1st collections session done!

We did our first collections session last Wednesday. I haven't posted about it until now because I wanted to let it all sink in. We got a lot of the printed ephemera out (perhaps too much - but it did provide an idea of the extent of these collections). It was really interesting to see other people's reactions to the items. We had a group of 10 from various different parts of the museum. I think mostly they were flabbergasted by the amount of stuff - because most of the collection is normally tucked away in the stores people just forget that it is there. By getting it out it brings it to the forefront of our minds, It made me think about how much is done backwards - how we plan events, learning sessions and even exhibitions and galleries based on what we assume an audience wants rather than on our collections. Not that I am advocating completely disregarding your visitors - but that there is no sense in trying to create a museum that has no relationship to its collections. A key part of our project will be about bringing collections back into the planning stage at Gressenhall.

One of the best things about the session was the informal conversations that struck up after it - discussion about how we could use the collections throughout the museum. I think we will have to be very strict about what we can actually achieve given the limited time we have for the Monument project! The whole process is making me think more about how I can continue to enthuse and explain the collections after Bridget has gone - something that we also discussed during my recent appraisal. This is something I am keen to do but will require some thought and also a good deal of time management.

One of the key things that really stayed with me was the power of story telling. Watching Bridget enthuse about an item and telling the story about its collection and the family it belonged to reminded me that without context many of these items lose their appeal. Poke an object and stories ping out! Therefore this project is also about retaining and recording the context and stories of each object for the next generation of curators. I am hoping to highlight a few of the stories we have uncovered in the blog in later entries.

We also tried to record some of the session - so hopefully I might be able to add multimedia to the blog!