsh Government has published a new Collections Significance Assessment Toolkit for museums in Wales.

The publication sets out a new approach a decade after the previous toolkit, Why do we have it?, came in 2013.

The toolkit encourages museums to take a more qualitative and philosophical approach to significance assessment, and to listen to the voices of communities and enable them to contribute to decisions made about objects that are relevant to them.

• Jennifer Cragg: "Local people must be part of the conversation"

The resource is intended to work for a wide range of users, from those with little to no experience of significance assessments, to those who have conducted this kind of work before.

The toolkit has a four-stage assessment process: planning, collections review, significance assessment and review/reassessment of the project.

The significance assessment stage offers the option of four action plans designed to help museums achieve particular assessment goals, such as defining the status of their collections. This is intended to inform rationalisation, help with acquisition decision-making and to make selections for exhibitions and interpretation.

The action plans encourage those conducting the assessment to identify and engage with associated communities, so they can be invited to be part of the discussions around the significance of the objects and inform the assessment and the conclusions drawn as a result.

The toolkit also includes a Rationalisation Action Plan, which is designed for significance assessments with rationalisation and disposal as the main goals. It advises users to refer to the Museums Association’s Disposal Toolkit and the Spectrum standard for rationalisation and disposal.

The toolkit was produced by Headland Design Associates and museum consultant Kevin Mason following a consultation with the sector last year.

Jennifer Cragg, heritage consultant at Headland Design Associates, said: “In summer 2022, the Welsh Government appointed Headland Design Associates and Kevin Mason to develop a new Collections Significance Toolkit for Wales. The aim was to create a new approach to understanding the significance of museum collections, and tools that would enable museums, galleries and heritage sites across the sector to discuss and assess the significance of the objects they hold.

“The new toolkit has been designed to work for a range of organisations, and varying levels of experience, and has been informed by wide consultation with colleagues across Wales. It encourages the sector to consider and involve the voices of communities connected to collections, so that they can contribute towards the decisions made about objects relevant to them and their lived experience.”

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