Curate Your Own Adventure

I want to begin this blog post by thanking the organisers and sponsors for the Museums Galleries Australia National Conference 2018. Also, a huge shout out to all the wonderful people I met over the four days – including some Twitter friends! I am going to share with you the top 3 things that I will take away from this conference. Firstly, however, here is a quick summary of the day.

The day started strong with a fantastic presentation by Angelita Teo, Director of the National Museum of Singapore. Teo spoke about the four pillars of Singapore’s heritage plan: ‘our places, our treasures, our cultures, and our communities’. While talking about an exhibition, Witness to War, Teo discussed the amazing intergenerational work fostered by the museum with youth interviewing older generations to capture their stories.

After presenting on a few more projects undertaken by the National Museum of Singapore, Teo concluded by stating that technology is only meaningful if it encourages human interaction. Yes, so much yes.

Another talk I want to mention was presented by Andrea Cunningham from the V&A Museum of Childhood. Firstly, if you have never seen their ‘about us’ page on their website, definitely visit. Each member of staff is introduced alongside their childhood photograph. Something so simple, yet keeping to the brand.

As part of Cunningham’s talk, we watched a video on the Children’s Forum. This is an iniaitive that focuses on integrating children into the museum experience and not just tacking them on as an afterthought. On one day, children were able to take over museum roles (guided by members of staff). They became the directors, curators, conservators and tour guides. Even though Cunningham spoke about this being tokenistic, I thought it was actually a great way to get children involved in the different areas of the museum and learn exactly what it is we do. Other museums around the world are similarly turning to the creativity of children to assist with exhibitions and providing that, what I would see as necessary, perspective.

There were other great talks during the day, but, I want to now focus on what exactly did I learn and what I will be taking away from this conference.

1. So who should be an agent of change – every single one of us!

I’m going to start big or go home. One thing that stood out to me in every single presentation was the fact that literally everyone can be an agent of change through their work. You don’t have to be a director in order to actually implement meaningful change.

As illustrated in the talk by Simon Chaplin and Brian Lobel, it all starts with asking the ‘difficult’ or ‘uncomfortable’ questions. Who is absent? Why? How can we bring those voices into the museum?

I do actually think one of the most incredible accomplishments of this conference has been to provide more questions than answers.

2. So I can change things tomorrow right? No. Slow and steady wins the race.

The number of times I heard the fable of the tortoise and the hare as a child reaches into the hundreds of thousands.

As I said in the previous point, it is so important to start thinking about how we can all be agents of change. It is equally important, however, to realise that you can’t change things overnight. If you do, it’s probably going to be something superficial. Of course there are some expceptions to this rule, but, if you want to implement real change, it has to be done over time.

It has to be done in a way that means it will become ingrained in your institution.

3. We have the most amazing support network – each other.

Over the entire conference I had the incredible opportunity to meet so many professionals who are already beginning to be their institution’s agent of change.

We are a small industry, but, on the whole, a very supportive one. One of the best resources we have is each other!

So to summarise my entire conference experience in one blog post was difficult, but, I think I managed it. I hope to see everyone soon and no doubt I will be planning my future travels around the amazing places and sites that were discussed this week.

You know it has been a good day at a conference when your phone battery is on 1% and you have Twitter fatigue. You also start to realise that a portable charger might be a sound investment and you will definitely be acquiring one before the next conference. I’m trying to structure each blog post a little differently. Yesterday, I summarised a few of the talks, mainly going through what I liked about the day. Today, I’m going to provide a breakdown of what I did throughout the day. I am so grateful to have Twitter helping me out on this one.

9.00 am – 10.30 am

I arrived at the conference venue and eagerly awaited the presentation by Simon Chaplin (Director of the Wellcome Trust) and Brian Lobel (performer, teacher and curator). In summary, their presentation was incredible.

Chaplin spoke first on the role of the Wellcome Collection in challenging what is comfortable in a museum space. While he admitted there was still so much more to do, the Wellcome Collection must be applauded for the work they are already doing. Looking at health, rather than a history of medicine, has produced much more contemporary exhibitions and actually resulted in stronger connections with audiences.

Following Chaplin was Lobel, speaking so powerfully about cancer, disabilities and who museums include/exclude whether intentional or not. He then asked Chaplin some hard-hitting questions on behalf of an anonymous individual. One question was, when do ‘curious’ audiences become gawking audiences? Chaplin answered that we are now moving away from ‘otherness’ being a curiosity. Rather, there are more efforts being made to understand the other and not present this as a curiosity.

Both Lobel and Chaplin then posed a question to the audience, who is absent from your museum or gallery, and why? After intense discussion, some of the groups shared their discoveries. Both are really imporant questions that we need to keep asking ourselves.

11.15 am – 12.30 pm

I was going to stay at the ‘you can’t ask that….’ session that posed questions, written by conference attendees, to some of the top Directors in Australia. The questions, however, weren’t juicy enough so I left and saw ‘being an agent of change’.

The only talk I managed to see in its entirety was ‘Queer/ing curatorial practice: ‘Good thinking 99!’, by Nikki Sullivan and Craig Middleton. The combination of performance and presentation was not only a lot of fun, but, communicated some very important issues. Sullivan and Middleton handed out their ‘The KINQ Manifesto’. KINQ stands for ‘Knowledge Industries Need Queering’. This involves understanding that all museums are sex museums, museums are complicit in heteronormative disciplining of sex, museums have consistently functioned as an institution that defines sexual perversity, the straight and narrow must be renounced and both the praises and limitations of queer curatorship need to be recognised.

According to Sullivan and Middleton, queer/ing curatorial practice is not about, for example, re-labelling objects, but, creating an environment where new meanings can be applied to what’s on display. A really interesting talk and I cannot wait to read their book when it’s published.

12.45 pm – 1.45 pm

During this hour we listened to two speakers, Nathan Sentance and Viviane Gosselin.

Sentance presented on his blog, Archival Decolonist. You can find a link to the blog here. During his presentation, Sentance revealed what he wants people to take away from his blog – see the list below. Sentance also presented on the importance of letting Indigenous communities decide on what should and should not be shared from their history and how Indigenous material should be treated.

Next in the session was Viviane Gosselin who presented on the Museum of Vancouver and first nations engagement. One really good point to take away from this presentation is that museums need to pay their knowledge consultants! This term basically means anyone who is providing information about a community, culture, etc.

3.15 pm – 4.30 pm

This is when the Twitter fatigue really hit. For this session, I sat in on a series of lightning talks. There were some beautiful graphics shared by Will and Jessica Gouthro exploring how science and art should be combined.

It was also great to hear from Em Blamey from the National Maritime Museum about their pull-up banner exhibitions. We have displayed two of these exhibitions and we cannot wait to display their new one, Submerged, next year!

5.00 pm – 6.00 pm

For the final presentation of the day, we had the Director’s cut. Lynley Marshall from Museums Victoria, Chris Saines from the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art and Mathew Trinca from the National Museum of Australia all spoke a bit about what they do and how their institutions operate.

6.30 pm

Last, but not least, was the conference dinner. It was a really lovely evening filled with Viking music from History Up Close and dare I say, some networking.

I cannot believe that this was the second last day of the conference! Tune in tomorrow for my final recap.

Before I say anything about the conference, I encourage anyone reading this who is not on Twitter to immediately open a new tab, go to Twitter and join. It is such a valuable tool in connecting museum professionals. It’s also a great place to see absolutely everything happening at the Museums Galleries 2018 Conference. Follow #MGAconf2018, sit back, pour a glass of wine (or whatever you like) and enjoy.

Today was probably one of the best days I have ever had a conference. It was informative, fun, and ended in me acquiring a gold dinosaur trophy. More on that last part later. I don’t quite know how to summarise the day. Every talk was like hitting the nail on the head in terms of being interesting and actually addressing the theme of the conference, ‘Agents of Change’.

I am going to focus my post on three talks. Mainly because without this kind of structure I might end up writing a 700 page article that even I wouldn’t want to read.

1. Kaywin Feldman – Feminisim: No Longer the “F” Word

Our second plenary speaker of the day was Kaywin Feldman from the Minneapolis Institute of Art. I will note that the first speaker, Karen Mundine from Reconciliation Australia, did an incredible job discussing the role of museum professionals as truth-tellers. We need to grasp this concept before becoming agents of change. After all, our institutions disseminate stories and can have great impact.

I was really excited to hear what Feldman had to say. She started by discussing the Guerilla Girls and how they are not really adapting to the modern world. Feminism is now everywhere and we shouldn’t have to wear masks while fighting for inclusion. I thought this was a particularly thought-provoking point.

After going through some statistics on how women are under-represented in leadership positions and how the industry is low-paying because it is majority female, we were hit with this quote:

The writing is very small so if you can’t read it please see below:

“When someone with the authority of a teacher describes the world and you’re not in it, there’s a moment of physic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing.” by Adrienne Rich.

Now there are some days when quotes just hit me particularly hard right in the feels. This was one of the days. It is such a powerful quote and I will forever refer to lack of representation as a physic disequilibrium. Having diverse role models and leaders celebrated is not something to ignore. Do you want your visitors, as the quote states, to feel as though they are looking at one giant mirror and not seeing themselves? Making those who were once invisible, visible, has an enormous impact. The role of museums in making this happen cannot be considered anything but necessary.

Feldman provided the example of an exhibition on leadership that only really displayed white men. Now if you’re not a white man viewing this exhibition, you are not going to leave feeling empowered that you can be a leader. It isn’t token if it’s done correctly, its inclusionary and vital.

2. Zoe Meagher and Rebecca Carland – Turning the Museum Inside Out

Last year I wrote a blog piece thanking Dr Kate Armstrong and Marni Pilgrim for talking about a program they had implemented that essentially failed. To quote a song, I was Wishin’ And Hopin’ for something similar at this conference. A huge thank you to Meagher and Carland for delivering!

They spoke on the exhibition unveiled at Melbourne Museum in 2017 called Inside Out. This exhibition was quoted as a ‘love song to Museum Victoria’s collection’ (source). I would like to build a time machine, go back to 2017 and see this exhibition for myself!

After introducing audiences to the exhibition, Meagher and Carland went through what worked and what didn’t. Or, in their words, ‘Oh God, never…’ Through sharing some humerous reviews and stories, the presenters were able to really drill down into the exhibition in a way that was both hilarious and insightful.

I enjoyed learning about how it’s ok to prioritise feeling over learning in an exhibition. In saying that, if you’re going to do something too different to what people expect, you need to ease them into it to avoid alienation. Other topics discussed included practicalities such as when to open this type of exhibition and ticketing. Basically, don’t charge for this kind of abstract exhibition when it’s on display over the Christmas holidays and is competing with other free attractions.

I cannot stress enough that you learn more from failures than from what is deemed a success. Hearing what they had learnt from this exhibition was just refreshing. More of this next year please!!

3. Michael O’Sullivan – Turning Fiction into Fact – Designing the Marvel: Creating the Cinematic Universe

It is no surpirse that I was going to talk about this presentation. I’ll say it again for the people at the back of the room – I am a huge Marvel fan. I travelled from Sydney twice to see this exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). I was not disappointed. Hearing about the exhibition from a behind-the-scenes perspective made me a – insanely jealous and b – more aware of how blockbuster exhibitions are constructed.

To research this exhibition, staff watched all twelve Marvel films that existed at this time. I can tell you now that I would be overqualified for this research role. It was also interesting to hear why this exhibition came to QAGOMA. The catalyst for the exhibition was the filming of Thor Ragnarok taking place in Brisbane.

Select staff travelled to Marvel headquarters in Los Angeles and discussed what they would like to display and the stories they wanted to tell. I was legitimately cheering from the back when O’Sullivan made the point that just because these are blockbuster films it doesn’t mean the costuming and set designs aren’t works of art. The time and energy that goes into making these films is phenomenal.

We were then taken through the design of the exhibition, the display of costumes and objects, and the rationale behind the entire display. Basically, it wasn’t just a ‘hey look at this cool Marvel stuff’ display. It was actually an avenue to introduce people to animation, digital effects and what happens post-production.

It managed to attract over 270, 000 visitors which is massive. I would really like to know if any of these visitors have returned to the gallery since the exhibition. Blockbusters are great in attracting new audiences, but, do they produce repeat visitors who come back for more?

That was just a small taste of what was on offer today. Just quickly, I dropped into the session ‘Younger and Wiser’ and I just want to say that wow, yes, agree, agree, agree. Give younger workers a chance to prove that wisdom doesn’t just come with age. We have so many amazing skills to offer and the industry needs to grow and change so that we have a place. I could write an entire blog post on just how much I agree with the comments made in this session. Maybe something post-conference?

If you have stayed with me, I should explain the gold dinosaur. In the unofficial trivia night of Museums Galleries Australia, our team, Trivia Newton-John, came second. This beautiful gold trophy is going to travel from Melbourne to Gladstone and probably end up with its very own display case.

I have to thank everyone who contributed to making today a truly incredible day. Good luck to those presenting tomorrow! I will be glued to my phone live tweeting the conference.

Yesterday was the first day of the Museums Galleries Australia 2018 National Conference. While what was discussed wasn’t entirely tailored for the audience, there were still some fascinating topics on offer. Similar to last year’s conference, what I planned on seeing vs what I actually attended was a little different. Before I continue, I just want to say that the most valuable part of these conferences is meeting new people and catching up with others. Now that I’m so far away from Sydney and Melbourne, I am really valuing this time! Notice that I didn’t use the dreaded word ‘networking’ – this is because it’s so much more than that. I am truly lucky to be a part of such an incredible industry.

Back to the first day. To start, we heard from Adam Macfie and Rhonda Inkamala. Both work at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory or MAGNT (nice acronym). Their talk focused on the newly opened exhibition ‘A Frontier Journey: Photographs by Otto Tschirn 1915-18’.

The exhibition showcases photographs by Otto Tschirn that were taken on a Kodak Folding Camera. Tschirn’s images capture life in Central Australia documenting both Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals. From what we saw during the presentation, there are some truly remarkable images – a very valuable archive. If you would like to read more about this exhibition click here.

This is the first exhibition on display at MAGNT with labels in both English and an Indigenous language. Rhonda Inkamala spoke on translating the labels into the Aranda language. Not modern-day Aranda, but, how the language was in the early 1900’s. It was fascinating to hear about the research involved in this project and how historial records as well as community knowledge fused together so beautifully and resulted in this exhibition. The entire exhibition will eventually be gifted to Hermannsburg. Both speakers were able to provide such great insights into how this exhibition was pieced together and how they collaborated to produce the content.

Next up was Wendy Pryor talking about Smart GLAM – big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning. One of her first slides talked about a hotel in Tokyo run by robots, including velociraptors. I honestly did not expect that this would be a topic raised at the conference. I am sure glad it was though.

I completely agreed with her point that technology should not just be used because it’s available, but, should be well-integrated. An example she provided from the Tate Britian was quite interesting. The program ‘Recognition is an artificial intelligence programme that compares up-to-the-minute photojournalism from Reuters with British art from the Tate collection’ (source). It’s a way of renewing artworks held in a collection that may not be on display and available to the public.

After momentarily breaking from our silent disco headphones, yes this conference has silent disco headphones, the first concurrent sessions began. I went to the education stream because it’s super relevant.

Out of all the presentations, the one delivered by Sarah Rusholme and Andrea Milligan from Wellington was most relevant to me. They spoke about the importance of including teachers in the education programming process and helping them to recognise the multiple benefits of excursions to the museum. It was particularly interesting to hear about how introducing emotion into a tour can lead to more critical thinking among primary and secondary school students. Not involving teachers from the beginning when developing tours etc can lead to a less successful program and less desirable outcomes.

I also want to give a quick shout out to Kate Phillips and Lena Gan who presented on how to engage seniors in lifelong learning. They asked the question, although we know our population is aging, what is being done at museums and galleries to accomodate?

Finally, I attended the Indigenous Workshop session (originally had planned to see the community engagement talks). I am so glad I made this decision as Terri Janke was an incredible speaker and we had some great discussion in the room about meaningful engagement with Indigenous communities. To discover more about the project click here.

To finish the day, there were drinks and a welcome reception at the State Library of Victoria. A stunning venue and a great opportunity to meet Twitter friends in real life.

There is honestly so much more I could write about but this post is getting too long. One last thing, after the conference you can plant your name tag. Yep, our names are printed on seed paper. I am hoping that my Swan River Daisy can stay alive between now and the conference next year. Knowing my track record with killing plants, this is going to be a major challenge.

A huge thank you to all the wonderful speakers from Regional, Remote and Community day! A great way to start the conference.

I have just arrived in Melbourne for the 2018 Museums Australia Conference. I am so excited for the week ahead! I am even excited to visit the conference venue – the heritage listed Meat Market. Tomorrow I am attending the Regional, Remote and Community day which looks to be very informative. I hope it is a day filled with ‘what you can do on a small budget’. I will be posting a summary of the conference every day including little sections on what I’ve learnt.

I have attached the program below for anyone interested in seeing the content that will be covered over the next few days. Anything highlighted is what I plan on attending. For those of you reading this who will be attending, I hope to meet you at the conference!