The second in what (we hope) will be an ongoing series of
regional tweet ups hosted by the Museums Association was held this month in
Birmingham.
Since the new group of MA reps was
appointed last year, we have made a conscious effort to find new ways of
bringing people who work in museums together. It is clear that we can all
benefit from the opportunity to meet other people in the same situation as us,
who face the same issues as us, and to share our experiences. We aren’t all
lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend formal network meetings in
office hours, and it can be refreshing to get that opportunity in a setting
that isn’t quite so formal. This is particularly true for those that work in
small museums, or are volunteers.
Our first tweet up at the Old Trip
to Jerusalem in Nottingham in October was a great success. It was held in one
of Nottingham’s most significant historic buildings, and we were kindly offered
tours of the medieval caves under the building. But even considering this, it
was still basically an evening meeting in a pub, and it was great to have that
experience with people who are so keen to talk about the possibilities that
come with working in our sector.
It was suggested that we hold the
next event in Birmingham. While it is obviously out of our region, it would be
a great opportunity to meet our counterparts in the west midlands, at a time
when the call for papers for the 2015 MA conference in Birmingham was open. In
any case, the opportunity to meet new people working close to our region was a
welcome one.
I met countless new people, who
worked in a variety of roles in museums of completely different sizes and aims.
It was great and refreshing to speak with volunteers, directors, curators and
freelancers, all on the same level about the issues we all face as
organisations: How do we react to funding
cuts? Are front of house staff treated fairly? What happens when we run out of
storage space? How much cake is too much?
These are (mostly) unanswerable
questions, and we all have different angles to address them. But I found
speaking about them with new people to be a great way of getting a more rounded
feel for the spirit in the sector, and that can only help me do my own job
better.
This post was written by Simon Brown, Artefact
Loans Officer at Nottingham City Museums and Galleries and the East Midlands member representative for the
Museums Association. He manages the 11,000 strong Access Artefacts handling
collection, based at Wollaton Park.
He
graduated from NTU in 2004 with a BA in Heritage Studies with Human Geography,
and has since gone on to work in various roles for Nottingham City Museums and
Galleries and Nottingham Contemporary, including as a museum assistant, curator
and documentation assistant. He is currently studying for the AMA.
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