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| Emma Varnam - Tameside Museums |
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| David Fleming - Director National Museums Liverpool |
1) KNOW YOUR MISSION
Inspiration - We need to know why it is we get up in the morning and go to work.
Emma's motivation is 'moments of magic'. It is objects transporting people.
(She recalls showing a dolly tub to an old lady. For that moment the lady was 18 again and this was the gift she was given on her wedding day)
Emma celebrated FoH staff. She said that every day they show
- Compassion
- Leadership
- Wise decisions
- Signposting
My motivations are many, but I like this song for summing up what is special about museums.
| Oh No by Gogol Bordello |
2) BE RELEVANT
Get out into meetings, into groups, into community spaces and find out what local people want/need.
Invite those people into the museum too and help them tell those stories using the collections.
3) BE A SAFE PLACE
Don't waste time on internal politics
Don't look at yourselves as separate departments - be a gang with shared aims
A museum should be a safe place. For local people, for young people, this might be the only safe place they have.
4) BE RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS
Do legwork! Go into the refuge. Go into the job centre. Invite those people into the museum.
Respond to issues. In Tameside an SEN man was bullied to suicide.
The museum made space to talk about these issues (bullying, SEN)
Consider your visitors in all areas of the museum. Make the drafts affordable and welcoming to people with less cash to spare. Make sure there are cheap objects in the gift shop.
BE FREE FOR LOCAL PEOPLE!!
Emma was immovable about this point. But she is lucky enough to be part of a local authority museum service. However, I think that cost is a big barrier for some people, and perhaps for a higher proportion of our close neighbours than for other areas in Leeds. Residents Free days or a limited nuber of £1 tickets for people in LS9 might be a step towards breaking down that barrier. Also, the work we do taking objects out into the community is important in this. Help people to see something different, to dream.
Learning is socially empowering - it changes lives.
Culture is all around us, the best museums just reflect + magnify what is already there.
If a museum is embedded in community and represents the people - just try taking it away and you will have a fight on your hands!
Arts Award has been a fantastic tool at Tameside Museums because...
It is sometimes the only certificate a young person will get.
It is all about them; their ideas.It is an achievement, it requires a lot of work, including paperwork and sophisticated ideas.
It is a big deal in those peoples' lives.
I have heard a LOT about Arts Award at various events and workshops and through GEM forum and I was frankly sick of hearing about it! But Emma really sold it well and did change my mind about it a bit. It costs to be a provider and perhaps wouldn't be as successful in our setting as it was in Tameside, but perhaps it's worth a moment's more consideration?
5) ADVOCATE
Get your story straight and share it widely to important people. Tell and show how we change lives.
Thackray is in a period of big change, which is very exciting for everyone! Our mission is probably evolving quite rapidly? I've found in the past that I personally like things to be very explicit and a like a good clear mission statement - from my point of view, I'd like us to have a snappy couple of lines that all staff can be aware of (like the brownie code)
Share the sparkle. People are told negative stories often, we can show them something good!!
DAVID FLEMING: WHAT HAS SOCIAL JUSTICE GOT TO DO WITH US?
David spoke about NML as well as Social Justice Alliance for Museums
What is social justice? There is no simple answer, this is something that is contested (globally)
It is equality of access to what we do...
AND MORE THAN THAT!
It is ACTIVISM. CAMPAIGNING to right the ills in society.
You may ask "what business is that of ours? Why should we try and be involved in that?"
David's answer is
why not?!
The Enemy
The Centre For Social Justice has a picture of David Cameron's face on the homepage.
People use phrases like 'social justice', 'equality' and 'community' to make their nefarious aims seem wholesome and unquestionably good.
Words like 'neutral' and 'safe place' have been sequestered by the man.
Example: The British Museum sells itself as neutral - if you believe that you're an idiot!
What they use neutral to mean is 'don't question things. Don't be controversial. Don't talk about issues that might be problematic.'
The British Museum is an anachronistic mouthpiece for Imperialism.
Former colonies are beginning to tell these stories and ask these questions for themselves. In more conservative regimes than ours, people are bravely communicating radical messages in a way that we are currently scared to do in the UK!
A museum mission statement should be a bold declaration: Don't be afraid to self-identify as activists.
Where do we sit as a museum? Are we just another part of the establishment or do we speak for the people? Can they trust us?
David is unapologetically opinionated and left-leaning. He was an engaging speaker because of his confidence in what he was saying. I left feeling that social justice in the business of museums and that we do have the power to make change, but that it is important to find ways and scales of doing this that suit our individual organisations. NML have built an image on the fact that they stand for the people, which works brilliantly. The individual identity of a museum is really important though, and needs to be respected in the things that take place inside them. Not all museums can or should have the same focus. This is another reason why a mission statement would be useful actually...
Where do we sit as a museum? Are we just another part of the establishment or do we speak for the people? Can they trust us?
David is unapologetically opinionated and left-leaning. He was an engaging speaker because of his confidence in what he was saying. I left feeling that social justice in the business of museums and that we do have the power to make change, but that it is important to find ways and scales of doing this that suit our individual organisations. NML have built an image on the fact that they stand for the people, which works brilliantly. The individual identity of a museum is really important though, and needs to be respected in the things that take place inside them. Not all museums can or should have the same focus. This is another reason why a mission statement would be useful actually...
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