Time to catch up - mostly as I'm laid up today.  This is partly down to the heat, partly down to a cold, probably not helped by a couple of nights under canvas at Leiston Abbey with DigVentures an a couple of days of rail travel either side.  Very cold nights (shiveringly so) and boiling hot days.  Oh well.

DigVentures was a load of fun.  With funding all over the sector squeezed these days then crowfunding is definitely a way forward.  

http://digventures.com/


Currently about to start work at the Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture at Berriew near Welshpool - working on finishing cataloguing their collection on MODES and imaging their collections.  This will also mean looking at 123D with Richard Smith - sculpture needs 3D imaging to be properly imaged, being a 3D medium.  Interesting times - especially as this can lead to 3D printing.  The possibility of creating surrogates easily for display or handling collections opens up new possibilities.

 http://andrewloganmuseum.org/

Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture

Other work at the moment is more work for the LMS-Patriot Project.  The new display will be at the People's History Museum in Manchester.  Looking forward to this one!

http://www.lms-patriot.org.uk/

Catch-up time – been a long time since I posted.

Coming to the end of the Llangollen contract and with the few things in the pipeline yet to bear fruit, it’s been a month or so of going on training courses – free, offered by CyMAL  and mostly local, as well as doing some interesting work in public engagement.

This work has been for the Museum of Cannock Chase. The museum is on the site of one of the many collieries of the Cannock coalfield.  The museum has been given some money for various upgrades and new interpretation.  The job of myself and the great Ruth Moore Williams (her website: http://www.songandstory.org.uk) was to dress up – Ruth as a cleaner at the pit, myself as the lampman- and to interact with visitors, doing some first person interpretation.  Ruth also provided music on harp, hurdy gurdy – there’s literally nothing she doesn’t play.  We’d also ask them, after our performances, what they would like to see at the museum .

Making sure that they knew that we could be trusted with the information – we were working with the museum but were independent from it – was important.  The public had to be made aware that we could be told anything.  They could say what they liked to us, tell us what wasn’t working for them at the museum (both in interpretation and facilities), what stories were being missed out, how things could be done better, etc.  It’s interesting to see the difference between this and just using visitor feedback sheets or visitors’ book.  The response is more vivid, of course, and with the barriers brought down by the interaction through the performance, visitors can feel free to talk – sometimes for minutes.  After writing up the visitors’ responses in between performances we could write a report that the museum will, hopefully act on.  It may originate with the museum’s management, but it does show that people’s perceptions of the museum can help create change.  The one problem with this is that it does not engage non-users, so we have other days planned outside the museum – indeed Ruth’s done another at Tamworth Castle.  

Ah, dressing up and meeting the public.  As interesting as it is to spend days amongst collections and cataloguing artefacts, if I couldn’t do days like this now and again with public interaction I’d go insane.   Looking forward to a weekend digging at Leiston Abbey with DigVentures in July.  Fun awaits!

It's audience participation time!  Wednesday saw the first of two days of a public engagement exercise for the Museum of Cannock Chase.  In practice this meant some first person interpretation in costume as the lamp man at the Valley Colliery - the museum being on the site of the old colliery.
The point of the days - apart from entertaining and informing - are to ask visitors what they'd like to see at the museum, what works for them, what doesn't and what improvements they would like to have made there.

It's a great idea, rather than just having a form with a suggestions box, or a visitors' book.  The interpretation and storytelling engage the visitors, draw them in, and once you have that connection you are free to ask them about the museum.  It does help to let people know that you're independent and that they are able to say anything they like. It is much more immediate, people's reactions to the facilities, interpretation, exhibits - yes, and staff - are perhaps more raw, but have more impact. They are less easy to ignore.  It will be interesting to find out how the public react on the second day - May 10th - and what results come from the exercise.

I've become one of the crowd-funding community with DigVentures.  I've yet to decide if I can make it to the dig at Leiston Abbey in Suffolk this summer, but have been asked to write a blog on "A Day in the Life of..." sort of thing.  Be good to get the trowel out again!

Now for a week of artefact imaging, policy writing and work on my AMA.

Incidentally, if anyone wants a signal box from the old Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, please contact Wigan Culture and Leisure Trust as they have one to dispose of - looking for a good home.

OK, first thing, yes, it's black armbands time for the last Time Team.  A terrible idea to axe it, as everyone knows.  Even the show's detractors can't but admit that it has popularised archaeology in Britain, even, to use the dreaded phrase, made it "cool".  Honestly, though, I wonder how many current archaeologists and historians were inspired by this programme?  How many archaeology courses are still going through people signing up for it spurred on by this hour of Sunday tea-time viewing?  Shows the power of a media idea done well.  New horizons await apparently, very interested in Dig Village...

Giving a talk on cataloguing on Wednesday night.  Well I say that, but as Llangollen - where I'm giving the talk at the museum - has had so much snow, electricity off all over town, Horseshoe Pass and A5 blocked, I'm just hoping things improve! The talk is mostly on the document collection, especially the many Victorian auction posters that show how the town grew, but also trace the many farm auctions - showing times of agricultural depression.  Unravelling a story from such documents is always a fantastic feeling.

Some of the farm auction posters name the horses to be sold, along with their particulars.  You can imagine them running in the fields.  

Busy time recently organising the loans for Llandudno Museum.  Some were from people just round the corner, some from the Royal Collection. If you're ever around Llandudno, it's worth popping in, especially for the Japanese armour presented to the Prince of Wales(later Edward VIII) in 1922. (see photos above - pictures by John Lawson-Reay)

Keeping going with the museum documentation for the Accreditation of the museum too.  Policies and plans - all necessary and all part of the unseen work that heritage professionals and volunteers have to do to keep going - and something that some people - mentioning the management at no county councils in particular - seem to understand.

Heritage. It isn't easy and it isn't cheap.

New Year, new challenges.  
January has been pure chaos - mostly with projects winding down and at the same time the usual rush with document writing as everyone applies for grants.  Being held up by the snow hasn't helped, but if you will have work that includes driving through the Welsh mountains...  

What can I say... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eT40eV7OiI

Have had some good tours of various stores - not only Llandudno Museum and Llangollen Museum where I'm just coming to the end of the collections management projects, but also at Wigan Museums and at Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod (which hereafter on the blogs I'll refer to as LIME, on account of it being hard on the ol' fingers constantly typing in Llangollen International... you get the idea). 

The variety of these stores and the many different collections shows what a resource we keep for the nation (however you define it), from large industrial pieces to newspaper cuttings.  It's the living database of the country's history.  Looking at the way it is regarded shows, however, that it is the biggest struggle with the authorities - whoever they are - who don't (literally) see the worth of the stores, concentrating on the "bums on seats" and more attractive front of house that is the museum displays open to the public.

More interest in the Contemporary Collections, mostly within Wales, but this also has its own problem - what do we mean by "contemporary"?  With the sports project in contemporary collections we basically used the idea of being artefacts post-1950.  As good a definition as any.  Some places see it as just the last 20 years - or even the last 5!  Is there a definition that all in the museum profession can agree on?  Just a thought...

Will shortly be visiting the Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture at Berriew.  Now that is a change of style in collections.  http://andrewloganmuseum.org/

MA Conference thoughts.

First off, apologies for the delay - haven't been well.

OK, thoughts on the MA Conference and other events.

Great conference, good to be up in Edinburgh, the guys at the National Museums made us all very welcome, from the first evening's reception at the National Portrait Gallery to the ceilidh at the National Museum of Scotland.  Liverpool will have to go the extra mile next year, but personally, it'll be easier for me being just around the corner.  Come up with some good events, Liverpool, or I'll commute to conference next year! Save myself the expense of the hotel (Jury's Inn in my case, which was OK, room good, food average).

The keynote speakers were good on the whole, Martin Roth of the V&A and Aamer Anwar being the star turns.  Martin Roth's very dry and to the point speech and answers to questions from the floor were a particular highlight.  I thought that both of those keynotes were saying a lot of what David Anderson of Amgueddfa Cymru was leading on, the need for museums to be aware of social justice issues. It was good to go to those events and find more Welsh delegates, especially Morrigan and Laura from Bodelwyddan Castle - and Lesley-Anne from CyMAL who is, after all my AMA Mentor.

The first keynote by Fiona Hyslop was a bit political for most, judging from what I'd overheard form delegates leaving the hall afterwards.  A little less overt politicking in favour of the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum would have been nice and a bit more concentrating on the issues confronting museums here and now would have been more welcome.  Having said that, expect more of the same in Cardiff in 2014 when Conference is there, but a bit more subtle, pointing out differences between Westminster and Cardiff Bay.  We're a long way from an independence referendum here in Wales.  Then again if the Scots do go their own way...  Wales will still probably stay in the Union for the foreseeable future. Either way, on the day we were not there to be addressed like a constituency meeting and from my observations many resented the fact that we were.

Anyway, back to the themes. David Anderson's sessions, especially the "Save the Children" on Thursday afternoon were good on highlighting the possibilities for museums in tackling the social justice agenda.  Will Morecombe from Rhyl Adventure Playground (RAPA) and myself went down to Cardiff in March to do a presentation on our involvement in Communities First areas and partnership working, so I was aware of some of the issues raised by David and Huw Lewis, Welsh heritage minister (who also spoke at the Cardiff event).  Living in Rhyl, I'm well aware of the problems of child poverty and cultural poverty in the area - it's certainly something that museums can work on.  At Rhyl, when I was with Denbighshire we worked with communities in creating exhibitions to express their views of their community and follow up with outreach events.  It's one of those areas where with the right eyes you see a whole range of possibilities.  OK, a cliché, but it is seeing a challenge rather than a problem. 

The other sessions I went to were mostly about education and play.  It was nice - and unexpected, I admit - on Friday night to find someone coming to speak to me: Dea Birkett of Kids in Museums. I was involved in KiM events with Denbighshire. It's a great cause and an ideal opportunity.  It was good to catch up with Dea.  It made me think about Llangollen Museum where I'm currently working.  There is one alcove (the building is a 16-sided (!) 1980s building, former library) that is the children's section, with books, toys and dressing up. I was wondering if it could be otherwise used - a bit of creative thinking sees the whole museum as the children's section.  Why not make costumes available at the door?  Why not have the needs of children catered to throughout the displays, not pushed into a corner which can be little more than a crèche?  Hopefully, with the upcoming Sharing Treasures project with the National Museum of Wales that Llangollen are involved with, this might be a possibility.  

More thoughts to come, hopefully, but really a Conference to set the mind into overdrive.  Always come home with pages of notes and ideas buzzing...

Off to Conference!

Off to the Museums Association Conference in Edinburgh - report and recent events coming up at the weekend!