Collections Advisory Group

Reporting to the Society’s Council, this Advisory Group provides the Society with valuable external professional expertise and advice relating to the Society’s two-million strong Collections, by responding to the Society’s current strategic plans for its use and stewardship of the Collections in terms of:

• Ethics and governance matters relating to the Society and its Collections

• Academic research and educational use

• Public engagement, with specific attention to further development of the Society’s existing collaborative work with diverse and underrepresented communities

• Maintenance, insurance, conservation and care, including estates planning and facilities as they relate to the future use and storage of the Society’s Collections

• Development of innovative digital access plans for the Collections

• Development of professional skills for Society staff working directly and indirectly with the Collections

• Maximising the opportunities for the Society to consider applications for such public and private financial grants and resources as may be available specifically for the care, conservation, exhibition, interpretation and promotion of the Collections which have designation via the Arts Council as a ‘UK Collection of National Importance’.

In addition, work on the Society’s Collections policies is a matter of on-going business and the Advisory Group will also be invited to contribute thinking and advice on the following policies:

• Collections acquisitions, disposals, loans and returns

• Collections development

• Collections information and access

• Collections Intellectual Property Rights

• Collections care and conservation

The Advisory Group members will also be invited to support the Society’s Head of Enterprise and Resources by commenting on the proposed annual objectives they develop in collaboration with the Society’s Director (and wider Senior Team) linked to the Society’s Collections and the delivery of the Society’s wider strategy. All operational decisions relating to the Collections remain with the Society’s Management Team.

The Advisory Group will meet two times per year in line with the Society’s existing cycle of Council and Committee meetings.

Advisory Group structure

The Collections Advisory Group will comprise nine members (including four representatives from the Society’s staff), plus a minute taker, selected for their specific areas of expertise. From time to time, other individuals with specialisms which may be thought to benefit the work of the Society in relation to its Collections may be co-opted onto the advisory group on a project basis and at the sole discretion of the Society’s Director.

Society representatives:

• Director

• Head of Enterprise and Resources

• Research and Collections Engagement Manager 

• ISRD Team (rotation of one senior member of staff per meeting – Principal Librarian, Deputy Librarian and Map Librarian)

• Enterprise and Collections Assistant (minutes)

External Advisory Group Members:

1. Professor Felix Driver, Professor of Human Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London. Chair

2. Professor Alison Blunt, Professor of Geography, QMUL (BME and Diaspora Communities). Deputy Chair.

3. Ms Kate Stockings, Head of Geography, Hampstead School.

4. Ms Jane Weeks, Fellow, formerly British Council and Chair of the South East Committee of the HLF.

5. Vacant

Last updated December 2022

To be reviewed by Council in December 2025