Skills

The National Network is working strategically as a sustainable professional network for our membership. Our programme of activity works to generate new ideas and share existing knowledge. We are working with our members to focus on specific challenges and subject areas. In order to be most effective we are establishing interest groups where topics are of particular relevance. Groups will meet a specific number of times to answer particular questions that will direct our work. Where able, we will draw in additional expertise to support the exchange of ideas.

The first interest group will look at Developing an Online Resource for all our Members, the second of these interest groups will focus on skills development. There are 164 arts professionals who attend National Network events; all have incredibly diverse specialisms, knowledge and experience, from within this pool we would like to create an Interest Group that will work with us to develop a programme of seminars, discussions and practical workshops all focused on improving skills within the sector by sharing examples and case studies.

Previous National Network events and recent conversations with our members have shown that the following skills areas of particular interest at the moment:

· Co-acquisitions
· Co-commissioning with non-collecting organisations
· Conserving non-object based and ephemeral work
· Shared storage within a region
· Sharing examples of purchasing and commissioning contracts
· Using archives within your collection

If you are a member of the National Network and are interested in being part of this group please email nationalprogrammes@contemporaryartsociety.org or call +44 (0)20 7831 1243.