Study Days

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

North Hertfordshire Museum + Stevenage Museum — SEMFed Study Day and AGM 2024

Tuesday 16th July 2024

This year’s SEMFed AGM will be taking place at North Hertfordshire Museum in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. We will hear 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. There will be a tour of North Hertfordshire Museum and plenty of opportunities to network.

In the morning we will hear from staff from North Hertfordshire Museum who will discuss how their museum took shape, what went well, things to avoid, and will give a tour of the new museum and its facilities.

In the afternoon staff from Stevenage Museum will discuss their aspirations for their exciting new museum and talk about how the museum is beginning to look in its early stages.

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.


Past events

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

Photo by @lasmaa on Unsplash

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.


If you would like to read about our past study days, visit our News Page for previous articles.