time for an extension

We have just sent off our appliction for an extension to the Monument project. I am really excited about this as it gives me the chance to work longer with Bridget! If awarded we will work to pass on our enthusiasm for the gardening collection to an even wider audience, improving the current seed merchant's shop display.

The original seed merchant display.

There are gardening objects scattered across our museum at the moment - some on the farm, some in the collections gallery but the majority in a recreated seed merchant's shop which is part of Village Row. This display began life as a recreation of Taylor's seed shop in King's Lynn and it was located in the main museum building. It was vibrant and enticing and most importantly visitors could remember visiting shops like this in their youth. Nowadays seed merchant's shops have been replaced by garden centres and supermarkets or online buying. The current seed merchant's shop needs updating and some interpretation to help bring it to life to modern families, connect it to the historic gardens that are growing just outside and help our visitors think about they might grow more to help them towards a more healthy lifestyle.

The extension will allow us to assess what is there, open up access to more of the collections and more importantly demomnstrate why they are of importance today. There are so many opportunities to use gardening collections to do more than just talk about gardening - they promote healthy eating, physical exercise, environmental diversity and responsibility for our own surroundings. There is so much more that these objects can tell us about. I really hope we get the extension so we can follow the fellowship through to its' logical conclusion. Everyone involved has worked so hard - it would be great to celebrate the end of the project with a garden fete in Cherry Tree Cottage garden whilst we admire the new display.

We have been working hard on our masterclass workshop events which are coming up in November. We are really excited about sharing our ideas with others from the museum sector and are really looking forward to two days of sharing what we have learnt (and also sharing from the participants who will bring a wide range of skills and experience to the days). Work is steaming ahead by our collections team as we track down errant parts of the Taylors collection and improve the records. We are even thinking of introducing a heritage gardening event at Gressenhall next year. Tune in later to see how it all proceeds!

tools are more tricky

We have been trying to plan our second collections session and it is depressing! Where is everything? Like many museums we have a computerised database that is meant to make it easy to locate objects in store - the only trouble is that too many of our locations are "Gressenhall" or "Unknown". I knew that the objects would be more difficult - but hadn't realised how disheartening it would be. I suppose the silver lining is that this process illustrates how important our Store Audit really is. We have a fantastic team of volunteers working through boxes, photographing objects, carrying out necessary conservation work and then creating contents lists and updating the database. Occasionally tedious, but essential work. Just how essential I am beginning to find out.

The other depressing thing is a lack of storage and working space. Despite being on a 60 acre site we never have enough room. We are always trying to balance the competing demands of modern farm machinery, collections, learning equipment and display space. Sometimes it feels like collections storage comes last in the list. For example we have "Gressenhall" locations for three wheelbarrows that we would like to use in our next monument session - but actually lcoating them has proved impossible. The most likely location is practically inaccessible because it is extremely crowded. So whilst the barrows may be safe in the barn we are not able to get into it to find them or much less get them out for people to look at in the time or with the equipment we have available.

Ho hum - there are lots of fantastic things about this project - it isn't all bad! I am loving working on researching the collections but perhaps even more passing that information on to my colleagues and thinking how we could use it across the museum. I was working today on our informal project newsletter - Collections Corner. The idea is that this will continue to be circulated after the end of the Fellowship so that we can all continue to learn more about the collections that are the unique selling point of the organisation. It covers a particular theme in the collection, tells some of the stories recorded in the collections and then suggests some ways in which these objects and stories could be used across the museum. Working on this just reminds me why I am a curator - an enthusiasm for objects and the things they tell us about life - and a love of passing on this enthusiasm. I just hope that our first edition of Collections Corner - due out before mid July - receives a positive reception!

monument in multimedia

as promised just a quick post to put up a few bits and pieces - first of all the thought shower Bridget and I completed - thinking about all the different ways we could use the gardening collections:

A very busy piece of paper. Bridget and I got a little carried away - but there really is so much that these collections can be used for. Although the Monument project is being carried out in a limited time period I really think that one of the best results we can get from the process is to think about collections differently - to think of them as a catalyst for everything that goes on in the museum - whether that is galleries, learning sessions or holiday activities right down to what we stock in our shop.

Following on from our review session last week I happened to be passing one of our museum comments books and caught a glimpse of a visitor's note that made my day:

I think we tend to underestimate our visitor (dare I say a Norfolk trait?) - we tend to assume that they will not be able to appreciate the collections and that they come for the safe attractive landscapes, farm animals and adventure playground. Collections often get downgraded to "mind-boggling paraphenalia" when in fact they are so much more. We need to not only advertise our collections better, but we need to value and respect our audience and not always assume that they won't be interested.

Thirdly we can hear some of the Monument project in progress - many thanks to Gabbie who recorded this  for Wayland Radio just after our first session:

http://chirb.it/tfPeJs

A lovely example of how the project is already reaching out to local communities and encouraging more involvement in the museum and its' collections. Also how the project can be recorded and knowledge saved for the future in a variety of formats.

Finally I have plans for a Monument section on our website - containing a link to the blog, pdfs and hopefully ultimately podcasts and video clips. I'll report back and let you know how I get on.

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!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Gressenhall Monument Fellow blog.

This blog records a knowledge and skills transfer project, funded by the Museums Association, as part of their Monument Fellowship programme. It is written by Megan Dennis, curator of Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse and is a personal record of the project.

Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse has welcomed back former curator Bridget Yates who will be working with the current curator, Megan Dennis, and other staff and volunteers.

The project aims to transfer and record knowledge of the collections and the skills required to look after and present them to the public using a variety of different techniques including this blog.

We have decided to concentrate on one aspect of the collections - the gardening collection at Gressenhall. We aim to improve knowledge, use and display of this collection at the museum. We also hope to project will provide a template method for examining other under appreciated parts of the collection.

This blog is intended to be a record of the process of knowledge transfer and an aid to ourselves and our future successors. We also hope to receive input from the wider museums community about what we are doing.

Currently we have spent some time acquainting (and for Bridget re-acquainting) ourselves with the gardening collection and planning our first collections session with museum staff and volunteers. I am really excited to be working with such a wide variety of staff and volunteers - learning, front of house, collections, gardeners and the farm. I think it is only by raising awareness of the importance of our collections to the entire museum can they retain their position at the heart of the institution.

Oh and I am also excited about finding out more about the caterpillar crusher!