Here in Cambridge we are lucky in having many exceptional University museums, each of which contribute to the academic, social and community work of the University
- Liz Hide
This publication, launched at the recent Museums Association Conference in Liverpool, celebrates the growing success of university museums as part of the UK higher education sector, showing the unique benefits these collections deliver to the Higher Education, and wider cultural, sector.
The report recognises that large, high-profile museums such as the Fitzwilliam Museum are the “major cultural provider[s] in their areas”, while also highlighting the contributions of smaller and specialist museums such as the six ‘embedded’ University of Cambridge museums, attached to different Departments, including the Polar Museum, the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences and the Whipple Museum.
University museums make a unique contribution to the public profile of universities across the UK; they hold 30% of nationally-significant collections but constitute only 4% of England and Wales’ museums. The University of Cambridge Museums (UCM) encompasses five of these nationally significant (‘designated’) collections, one of the largest clusters outside of London.
Read the full story
Image Credit: Whipple Museum/James Linsell-Clark
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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