Management consultancy and seminars for Polish museums
and art galleries. 1992 - ongoing

Ministry of Culture and the Arts, Poland

The first seminar organised by Chadwick Jones Associates, with Wojciech Plewako of the Ministry of Culture and the Arts was held in Warsaw in March 1992. It was led by Tom Owen and Ian Jones and dealt with marketing, fundraising and sponsorship. It also examined the experience of arts and cultural organisations in Britain of working in a market economy, something new to Poland. The participants were from a variety of museums and galleries across Poland.

The second was held a year later at Radziejowice near Warsaw and was organised with the help of Miroslaw Borusiewicz, then deputy at the Ministry, former cultural representative of Solidarity and now Director of the Art Gallery in Lodz, the largest collection of modern art in Poland

It was attended by some 44 staff from national and local museums. We were joined by Dr Kevin Mason, Assistant Director of the Council of Museums in Wales and Brian Dovey, national Security Adviser to the Museums and Galleries Commission The topics were similar, but with the addition of a session on museum and gallery security.

The third seminar, held at the end of 1993 at the Radziwill Palace in Nieborow, was about the training of museum staff and was intended as the first step to create a national training scheme for Poland. Kevin Mason returned and we were joined by Dr Alan Chadwick and Simon Roodhouse, the former Director of the Museum Training Institute in Bradford.

The costs of the first two seminars were covered by the British Council, whose Director had given us considerable support from the beginning. The third was financed by the British Foreign Office Know-How Fund, which was set up to provide advice to the former communist countries of Eastern Europe. The Ministry of Culture and the Arts also gave financial support.

In 1993-94 we were also involved, with Miroslaw Borusiewcz, in the setting up of the Centre for Museum Information and Training in Lodz. The Centre is now up and running with Miroslaw Borusiewcz as the Director. The purpose of the Centre, which is now on the internet, is to help improve the quality of the museum service in Poland by providing up-to-date information on all aspects of museums (rather in the manner of ICOM, Paris), and by initiating, co-ordinating and advancing training activity. We have a permanent agreement on co-operation with the Centre.

Since the Centre was set up we have jointly organised further seminars, including one on museums and local government with Barbara Woroncow and one on museums and technology with Kevin Mason and Jane Henderson. Further seminars are planned.

Our work in Poland was the subject of an article in the July-September 1995 edition of UNESCO's journal Museum International