The Local Authority Museums Network Celebrates International Museum Day 2020

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The Local Authority Museums Network Celebrates International Museum Day 2020

May 18th 2020

Monaghan County Museum Curator, Liam Bradley, is the current Chairperson of the Local Authority Museums Network (LAMN), which is the representative body for local authority museums throughout the country. Monaghan County Museum, working with its partner museums throughout the country, is very happy to be involved with this year’s celebrations for International Museum Day. This event, which is celebrated around the world, resonates even more so this year as people from all communities, cultures and backgrounds grapple with the Covid 19 Pandemic.

Local authorities throughout Ireland play a vital and proactive role in promoting and preserving culture and heritage, ensuring the best possible quality of life for their communities. Through their museum services they strengthen local communities by underpinning a sense of identity and pride of place. Now more than ever they are working hard to help people through this difficult and challenging time. The theme of this year’s International Museum Day is ‘Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion’. Following the worldwide lockdowns however, International Museum Day is going digital inviting museums from all over the world to host online activities.

Working with our Communities during Covid 19

The LAMN, working with its partners including the National Museum of Ireland, the Irish Museums Association (IMA) as well as the International Council of Museums in Ireland (ICOM) have answered the call to provide a vibrant range of online activities for the people they serve.
The current COVID-19 pandemic is an extraordinary world health crisis and will be a defining event for our generation. We are making and living history right now. Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Tipperary and Limerick Museums are all working with their communities to record their experiences of Covid 19.

Cork Public Museum has produced a new website featuring numerous activities that will help people interact with their history and culture. Galway City Museum has launched a range of new digital services all aimed at getting the community involved with their heritage. Staff from Carlow and Kerry Museum have been working on their community call lines helping the vulnerable in their areas. Louth, Waterford and Clare Museums are also reaching out to people in their regions through local media and imaginative online activities.

The LAMN is continually pioneering new and imaginative programmes for engaging with communities of all ages and all backgrounds. This, now more than ever, is how the LAMN in marking International Museums Day is enabling our communities to continue to feel connected while we keep our distance from one another.

About the Local Authority Museums Network

The LAMN comprises Carlow County Museum; Cavan County Museum; Clare Museum, Cork Public Museum, County Museum, Dundalk; Donegal County Museum; Galway City Museum; Kerry County Museum; Limerick Museum; Monaghan County Museum; Tipperary County Museum and Waterford Museum of Treasures.

The members of the LAMN strive to achieve best standards across all areas of museum work. The Museum Standards Programme of Ireland operates under the auspices of the Heritage Council and sets out to raise standards of care across Irish museums and galleries. The programme aims to benchmark and promote professional standards in collections care and to recognise the achievement of those standards within the Irish museum sector. The Programme is fully supported by the LAMN and its members have variously achieved Maintenance of Accreditation, Full Accreditation and Interim Accreditation.

The LAMN plays a vital role in preserving archaeological heritage. The members of the LAMN are designated museums under Section 68 (2) of the National Cultural Institutions Act, 1997. Under this legislation each Museum is legally entitled to retain archaeological objects on behalf of the State. The National Museum of Ireland will only lend objects for display to designated museums.

 

Monaghan County Museum wants to collect your experiences and stories about the Covid 19 Pandemic

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Monaghan County Museum wants to collect your stories about the Covid 19 Pandemic-

They can be –

  • Photographs or drawings – Any sort of pictures or drawing that shows life as it is now during the pandemic
  • Stories relating to the pandemic in Monaghan – These could be your stories or perhaps those of a family member or friend that you have spoken with
  • Video, audio or sound files – These could be interviews with family members – perhaps older members of your family who have memories of times like this in past

All material submitted will be added to the museum collection and form part of an exhibition in the near future

 

Some things to get you thinking……

 

Your daily life                    How has your experience of the Covid 19 pandemic changed your day to day to life?

 

Work                                     Do you or a member of your family work in a front line service right now? Can you record that experience in any way?

 

Shopping                             What it’s like for you or your family members when you or they go shopping for essentials?

 

Religion                               If you do, how has the Covid 19 Pandemic changed the way you worship?

 

Communication               How do you keep in contact with your family, friends, work colleagues?

 

Spare Time                         What are you doing to keep your body and mind active? What are you and your family doing to entertain yourselves?

 

Community                        Are you doing something in your community to help or perhaps you know of others who are helping? Is someone helping you?

 

Monaghan County Museum wants to collect your experiences and stories about the Covid 19 Pandemic

Monaghan County Council success at the 2019 Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Awards

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Monaghan County Council was again successful in the 2019 Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Awards ceremony held on 28 November 2019 picking up the award in the Heritage and Built Environment category for Monaghan County Museum’s nationally acclaimed and now nationally award winning exhibition, ‘The Monaghan Spitfire – Life on the Border with a World at War’.   Monaghan County Council was shortlisted in seven out of the sixteen award categories.

Congratulations to all involved in the shortlisted projects:

An Age Friendly Guide to Communication – Age Friendly Initiative

Monaghan Community Alerts – Best Practice in Citizen Engagement

Rossmore Forest Park Tourism & Recreational Development – Supporting Tourism

Monaghan County Council Rents App – Local Authority Innovation

Refurbishment and Remodelling of Clones Market House, Clones, Co. Monaghan –Outstanding initiative through the Municipal Districts

Your Vote Your Voice – Disability Services Provision

For further information and a full list of all winners see: Chambers Ireland

Monaghan County Council success at the 2019 Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Awards