John Jarrold Printing Museum

On Saturday, I ventured into Norwich for Heritage Open Day (and to celebrate finishing my masters with some pimms!) I enjoyed a quick walk around the Regimental Museum on its last day of opening. I then headed to the John Jarrold Printing Museum. I had seen this museum in previous years Heritage Open Day guides and wanted to visit. Well this year I was finally able to. Although, slightly out of the main city the short walk to this museum is well worth it. We were not the only visitors to venture here either as the museum was very busy. The process of printing has always fascinated me, the traditional type and the careful use of ink and paper.

What makes this museum particularly charming is that all the machines are used and worked by volunteers. Many who were printers using these machines in their working life. What was clear is that these volunteers are dedicated to these printing processes and really enjoyed showing us how they worked. I couldn't help but wonder what will happen to this museum in the future. Without the volunteers keeping the machines and printing processses alive, it will lose its uniqueness and appeal. They give the museums its charm, and they are what has made me fall in love with this museum!

How can those of us working in the museum sector encapture this?

Taking a little break...

I'm writing my dissertation - back soon!

Volunteer Run Museums

Today I supported two of my local volunteer run museums Dad's Army Museum and Charles Burrell Museum by visiting them. I had intended on visiting them both for a long time, and took my parents with me aswell.

Particularly at the Dad's Army Museum, it was great to see the dedication of the volunteers in making the museum a success and ensuring that the visitors (of which there were many) had a great time. I would really love to see the Charles Burrell Museum revitalised with better opening hours and joining the other two museums in Thetford as a really positive heritage centre for the town; locals and visitors. Possible volunteering opportunity, perhaps?

Researching museums for my dissertation today, it really surprised me how many museums are purely volunteer run. Now, I've got my feet on the ground and knew that there were a lot but I was still surprised by the sheer volume of them! I wonder how much of the museum sector are purely volunteer run, I should think that they outnumber local authority and national museums. Anybody know? Are there any statistics out there?

Oxburgh Hall

Today I had a quick visit to Oxburgh Hall a local National Trust Property. I have recently become a member and was keen to visit. My dad was taking part in their event 'Boys and their Toys' as an exhibitor and I was also keen to see the property since the last time I visited was three years ago when I was a volunteer.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much had actually changed within the house. Ropes were gone, atmospheric lighting, new furniture, paintings, objects and display panels. So much had changed and the house really had a great atmosphere to accompany the slight but significant changes. It's very easy to think of historic houses as very static places where not much changes, but Oxburgh Hall really showed me today how wrong that is. I only had a very quick look round and will be going back soon to take it all in properly.

What I've realised is that small changes to displays and an institution can make a big difference. You may think that when you've been somewhere once like your local museum or National Trust property then you don't need to visit again, which is NOT TRUE! The heritage and museum sector need to find a way of encouraging local people to support and visit them and after today, I think small changes may be the way forward.

Visit to a few museums in London

So yesterday I visited many London Museums including the British Museum Afghanistan Crossroads of the Ancient World which I can fully recommend. I was interested in this exhibition due to the story that the objects had been hidden by National Museum of Afghanistan staff to ensure their survival. Although this information was on the leaflet I was surprised that it did not feature at all in the exhibition, but it really worked to get me interested in the exhibition and to actually visit! I really enjoyed seeing intricately carved Begram Ivories from the 1st century AD and the displays of the gold jewellery. When this was displayed the colour purple was used which I think was very effective as it suggested opulence and richness. I also think that the end panel of the exhibition ‘Afghan Today’ highlighting projects that are happening to explore and research history, archaeology and culture in Afghanistan was an interesting conclusion to the exhibition.

I also visited the interesting Wives and Sweethearts exhibition at the National Army Museum. Today I have explored the online exhibition and think that this is well worth a look, especially if you cannot make it to the exhibition before it closes. The romantic in me enjoyed reading the love letters, while it was also interesting to see diffrerent styles of wedding in the photographs.

I then visited the Museum of London with particular interest in the recently refurbished modern galleries. I was particularly interested in the ‘World City: 1950s to today’ gallery due to its contemporary nature. It featured many objects which could be called iconic such as Doc Marten boots and communication tools like mobile phones. I thought about the fact that many of the items were not necessarily unique to London but they had been used to say something about London life at that time. Would local history museums be able to include the same objects? Or does the fact that London is the capital mean that the museum can feature more general objects?

The displays featured many fashion pieces and magazines, I wondered what this says about contemporary collecting and objects. The gallery also featured some different topics such as student sit ins, race riots and the change in jobs and the economy.

A very futuristic, interactive element of the gallery was ‘Capital Concerns’ which many children were enjoying, exploring some of the current challenges in London now.

I then had a quick look in the City Gallery which is introduced as being ‘about the ceremonies that reflect the City’s past, but also about the people who live, work and study here in the 21st century.’ I really enjoyed the comparison displays showing objects which were used in the past and more recently used objects, such as a mayor’s collar and blackberry phone, an early 20th Century taxi driver’s badge and a modern train dispatch bat. I think that these displays are a really effective way of showing contrast, comparisons, change and continuity.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed the modern London galleries as they were creative, well displayed, interesting and thought provoking.

I honestly believe that my Front of House experience is going to stand me in good stead for my museum career.This was really made clear to me in an incident on the first day of my new placement.

I think that my Front of House experience has:

• boosted my confidence
• improved my communication skills
• given me an understanding of what visitors want from their museum visit
• an understanding of how people act in a museum
• an understanding of how visitors see a museum

Front of House Staff:

• Witness first hand what works and what doesn't in a museum
• Witness and hear what visitors do and do not like
• Can directly impact on whether visitors enjoy their visit or not!
• Should be listened to when they have an opinion or idea for the museum!

I know that this has been blogged about before. See museumuse and The National Museum of American History Are there some more I don't know about?  

For me, my experiences as a Visitor Services Assistant has really influenced how I think about and view museums. What has influenced you?

#WhyILoveMuseums

Tuesday 5th April was #WhyILoveMuseums day on twitter. Users were asked to post why we loved museums using the hashtag so it could be easily followed.

For me the amount of response was incredible and really showed how loved museums are and how important they are. Culture Themes has provided a very good round up of what happened on the day.

When studying and working in museums you can forget how much they mean to people. During this scary, unsettled time the economy regularly affects arts organisations and museums. It is refreshing to be reminded how important they are and why we should really fight to keep and support them. Twitter and events like #WhyILoveMuseums are great advocacy for museums and should be used to show how important they are.

Some tweets I particularly liked:

CraftCreative said: 'Museums allow me to tap back into the excitement I felt as a child on discovering something new.'

Erinkaela  said: 'Tangible objects have a way of making history more real and the power to spark thought, curiosity, and imagination.'

Museums365 said 'No matter where I am in the world, and no matter how lonely, I enter a museum and at once I am welcome there.'

Lapopessa said 'I love museums because they show us who we were, who we are, and what we can be.'

Thackraymuseum said 'Because this feed shows just what amazing, dedicated and passionate people work, rest and play in & with museums worldwide.'

missnae said 'They're safe spaces for exploring multiple viewpoints, supporting knowledge and understanding.'
TheMoSheringham said 'Connecting with people from the past and discovering their stories.'

BostonEMPs said 'because you can see the REAL thing in front of you. Whether its a van gogh or franklin pierce's pencil. that's powerful stuff!'

LindseyMilnes said 'Museums help people learn how to learn, are not just about teaching facts but experiencing life, feelings and emotions.'

I'm looking forward to future Culture Themes events and eagerly awaiting what happens!

My first exhibition

As part of my internship at Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service I have been working with the Community History Team to create a temporary exhibition case at Hollytrees Museum.

This case has the topical theme of Royal Celebrations to tie in with the upcoming Royal Wedding. It features nylon knickers, coronation ale, mugs and of course tea towels. It also shows how Royal events were celebrated in the past in Colchester through street parties and decorations, coronation teas and a full day of programmed events. The case shows that Royal events have been a big part of our lives and have been commemorated in a number of ways. It also perhaps, hints at the decline in the interest and respect for the Royal Family. Objects show that a hundred years ago Royal events such as a coronation or a wedding would have led to a day full of events. Whereas our most modern object is a (some might say distasteful) caricuture teatowel of Prince William and Kate.

I thoroughly enjoyed curating this case. Although I had been involved in exhibitions before this was the first time I had been involved throughout the process from researching, choosing objects, writing labels and installing the case. What I learnt most from this experience was to plan where labels are going! This was something that I hadn't really considered when planning the case and they ended up taking a lot of room even though my word count wasn't really that high!

What do you think of the case? Are you or is your museum doing anything for the Royal Wedding? What was your first exhibition that you curated?