During #AskACurator 2018 I tried to capture some of the different conversations.  This is more for me than for anyone to think this is an overall statement of the day (because I am not the one that can or will ever capture everything!)

Highlights: 

Museums talking to each – Australia and New Zealand really set the tone for 2018 as there weren’t a lot of questions at first so they took the bull by the horns and starting asking questions amongst themselves – then the public got involved and next thing you know it’s trending 2^nd in all of Australia.

First Tweet from @MOTAT_NZ 9:13pm 11-09-2018

It's #AskACurator Day! @chelseaheather1 @sjfox_nz @ShaeTrewin @christie_23 @whittaker_nina are here to answer all your questions! Go on…ask us anything pic.twitter.com/wIIQqcBPVj

— MOTAT (@MOTAT_NZ) September 11, 2018

By the time I jumped back Russia and Europe were in full swing (not so much UK at that point) and the tone remain positive, light, inquisitive, fun, interesting and most importantly educational.

Questions:

I usually try to ask a few general questions to get things going.  This year they were mostly ignored which to me is AMAZING because that meant there were so many other questions being asked mine weren’t needed!

https://twitter.com/MarDixon/status/1039646722090303488

What do you Wear?

#askacurator So what DO curators wear? Practical sensible clothes. Shoes that are able to be worn in the city and through paddocks. And no cloth gloves; nitrile works best in our sweaty climate. Here’s Dr Scott Hill dressed for work, conserving metalwork at Rouse Hill House. pic.twitter.com/y4dzNWHrKN

— Sydney Living Museums (@sydlivmus) September 11, 2018

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Since launching @52Museums I’ve been amazed to see the growth of museums on Instagram (yes it was happening before but this is my point of view). As the project has been running, more and more museums have contacted me to join in on the list and to say they are starting an Instagram account just because of @52Museums which is brilliant!

Every museum who host @52Museums is asked to fill out an exit form at the end of their week. I will share the complete findings after we have a year in but the feedback has been very positive. All said they would do it again and all said they felt it was worthwhile. With this account they get the open instructions:

• If you can post a few for LA time, East coast and Europe time that makes a difference.
• Post 7-10 times a day – it sounds like a lot but really works with our current audience.
• Try  things you can’t do on your own account.
• HAVE FUN!

Another project I run is @AskACurator Day (September 14^th 2016 – eek!). There are over 1200 museums on the list to take part (with more signing up each day). It got me thinking that I should combine the @52Museums list with the @AskACurator list to make a ‘Master List’. Sounds simple enough, right?

How wrong I was. But it has led to some insight that I’d like to share:

Please note,Museums on Instagram form with link to list is here (I need to get over AskaCurator day before I have time to combine everything).

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Prelude:
I started planning this event, well last year, but really in the past 3 months. I still worry no one will take part at first or get bored. Than closer to the event, I get all giddy with excitement like it’s Christmas!

This year is no different.

But here I am, technically the eve before and we have 41 countries and 634 museums signed up. I’ve been interviewed in 6 different languages (Wired.com article).  The sign up sheet continues to grow… [by end of play, 721 museums in 43 countries!]

Stats
I’m often asked why I do it as I don’t get paid.  The stats from LaMagnetica are why:

47,546 Tweets
13,000 DIFFERENT users

That is a HUGE community we have built together. How could I not do it? I’m seriously blown away by those numbers. These numbers represent the thirst from the #AskACurator Community for access to behind the scenes at museums/galleries.  The thirst for learning. The passion for our cultural sector. And most importantly, the yearning to share.

Please Note: LaMagnetica will be sharing the report and I”ll update this page when it’s done.

UPDATE:  I’ve a Feedback form and would love to hear your opinion Read the rest of this entry »

Because museum people like numbers…

I’ve been asked a few times about the history of Ask A Curator day.  I’ve also been asked about numbers because cultural people are OBSESSED with numbers. Here is a bit of fun stats such as breakdown of countries, history of AskaCurator Day and answers to questions I get (a lot).

—>SIGN UP FORM 

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By Andrew Mandinach

I grew up in a museum. As long as I can remember, I spent every summer in a summer camp at the Palm Springs Art Museum. In middle school I joined their teen afterschool program, and I even went on to become a camp counselor one summer in high school. At that time, it was the Desert Museum and they had a fantastic summer camp that focused on science, theater, and art. Read the rest of this entry »

The Russian Twitter includes around 180 museum accounts from every region of the Russian Federation. These accounts feature both the great world famous museum complexes like the State Hermitage in Saint-Petersburg or the State Historical museum in Moscow and small regional museums like the Middle Kama Museum of History and Culture.

So we’d like to announce, that April, 25 is a #‎СпросиКуратора Day in the Russian twitter. It’s an analogue of the Internanational #‎AskACurator Day (with a kind permission of @CultureThemes and Mar Dixon). This tweet-event will be supported by the offical Twitter of Rissia (@TwitterRussia). It’s a unique opportunity to get all kind of museum information straight from the source.

Our challenge is to present the quite new sort of museum activity in the Internet for the Russian-speaking audience.

Read the rest of this entry »

TAKEAWAY AND THOUGHTS
The name Askacurator can’t change but it is open to ‘Museums’.  #AskaMuseum might alienate Art Galleries in some countries.  How about we get the word out now that #askacurator 2014 is open to EVERYONE in museums – sound good?

The museums who jumped in and answered questions got more out of it.   You can’t wait around to be asked questions.  There are plenty of general questions that are waiting to be answered.  Also, feel free to ask questions!

It was great seeing:
Museums/curators talking to each other.  For some reason, 2013 saw a rise in conversations between museums of all sizes and topics chatting with each other. 

Museums asking questions themselves.  I saw a few museums asking questions that they were curious about – not just related to their own museum but to the sector globally.  It was fantastic to see them recognize this day was a chance for them to find out things too!

A very heartfelt thank you to everyone who took part.  #AskaCurator is participatory and only works when we all get involved. 

See you in 2014?
@MarDixon / @AskaCurator

KEEP READING

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[Updated Sept 18 21:36 GMT]

Museums: 622
Countries: 37

The following is the list of museums who have signed up via the simple form.  Any museums, art gallery, national trust, etc can sign up.

PARTICIPANTS

Want to know how to Take Part? There’s an article for that! 

MUSEUMS

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: CHANGED TITLE TO REFLECT 2014 DATE SEPTEMBER 17th

What time is it?  It’s #AskaCurator time!  Yes, September is more than Back to School time – it’s Ask a Curator Time!

When is Ask a Curator?

It’s an all day event on September 18^th 

What is Ask a Curator?

It’s a way to talk to curators and people who work in cultural venues you normally don’t have access to.  #Askacurator is open to everyone: Museums, galleries, National Trust, Theatres, and more. You can ask anything that you’re curious about or want more information on. 

• What’s it’ like to be a curator?
• How do you decide what to display?
• What is the most unique object in your collection?

As some curators won’t know *all* the answers straight away, it might be they have to get back to you if it is a specific question about the museum/gallery.  However, if it is a general question, you might find another museum’s curator could answer it.

How to get involved?

Use the hashtag #AskaCurator on Twitter.  You can ask questions to specific museums using the @MUSEUMNAME or you can ask general questions using #AskaCurator.

Museums/Galleries 

Please fill out this simple form which will export your information to a spreadsheet to share.   On the day you can schedule the time you are going to be there or you can dip in and out and answer questions when you get them.  Others also decide to spend the day asking questions not just to their Museum but the general questions that are asked (last year, Bears in Museums asked who had Bears in Museums…. it was one of the top questions!)

In other words, curators spend as much or as little time as they want.

It’s also a good idea to let your followers know you’re taking part.  Some curators will write a blog or tweet they are taking part in #askacurator.

Audience/Visitors

Just come to twitter on the day and ask the questions.  What I like to do is keep an eye on the countries and museums taking part and find a few unique ones that I want to know more about.  You can set yourself a goal of asking a question to every country even!

Who can get involved?

EVERYONE!  You just need to sign up for Twitter account if you haven’t yet.  Curators can answer questions to other museums and/or general questions (how to questions, etc).  Everyone is allowed to interrupt – this is Twitter after all! 🙂

Where

Go to Twitter and search for #AskACurator

I find using Tweetdeck or HootSuite makes following the conversation easier.

Hope this write up helps with some of the questions about what Ask A Curator is.  If you still have questions please ask away or you can tweet using the tag 🙂

Why should you take part? 

Many museums and art galleries who took part back in 2010 will testify to the great platform it gave them and large exposure that they would not have been able to achieve without #AskACurator.  This is true for both large and smaller venues.

These are trends captured along the way.  If anyone has any other data we can add, please let me know.

I’ve managed to capture over 12K tweets from 8am-11:30pm UK Time (closer to 13K as I missed some).

Trends

08:00 @erikajoy fabulous Pinterest created from asking  What makes object/artwork in your collection makes you laugh?  already popular. Read the rest of this entry »