Traditional Music Collecting: plausible for museums?

Beanstalk

Hey folks,

My name is Ronan and I am currently studying an MA in Museum Studies at Bournemouth Univeristy in the UK. I play ITM reguarly, mainly mandolin and guitar.

I researching for my thesis entitled 'Traditional Music: is it a viable resource for museums to collect in order to promote local cultural heritage?'

Basically my work revolves around the idea that traditional music (either ITM or other) can be used by museums to promote cultural heritage in the forms of collecting, perservation, exhibition, sound archive, workshops. study (e.g. regional variations) etc... What I am trying to ascertain is whether or not this idea is currently plausible.

I have been in contact with many museums about this topic but what I would also love to know is what you; the players and listeners of ITM feel about the subject.

I have designed a short survey that takes two mins max to fill out and I would be really grateful for any responses. If anyone would like to continue the discussion in this thread also it would be much appreciated!
Here is the link to the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1_2fCemHoRf5fTRSPKvFbfgg_3d_3d

With thanks,
Ronan

Suaimhneach

Completed the survey. Good luck with getting people to take it

Its an interesting concept. I would have thought that there would be a body dedicated to it. In Dublin we have an Archive of TV recordings from the BBC and eventually our own TV station RTÉ which visually recorded a lot of musical sessions, which I suppose is a form of collecting and protecting them.

banjopaul

Suaimhneach wrote: »

Completed the survey. Good luck with getting people to take it

Its an interesting concept. I would have thought that there would be a body dedicated to it. In Dublin we have an Archive of TV recordings from the BBC and eventually our own TV station RTÉ which visually recorded a lot of musical sessions, which I suppose is a form of collecting and protecting them.

There is, http://www.itma.ie/ . He's talking more about localised museum held archiving i think.

Survey done.

Beanstalk

A few places actively collect traditional music, such as the ITMA, the cork music library, and the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. And they are all really good, and have great collections, and provide a wonderful template for the collecting process. Banjopaul is right though, i am looking at more localized collecting, as the larger institutions due to limitations only focus on large events/festivals such as the Willie Clancy festival etc. the survey results so far are really positive and informative in general, id like to argue that localized museums could be equipped to record smaller gatherings locally, particualry when there is an established regional variant of the music being played.

Jim Martin

Co. Clare are already doing it:

http://http://www.oac.ie/

Jim Martin

Sorry:

http://www.oac.ie/