Growing Networks: new botanical workshops

The Fitzwilliam Museum invites applications from early- to mid-career curators of botanical works of art on paper to participate in a series of workshops and collections visits in Cambridge, London and Edinburgh.

The workshops will centre on the Fitzwilliam Museum’s outstanding collection of around 2,000 botanical drawings, watercolours and prints, dating from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. These include superb examples by the most renowned and influential practitioners of the genre, mainly European, as well as artists of the Chinese, Japanese and Indian schools.

The Growing Networks project, led by Jane Munro, Keeper and Henrietta Ward, Assistant Keeper in the Paintings, Drawings and Prints department, sets out to establish and nurture a network that will bring together curators with responsibility for important collections of botanical works of art on paper throughout the UK, working in art museums, libraries, archives, botanic gardens and herbaria. It presents a valuable forum for discussion for curators with diverse subject specialisms, linking botanists and plant scientists with art curators and paper conservators who have expertise in technical analysis and collections care, enabling us to share knowledge, resources and ideas.

The project will take the form of a series of workshops and collection visits from 7 - 15 June 2020; based mainly in Cambridge at the Fitzwilliam Museum, but also include sessions in the Cambridge University Herbarium and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Significant time will also be spent at the Natural History Museum, Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library and Kew Gardens in London and the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.

A small number of specialists in botanical art, conservation and curation will form part of the group to ensure participating curators benefit from their expertise, and extend networking opportunities. The Fitzwilliam, therefore, welcomes applications from curators working not only in art museums, but in libraries, archives, history museums and herbaria.

Applicants will be selected on the basis of the significance of the collections for which they have responsibility, and their own research interests. Preference will go towards those with demonstrable interest in and experience working with botanical works of art on paper, but we will also consider those who have future aspirations and/or an upcoming curatorial project which focuses on this area. Around 10 participants will be admitted to the programme.

Growing Networks is generously supported by The Getty Foundation, as part of The Paper Project: Prints and Drawings Curatorship in the 21st Century.

We welcome applications from international participants but cannot cover travel to the UK. All UK travel, accommodation and meal expenses will be covered by the grant.

To Apply

Applications should be emailed to GrowingNetworks@fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk and consist of:

- A letter (maximum 1 page of A4) expressing your interest in the programme and why you would like to attend. It should describe your current responsibilities and work, your career aspirations and an explanation of how participation in the Growing Networks project might help you achieve your goals. It should also include your thoughts about what you would hope to see covered in the programme and what you would wish to learn from it. Please also include a sentence confirming the support of your line manager.

- A short biography (100-150 words), which, if you are successful, will be shared with other participants and on the project website.

- A full curriculum vitae that includes your name, title, contact details, education, career history and publications.

Deadline: Sunday 13 October 2019. Late applications will not be accepted.

Participants will be selected and notified by the end of November.

Questions about the programme may be directed to Jo Vine, Research Facilitator: jrv31@cam.ac.uk.