Home Getting involved Volunteers & students

Volunteers and students

    • |

4 June 2010

The LAARC is a strong advocate for the use of volunteers, and also supports student/ work placements. The use of volunteers has a long history in archaeology, but volunteer opportunities severely diminished with the rise of commercial archaeology. Volunteering at the LAARC however is a great way to get involved in archaeology in London.

Volunteers packing finds

LAARC Volunteering Programmes

LAARC volunteering programmes started with a three year project called the Minimum Standards programme, funded by the Getty Foundation which allowed the LAARC to build a base of volunteers to assist in the huge task of applying minimum standards and rationalising to the archaeological archive.

The project consisted of volunteers repacking objects to current standards and to make the archive more accessible. This led to the LAARC winning the Conservation Award for Care of Collections 2005.

In 2006 the museum was given an HLF grant for a pilot project called the Archive Volunteer Learning Programme. The aim of the project was to recruit new volunteers from the local area, especially the boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham.

The programme allowed essential backlog tasks to be completed such as repacking, but in exchange participants took away key foundation skills such as improved numeracy, literacy, IT skills and other essential life skills.

Volunteer Inclusion Programme

Over the past two years the LAARC has run the Volunteer Inclusion Programme (VIP), which is funded by the London Museums Hub. In June this year, VIP 6 will be starting at the LAARC.  For more information about our previous Volunteer Inclusion Programmes, please click on the links below:

If you are interested in joining a future LAARC Volunteer Inclusion Programme, please see the 'Archaeological Archive' section of the main Museum of London volunteering page for more information and contact details.

Volunteers digging at the Shoreditch park excavation

Long-term volunteering and student and work placements

The LAARC currently has a number of long-term volunteers, some of whom have been working with us for upwards of 10 years. Our long-term volunteers generally come in once a week, and work on specific archive projects such as repackaging finds from particular sites, and helping with archive records. In recent years, new long-term volunteers have joined us after participating in one of the LAARC Volunteer Inclusion Programmes.

The LAARC regularly accommodates student and work placements, who help staff with a range of tasks. For more information about student and work placements, please see the 'Archaeological Archive' section of the main Museum of London volunteering page.

Volunteer drawing programme