The SEMFed holds events throughout the year which are for all members at minimal cost. Our events offer an opportunity for informal networking with fellow museums professionals.
Upcoming events
Digital heritage interpretation: online study session for heritage & culture professionals
SEMFed events are an opportunity for those working in heritage in the south and east of England to share their knowledge and support each other.
For this session we will be joined by team members from four different organisations from our region and beyond to share their experiences of developing and maintaining digital interpretation on their sites.
We will be hearing about:
- 878 AD — an interactive experience in Winchester designed in partnership with Ubisoft
- The Glastonbury Abbey Stories app
- Digital interpretation in the new galleries at Norwich Castle
- Digital interpretation at Colchester Castle
There will be time for questions and discussion.
Attendance is free for SEMFed members. If you are not already a member, you can either take out membership for £10 for 12 months, or join us as a guest for £3.
Past events
Planning for Public Benefit through Community Partnerships
Our 2024 autumn study day was kindly hosted by the team at the National Trust’s Peckover House in Wisbech. The focus of the day was on how cultural organisations within a town can offer the most public benefit by thinking differently and working collaboratively. Read the report here.
North Hertfordshire Museum + Stevenage Museum — SEMFed Study Day and AGM 2024
The 2024 SEMFed AGM took place at North Hertfordshire Museum in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. We heard from staff from both North Hertfordshire Museum and nearby Stevenage Museum, two local authority museums on either end of the redevelopment process. North Hertfordshire Museum opened fully in 2019, following a merger of two old museums and relocation to a new town centre site. Stevenage Museum, by contrast, is at the early phase of its redevelopment story, with ideas still in formation.
Access in Action: online study session for heritage and culture professionals
This online session included four case studies of different ways heritage organisations are improving accessibility in a variety of ways:
- Matthew Platt, Assistant Curator, North Hertfordshire Museum — For the Love of the Game – away from the sidelines and into the foreground
- Jo Gillam – Freelance Museum Educator, Disability/Neurodiversity Trainer & Consultant — ’I’ve never seen (or heard of) a windmill in Brixton!’
- Marie Kennedy, Learning Associate: Young People, University of Cambridge Museums — Disability-friendly openings at University of Cambridge Museums
- Hannah Salisbury, Community and Learning Officer, Suffolk Archives — The Deaf Perspectives project
Study day: Cambridge
Monday 6th November 2023, 10.30am‑3.30pm
The theme for our next Study Day is Dealing with Colonial Legacies. We will be meeting in Cambridge, and the day will include a visit to the Black Atlantic exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum and a talk from Curator Vicky Avery. We will also be hearing from Katrina Dring of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology about how the museum has been handling colonial legacies of their collections during their major stores move.
Tea and coffee will be provided on arrival but we are asking attendees to bring their own lunch to help reduce costs and food waste.
Study day and AGM: Norwich
Monday 17th July 2023, 9.30am‑3.45pm
We are very excited that this year’s SEMFed AGM will be taking place in Norwich, with behind-the-scenes visits to two of the city’s major cultural attractions.
We will be spending the morning at Norwich Castle to hear from the team behind the Royal Palace Reborn project. This major redevelopment project is reinstating the medieval floors and rooms in the Castle Keep and creating a new visitor entrance, café and shop. This will include a look around the construction site and a talk about the approach the team is taking to interpretation.
In the afternoon we are being hosted by The Forum, a short walk away from the Castle. The Forum is home to Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library, who will share a case study of their recent community engagement activity, Kintsugi Bookbinding for wellbeing. This project was a collaboration with Norwich Castle, and part of activities around the recent conservation of two medieval manuscripts as part of the Royal Palace Reborn project.
There will be tea and coffee on arrival and a light lunch provided.
The AGM will be an opportunity to give your views on what you want to see in the future from SEMFed and to discuss our next overseas study trip.
Transformation — SEM Fed Study Day and 2022 AGM
Tuesday 5th July 2022
The annual SEMFed AGM was held at the brand new home of Suffolk Archives, The Hold in Ipswich, on the theme of transformation. Read the report here.
Museum Collections: Past, Present and Future
Thursday 24th March, 10am-12noon, online event
Have you ever looked at a museum object and thought “why is this here?” or “should this be here?”. You are not alone! Everybody who works in museums or heritage or archives has asked themselves this sort of question at one time or another. Read a report on the day here.
SEMFed Study Day: Six Centuries of Food and Dining at Eton College
Friday 29th October 2021, 10.45am‑2.45pm
Eton College, Windsor, SL4 6DW
This Study Day took place at Eton College, and examined the research, installation and programming around their exhibition, ‘Six Centuries of Food and Dining at Eton College’. Read a report on the day here.
SEMFed Study Day in Cambridge and AGM 2021
The 2021 SEMFed AGM and study day was held at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science and the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge. Read a report on the day here.
SEMF Study Day March 2021: Remote audience programmes — what have we learnt so far?
Monday 8th March, 10.00am-12.30pm
With daily life still far from normal we will be took a look at how museums and other heritage organisations in our region adapted to engaging with audiences remotely. Through a range of case studies, we heard about how we had still been reaching schools and communities in new ways, and what had been learnt so far. Read the report here.
Audience engagement in lockdown – case studies from Suffolk museums
Monday 19th October 2020
Our first online event! We heard how museums across Suffolk have shifted their audience engagement activities during lockdown. Read the report here.
Amersham Museum, Study Day
Monday 21 October 2019
We visited the recently redeveloped Amersham Museum in Buckinghamshire and had a day jam packed with engaging talks and interactive sessions showcasing the Museum’s activities.
Welwyn Hatfield, Mill Green Museum Study Day + AGM
Monday 1 July 2019
Our annual SEM Fed AGM was held in the beautiful surroundings of Mill Green Museum & Mill in Hertfordshire.
To read a report of the day, visit the news page here.
Study Day at Royal Airforce Museum, Hendon, London
Thursday 28 March 2019
If you didn’t make it to study day, never fear, our wonderful study report is here.