SHARE-ORG: how to get forgotten museum pieces out of the depot again?
How can we bring museum collections in depots back into the limelight? Since 2015 the KIK has been coordinating the national RE-ORG BELGIUM strategy and thus helping museums to manage their collections correctly. Through the recently completed first SHARE-ORG competition we are going a step further and looking for creative ways to showcase collection pieces in storage to the public.
Reorganisation of depositories
More than sixty percent of all museum collections stored in depots worldwide are kept in unfavourable conditions. The RE-ORG method tackles this problem by supporting poorly equipped museums in their reorganisation and helping them to make improvements. The method has already been successfully implemented in 146 museums in more than 30 countries. This is often done with the support of institutions that coordinate the strategy nationally, such as KIK.
After the reorganisation of the depots, the collections are ready to be examined, exhibited or rediscovered by the local community. In order to encourage RE-ORG museums to turn this potential into reality, KIK, together with national and international RE-ORG partners, launched a competition to promote the creative use of the collections: SHARE-ORG. The winners will submit their latest and most innovative ideas to bring stored collections out from under the dust and into the limelight once again.
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CRUMBEL: What can cremated bones reveal about the life of our ancestors?
Within the CRUMBEL project (Cremations, Urns and Mobility - Ancient Population Dynamics in Belgium), researchers from UGent, ULB, VUB and the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) have been studying the cremated bones found on Belgian burial sites dating from the Neolithic to the early Middle Ages. Their goal is to better understand our ancestors' way of life. To that end, they are mapping the migrations and movements of the populations that populated our regions at that time.
