Read the following case study on how National Museums Liverpool’s Project Sankofa is creating a new model of partnership working which will inform how the sector and support the development of local community collections (including small, personal or family collections).
This case study demonstrates that contemporary collecting needn’t involve the museum acquiring more objects, it can also be about finding out what resources are held in the community and collecting the information about that. Often community or specialist groups will already have the sorts of objects museums seek to acquire and it can be enough for the museum to know they are there. Museums are not the only place objects can be held and museums can have an important role to play in knowing where other collections are held and offering advice on how to care for them.