Annual Report 2001-2002 - Western Australian Museum - The ...

49
Western Australian Maritime Museum
measurement and recording of underwater sites. The course was designed to address the
growing demand for trained professional maritime archaeologists in an expanding field. It is
anticipated that the postgraduate diploma Practicum will be run every two years.
Maritime History
The ARC-Linkage grant ‘Voices from the West End: the Fremantle living histories’ project will
produce histories in two formats: publications that are designed to reach a wide scholarly
audience and a digital (multimedia) interactive documentary form. The interactive documentary
genre enables oral histories to be recorded and presented to the public using the very latest
interactive media technology.
Exhibitions in the new Maritime Museum have been well received. The Education and Visitor
Services sections have built on the information provided in text panels, objects, multimedia and
interactives by designing programs for visitors to the museum. A basic gallery guide was
developed by the Marketing section with assistance from Maritime History. More detailed
information under development includes self-guided tours, information sheets, souvenir guides,
and publications.
Education
The Education Program attracted over 26,000 visitors from pre-school age to retired groups, an
increase of 85% over the previous year. The dramatic increase was mainly due to the opening
of the new Museum and the increasing popularity of the older visitors’ program, including groups
such as Rotary and Probus.
A diverse range of programs is being developed by Education that addresses the school
curriculum and responds to teacher interest. Programs are refined in consultation with teachers
to match their requirements. Education offers professional development workshops and
familiarisation tours to teachers to support programs. Teachers’ guides have been developed
to allow museum visits to be expanded in school into units of work. These guides have been
warmly received.
The Education section’s ability to deliver a wide selection of programs to the public can be
attributed to the unswerving commitment of Education volunteers. In addition to thousands of
hours of guiding, volunteers assisted with general clerical work, building learning tools and
making special events a great success.
The Education Volunteer group has 96 members, with 52 actively guiding across all sites. This
year the training and management of the Maritime Museum Education volunteers was formalised
under the Education Volunteer co-ordinator George Trotter who was also responsible for training
of the Museum’s 39 Visitor Services Officers.
The Batavia Lecture Series proved a success yet again, with local and international guests
delivering programs showcasing a diverse and entertaining range of maritime heritage topics.
These included a special series on the development of the new Maritime Museum leading up to
its opening. During the year there were 18 lectures with attendances of 80% room capacity.
During the school holidays more than 5,000 young visitors and their parents took advantage of
activities such as ‘Pieces of Eight’, ‘Spice Trade’, ‘Cargoes’, and—the most popular— ‘Riddled
with Rats’. These are some of a growing number of programs aimed specifically at the very
young.
Committed to developing and maintaining ties with the community, the Education section was
involved in Sea Week 2003 at Rottnest Island, providing among other activities, an opportunity
for teachers to dive on wreck-sites. Partnership with Curtin University’s Sir Charles Court Young
Leaders’ Program has developed a highly successful annual program at the Museum that
addresses the needs of talented young people from around the state in exploring our history.
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM ANNUAL REPORT 2002–2003