Impact case study database

Developing a deeper understanding of cultural heritage

Death on the Nile exhibition [E1] reached 91,782 visitors, which represents 70% of the Museum’s total visitors during that period [E9, p. 28]. Typically 50-55% of the Museum’s visitors specifically visit to see a major exhibition, in spite of both the exhibition and wider Museum gallery spaces being open to all free of charge. A tracking study following ten visitors found an average viewing time of forty-two minutes and forty-six seconds [E3]. Although a very small sample size, these findings indicate deep engagement with the content. Comments collected from exhibition visitors also reveal exceptionally high levels of interest and enjoyment in discovering the findings of the research, ‘it was all so compelling. I learned many new things and I think I'll remember it as well because of the clarity and connection’ [E4]. These comments also demonstrate that the exhibition, including the integration of scientific data from CT scans with study of the iconography, was very successful in enhancing understanding of Egyptian burial practice, ‘I came with a reasonable knowledge of ancient Egyptian life but this late [sic] me to another level I think. It's easy to forget how technology and working practices, natural resources, etc are as important as the more obvious aesthetic “glam”’ and ‘the deconstruction of the coffins made things come alive I'd never thought about it before’ [E4].

The conservation lab hosted within the footprint of the exhibition provided an opportunity for members of the public to develop their understanding of ancient artefacts, enabling them to touch, smell and interact with replica objects and materials, and talk directly to the research team about methods of investigation and conservation practice. Several visitors commented that their attitudes to the ethics of conservation had been changed by engaging with the conservator, and that this had further stimulated their interest in the exhibition and the research it presented. One visitor stated that they ‘learned a lot here and made me look at the rest of the exhibits with greater reverence for the care taken over them’ [E4].

Fig. 1. ‘Live’ conservation studio within Death on the Nile.

Enhancing the cultural participation of culturally-underserved audiences

The ‘pop-up’ museum was designed to reach audiences unlikely to have visited the Death on the Nile exhibition or Fitzwilliam Museum to enhance the accessibility of the underpinning research and reach a group of marginalised, under-engaged and diverse audiences.

From February-July 2019, the curators and conservators took the ‘pop-up’ museum to eight different community venues in Wisbech, a Fenland town in an area with high levels of social and economic deprivation. The ‘pop-up’ museum was visited by 5,458 members of the public over the course of the project [E5]. Evaluation survey data revealed that the ‘pop-up’ museum was successful in stimulating interest in ancient Egypt and participants reported a heightened level of happiness and wellbeing after taking part and talking to the project team [E5]. As a result of their initial engagement with the pop-up museum, nine Rosmini Community Centre members, many of whom speak English as an additional language, visited the Fitzwilliam for the first time and took part in a special tour by the project team [E8]. These examples demonstrate increased cultural participation from an under-engaged audience.

Fig. 2. ‘Pop-up’ Museum in Wetherspoons Fig. 3. Egyptian Museum colleagues

in Wisbech. delivering ‘pop-up’ Museum.

Enhancing international curatorial and conservation practice

Building on the success of the conference (7-9 April 2016) and workshop (4-6 April 2016) held during the Death on the Nile exhibition, the research team went on to develop longer-term local and international collaborations with curators and conservators.

In Egypt in July 2019 the Fitzwilliam team trained twenty-seven curators, conservators and students from the Egyptian Museum and University of Cairo at a workshop, which was followed by a practical demonstration of the ‘pop-up’ Museum [E8]. Colleagues at the Egyptian Museum are tasked with documenting and interpreting the Museum’s internationally-significant collection of 600 ancient Egyptian coffins but they lack experience and modern equipment. The Fitzwilliam’s aim was to share their collaborative, interdisciplinary research praxis, and an effective approach to documenting ancient Egyptian coffins, enabling Egyptian Museum colleagues to become self-sufficient curators and conservators interpreting, displaying and engaging audiences with their outstanding collections (January-July 2019). One Egyptian Museum curator noted that she will now ‘look at the coffins in my museum in a very different way’ and noted her intention to use the information during her PhD, as well as in future supervisions of Masters and PhD students, demonstrating a strong contribution to their continuing personal and professional development and how research findings are being used in their working practice [E6].

The workshop was repeated in Alexandria in November 2019, this time with the Egyptian colleagues who had been trained in July taking the lead supported by the Fitzwilliam researchers [E8]. Both workshops provided practical suggestions for museum workers to apply within their day to day practice; one participant noted how the workshop gave them ‘a structured way to analyse coffins in general [...] Usually what I used to do is to just, maybe, depend on what I see, but I didn’t have a kind of a structure’ (November 2019) [E6]. Another participant reported a few days later that she had ‘ already started doing a workshop yesterday with some children about the way that things were made, where they were made of wood, and using tools’ [E6]. The Director of the Antiquities Museum, Alexandria noted how ‘this workshop also opened a field of scientific research for other objects’ and that ‘as one of the main tasks for museum staff is to speak about artefacts (including coffins) during school and group visits, the course has, indeed, helped the staff restructure and adapt their presentation [...] in a more efficient, educative and attractive manner’ [E7]. This shows how the Fitzwilliam research has supported the adoption of new or improved methods and has improved the efficiency and quality of their professional services for schools.

Enhanced professional practice leads to increased cultural participation of marginalised audiences and new ways of thinking

In Egypt, colleagues from the Egyptian Museum followed the example of the Wisbech pop-up museum and also found it was a successful way of engaging culturally-underserved audiences within their local community. As a result of the initial training session described above, they went on to create their own ‘pop-up’ at a furniture store in Maadi, Cairo. Egyptian Museum colleagues went on to lead pop-up museums at a furniture factory, the public library and a sports centre in Damietta in the Delta (at the heart of Egypt’s woodworking/furniture production) [E8]. These pop-ups further developed public interest and engagement with the original research but also gave participants new ways to understand their cultural heritage. One carpenter commented how ‘today I realized that ancient Egyptians are the origin of many tools and techniques that we still use today and they left us a great legacy’ [E6]. A workshop participant noted how working with tools ‘makes you imagine how the ancient Egyptians did it and it makes you think a bit like them and start to perhaps analyse things that you can just see by looking at them: okay it was made like that, but not this way. You have to use your hands, not just listen. So it’s quite important to use the tools by yourself, feel the material, this is the right tool for that or this is not the right tool’ [E6]. These testimonials demonstrate how effective the hands-on nature of the pop-up model workshops were in encouraging participants to make links between their own experiences and research on technological innovations of the ancient Egyptians. The testimonials also show how the research team’s collaboration with museum professionals in Egypt resulted in enhancements to cultural heritage interpretation. The resulting enhancements in professional practice have now become embedded Egyptian museological professional practice going forward.

In October 2019 the strength of the work was recognised by a University of Cambridge Vice Chancellor’s award for impact in the collaboration category, in recognition of the success of our interdisciplinary approach to audience engagement. The project has also been shortlisted for a Museums and Heritage Show award and an International Council of Museums (ICOM) University Museums and Collections award [E10].