(no subject)
My stuff from Leicester arrived today and one of the first things it suggests I do is start a journal. This one is just sitting here and I've been wanting to do something about this for a while. I don't know how useful I'll find the journal idea and I may need to take a different approach once I see how it works out, but for now:
My desire to work in museums stems from a lot of things, in no particular order:
This is going to get a bit verbose, so I'm abandoning it for now, but while I'm at it, have a list of formative museums and exhibitions:
I may keep more comprehensive versions of these lists somewhere and add to them as things occur to me. They'll just have to be a bit pants for now.
As most of you will know, I studied Classics at university, which with its broad range of approaches to cultures and ideas feels like an excellent starting point. It was something I loved doing, I was good at it and I still believe in its value, even if people from my father to Bill Rammell to dunkyb see it as useless. If it were useless, I suspect my skills (and not just in the icky DfES sense) and time would be in a lot less demand, but now is neither the time nor the place for this rant.
In a way, maybe I am more a classicist because I like the approach than because I'm mad on Greeks and Romans, (although that's not to say that I'm not). I like handling different types of evidence, thinking about different schools of thought (both ancient and modern), I love languages, art and other forms of expression, I love complex messages. This should broaden out nicely into museum studies, but means I find it very difficult to define myself as purely an educator or an art historian or an archaeologist. I'm still using the sciences I found difficult to give up, so perhaps it'll be a while before I let go of the classicist hat or any of its subhats. I guess this means I see myself as multidisciplinary, which seems like a none too sophisticated attempt to evade definition, but I don't think it is. There's plenty of time to specialise yet and hopefully I can benefit from a broader view.
Education is a key issue and may prove to be the thing in which I choose to specialise. By the end of my MA, after 2-3 years working at Pearson I should also have considerable experience writing and developing educational materials, and good knowledge of the system, which can only be helpful. I love the idea of museums as the ultimate in lifelong learning, that anyone at all can walk into, think about in their own way and come out having learned a lot and enjoyed the experience. I would like to learn more about how to broaden their appeal and make sure that they are used by more people than just bored school children and the middle classes.
I also want to learn about the context of museums (this seems likely quite soon, having flicked through the materials from the first module) and the practicalities of managing a museum and its collections. I want to build on the amazing experiences I've had with Bright Sparks since I joined back in 2004 and I'm sure my studies will prove to be an excellent excuse to visit any museum that takes my fancy (I'm plotting to go to Paris soon, for example).
In my volunteering I have loved the feeling of being/providing an intermediary between people and objects, both directly as guide or educator or indirectly by writing labels and documentation. It is great to be able to contextualise objects through images, texts or other objects. I love the idea of telling stories in museums, and I don't think it should be just for the kids.
I also get an almost guilty pleasure from handling objects. At first I thought it was just a response to the priveleged position I was in and something that would wear off as I got used to it. I'm not sure now if it ever will. I think it runs deeper into something I can't fully explain. If ever you run a touch table, look at the visitors' faces and you'll see it there.
At the moment a lot of my motivations and a lot of the ways I look at museums come down to je ne sais quoi. The issues are complex, which is why I look forward to doing some hard thinking and maybe pinning some of these concepts down.
My desire to work in museums stems from a lot of things, in no particular order:
- I just love being in them
- my interest in culture and history
- my granny's love of antiques and collecting, which she passed on to me
- my interest in education
- they were a place to learn at a time when I loved learning, but hated school
- they are a valuable resource in so many ways and give a wide variety of people a lot of pleasure as well as food for thought
- a desire for an academically challenging career
This is going to get a bit verbose, so I'm abandoning it for now, but while I'm at it, have a list of formative museums and exhibitions:
- The British Museum (esp Assyrian reliefs, Parthenon marbles and the way there's something fascinating wherever you turn)
- Bristol Museum (esp Egypt, Sea Dragons and the fact I've been going there regularly for years and will never tire)
- Fondation Marguerite et Aime Maeght (An immersive experience. Art is literally wherever you turn. Picasso did the tiles forcryingoutloud)
- The Fitzwilliam Museum (good and bad, this is an essay in itself)
- The Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (it is great, and they took me in)
- The Courthauld (a great small art collection and a lovely space)
- A museum of prehistory I visited when quite young, the name of which escapes me. It had Aurochs and creaky robot mammoths
- Turks at the RA (a great exhibition, but I wished they'd thought more about the fact that there would be visitors)
- The other big London museums and galleries (I will be here all night if I go through them all)
- ditto museums in Cambridge
I may keep more comprehensive versions of these lists somewhere and add to them as things occur to me. They'll just have to be a bit pants for now.
As most of you will know, I studied Classics at university, which with its broad range of approaches to cultures and ideas feels like an excellent starting point. It was something I loved doing, I was good at it and I still believe in its value, even if people from my father to Bill Rammell to dunkyb see it as useless. If it were useless, I suspect my skills (and not just in the icky DfES sense) and time would be in a lot less demand, but now is neither the time nor the place for this rant.
In a way, maybe I am more a classicist because I like the approach than because I'm mad on Greeks and Romans, (although that's not to say that I'm not). I like handling different types of evidence, thinking about different schools of thought (both ancient and modern), I love languages, art and other forms of expression, I love complex messages. This should broaden out nicely into museum studies, but means I find it very difficult to define myself as purely an educator or an art historian or an archaeologist. I'm still using the sciences I found difficult to give up, so perhaps it'll be a while before I let go of the classicist hat or any of its subhats. I guess this means I see myself as multidisciplinary, which seems like a none too sophisticated attempt to evade definition, but I don't think it is. There's plenty of time to specialise yet and hopefully I can benefit from a broader view.
Education is a key issue and may prove to be the thing in which I choose to specialise. By the end of my MA, after 2-3 years working at Pearson I should also have considerable experience writing and developing educational materials, and good knowledge of the system, which can only be helpful. I love the idea of museums as the ultimate in lifelong learning, that anyone at all can walk into, think about in their own way and come out having learned a lot and enjoyed the experience. I would like to learn more about how to broaden their appeal and make sure that they are used by more people than just bored school children and the middle classes.
I also want to learn about the context of museums (this seems likely quite soon, having flicked through the materials from the first module) and the practicalities of managing a museum and its collections. I want to build on the amazing experiences I've had with Bright Sparks since I joined back in 2004 and I'm sure my studies will prove to be an excellent excuse to visit any museum that takes my fancy (I'm plotting to go to Paris soon, for example).
In my volunteering I have loved the feeling of being/providing an intermediary between people and objects, both directly as guide or educator or indirectly by writing labels and documentation. It is great to be able to contextualise objects through images, texts or other objects. I love the idea of telling stories in museums, and I don't think it should be just for the kids.
I also get an almost guilty pleasure from handling objects. At first I thought it was just a response to the priveleged position I was in and something that would wear off as I got used to it. I'm not sure now if it ever will. I think it runs deeper into something I can't fully explain. If ever you run a touch table, look at the visitors' faces and you'll see it there.
At the moment a lot of my motivations and a lot of the ways I look at museums come down to je ne sais quoi. The issues are complex, which is why I look forward to doing some hard thinking and maybe pinning some of these concepts down.