HASS506: The Significance Assessment

Collections are the storehouses of our nation's memory and a stimulating key for future development. Collections speak to our identity and humanity, and provide us with a sense of our place in the world. By helping us to understand our collections, Significance helps us to better understand ourselves and our world. Significance Assessments also help museums and collecting institutions to manage and interpret their collections for the future.

Significance Assessments are also a practical capstone activity for developing work-ready students with real-world industry experience. Significance Assessments, governed by industry standards, are a core service provided to collecting institutions by professional historical and heritage consultants. The HASS506 Significance Project, therefore, gives students the opportunity to develop the experience and skills required for providing professional Significance Assessments.

The industry standard for Significance Assessments is set by: Russell, R & Winkworth, K., eds., Significance 2.0: a guide to assessing the significance of collections, Collections Council Australia Ltd., Australia 2009. This work is the prescribed textbook set for every HASS506 Significance Project. You can download a free PDF copy of Significance2.0 here:

https://www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/museums-libraries-and-galleries/significance-20

Write a Significance Assessment on an artefact/collection held in the UNE Museum of Antiquities.

If you are interested in applying to do a Sigificance Project, please read the information below and then follow the HASS unit Application Process

https://antiquities.une.pedestal3d.com/

If you aren’t sure which object/s you would like to study, or would like to find more options than those shown in Pedestal3D, you can contact Dr Bronwyn Hopwood to indicate what your general interests are (eg. jewellery, weaponry, food and cooking, religion, death, medicine, a particular culture etc), and receive a selection of suggested objects to choose from. You can select any object or collection in UNEMA that has not yet had a Significance Assessment completed for it. Below is a list of the museum's collections from which you might consider selecting an item:

• Ancient Near East
• Cyprus
• Egypt
• Greek
• Italic Penninsula (pre-Roman)
• Roman

• Africa
• Americas
• Asia
• Europe
• Oceania
• The 19th Century

• Diorama (Models, Replicas, Forgeries etc)
• Numismatics
• Engravings
• Hominids

1. To do a HASS506 Significance Assessment Project candidates must read, fill in, sign, and return to Dr Bronwyn Hopwood three forms: the “Significance Contract”, the “Author Statement”, and the “UNEMA Media Release Form” form. Copies of these forms are provided below under the heading “Project Forms and Examples.”
2. To enrol in a HASS506 Significance Project candidates must write a project proposal and submit it to their supervisor for approval. An example application by Kellie Nadin (2017) is provided below with permission, under the heading “Project Forms and Examples”.
3. Candidates agree that UNEMA may use their project without restriction for any purpose in the future (eg. as a museum brochure, material to create audio-visual files, in teaching materials, publications, or as a research example etc). Candidates can ask to have their projects made anonymous.
4. Candidates agree to keep confidential, and not to publicly distribute without written permission any documentation provided by UNEMA for the project (eg. photos, registration and accession papers, sensitive information attached to an artefact's file).
5. Candidates are encouraged to consult other museums, collections, and experts to research the history, provenance, context, artistic and technical development of their chosen artefact or collection. Candidates must acknowledge all assistance received and
6. Obtain permission for UNEMA to use any material provided without restriction (a written letter/email to this effect is sufficient).
7. Candidates are required to meet all academic standards for referencing, acknowledgements, and avoiding plagiarism.
8. HASS506 projects can be completed either on campus or online.

Use these forms to apply to enrol in a HASS506 Significance Assessment Project with Dr Bronwyn Hopwood in the UNE Museum of Antiquities (UNEMA). Please fill in, sign, and return these three forms to Dr Bronwyn Hopwood:

• Significance Contract
• Significance Author Statement
• UNEMA Media Release Form

Use the following Example Significance Project Proposal to develop your own project proposal (reference this example in your bibliography as: Nadin, K., Significance Project Example Proposal: Significance and MA1969.2.1-2 Roman Earrings, University of New England, Armidale 2017).

Example Significance Project Proposal

You may follow this example proposal quite closely so long as you fully and properly acknowledge it in the footnotes and bibliography of your own proposal. Once your draft proposal has been approved by Dr Hopwood you can submit it with your online application to enrol in HASS506 through the School’s online project application portal: https://www.une.edu.au/about-une/faculty-of-humanities-arts-social-sciences-and-education/hass/current-students/hass-special-topic-reading-and-research-units