β: This is a Beta release of the Fitzwilliam Museum's potential new website.
We want to co-design
our Virtual Museum presence with you.
You can return to our current site at any time.
Following the Government announcement yesterday, museums and galleries in Cambridge will be closed to the public as part of a period of national/local restrictions. So, with great sadness, we will not be able to reopen as planned on 2 January 2021.
September 2018–February 2019
Funded by University of Cambridge ESRC Impact Acceleration Account
‘Practitioner researchers ... are in a unique position to make an important contribution to the evolution of knowledge in the field of their professional practice. Their particular value lies in their positionality close to the site of professional action.’
Pascal & Betram, 2012
Project Team
Dr Kate Noble and Nicola Wallis, Fitzwilliam Museum
Overview of the Project
This University of Cambridge ESRC Impact Acceleration Account project brought together practitioners, researchers and stakeholders with an interest in work with young children in museums, galleries and gardens with the aim of establishing a new community of practice around practitioner led research. At Seminar One: Setting the Scene (October 2018), case studies of innovative work from around the UK (including UCM Nursery in Residence) were shared and discussed in light of participant's own experiences. In Seminar Two: Next Steps (January 2019), speakers from a range of academic fields (Early Childhood, Art Education and Ethnography) presented a variety of possible methodologies for investigating this area of work in a manner that is both academically trustworthy and of the highest ethical integrity. Analysis of the discussions has generated key themes which will shape future research and practice.