Thank you to everyone who took part, followed, liked, and got involved with @52Museums on Instagram and Twitter in 2017.  It grew bigger than anyone could have expected.  The report for 2017 can be found here.

You can find more information about what it is and how it works here.

The 2018 schedule (and yes this is draft as changes throughout the year happens):

Please note: if you would like to be on the waiting list, please sign up here.

Surprisingly I recent hear that the Museum of Cambridge (UK) was going from a supported museum to a volunteer led museum (and all staff were let go right before Christmas…).  Having seen this for years in the library sector, and reading yet another article on Museum of Cambridge I decided to ask the following question on Facebook and Twitter:

https://twitter.com/MarDixon/status/944200337921138688

This brought a few conversations around the use of volunteers (which also relates to libraries), the responsibility of the council/government all the way to the future of museums.

With Storify closing, I wanted to capture the conversations so here are the tweets:

NB:  There were only 7 votes on Facebook – all saying it was a bad idea.

Is only a good idea if volunteers aren’t taken for granted and taken advantage of. Sometimes the volunteer led model really works but it depends on the site and the plans!

— Rachel Cooper (@CrackleSays) December 22, 2017

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In the market for books for children this Christmas season?  I’ve a few recommendations.  I’ve also reached out (via Twitter) and received some recommendations so it’s a variety of solutions!

Just a friendly reminder that museum memberships for children is also a wonderful gift to receive!  Most if not all museums and galleries internationally have some for of yearly plan which are usually really inexpensive and provide newsletters and updates throughout the year along with discounts when you do visit the museums!

The British Museum – Mummy!
Publisher Nosy Crow
Hardback/cardboard
Age: Pre-school
Description: Dig in and discover ancient Egypt!  Full of artefacts to spot and name, this friendly story uncovers all kinds of mummies – perfect ancient fun for little ones.

Very colourful book with activities such as flap ups to look under and and ‘eye spy’ at to use throughout the book.

The British Museum – 123
Publisher Nosy Crow
Hardback/cardboard
Age: Pre-school
Description: Discover amazing objects and simple first words in this brilliant country book for curious little ones.

Very colourful book with a QR code for when the little ones want more information on the objects used in the book.  There is also an index at the back of the book.

The Sixty-Eight Rooms – Marianne Malone
Publisher: [Recommended by Seema Rao]
Paperback
Age: Children
Description: [Taken from author’s website]
Almost everybody who has grown up in Chicago knows about the Thorne Rooms. Housed deep within the Art Institute of Chicago, they are a collection of sixty-eight exquisite – almost eerily realistic miniature rooms. Each of the rooms is designed in the style of a different time and place, and every detail is perfect, from the knobs on the doors to the candles in the candlesticks. Some might even say the rooms are magical.

Imagine… what if, on a field trip, you discovered a key that allowed you to shrink so that you were small enough to sneak inside and explore the rooms’ secrets? What if you discovered that others had done so before you? And that someone had left something important behind?

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Since the advent of the world wide web the planet has gone through immense changes, its transformed the way we communicate, read, buy our clothes, pay our bills, watch TV, purchase our food and find our news. No facet of our day to day lives has remained unchanged, this has been made more apparent in the last decade through the increase in portable tablets and smart phones. Not only now do we want information instantly we can have it wherever we are and via multiple sources.

So how has this change in how people obtain knowledge and entertainment affected Museums? Well initially some might say not much. Many museums still have entrance fees, most still have exhibits and many have the same basic layout that they did since their conception – some since 1879. Does this matter? For some, who can weather the storm and guarantee good footfall and wealthy philanthropists, then no it doesn’t. For others, it matters greatly. Read the rest of this entry »

As Hull is City of Culture for UK, Linda Spurdle, Mark Macleod and I decided a few days there was needed. We arrived on Monday and left Thursday and took in so much culture!

When we first arrived in the train station the first thing you notice is all the signage of how proud they are to be City of Culture. The next thing I noticed was all the volunteers – they were brightly colour uniforms and are so friendly!

After dropping our bags off, we went down to see Spurn Lightship and walked around the Old Town. There are so many places to eat, drink, explore. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I was able to attend #SharingisCaring in Hamburg to run a workshop on using social media and being social about it.  I had a great time and challenge people to create social media content from random items I placed on their table.

The brilliant thing about the timing of the conference is it fell in line with their Long Night in Museums program. I’ve been to a few Late Museums nights (in Europe and Russia) and what I really love about them is they are open ALL.  NIGHT.  Not just until 10 or 11pm – but 3-4-5 am.  In Hamburg the added bonus was the ticket price of €15 includes public transport – how amazing and inclusive is that?  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s something we’re all too used to – funding cuts & threats in the culture sector.  Whether it’s museums, libraries, art galleries or theatres (and everything in between), culture seems to have been the easy hit for most of the people with the purse strings.

It’s been happening globally for more years than necessary and recently the new American administration has threaten NEA, PBS and other vital funding streams many of the museums and art galleries in the states rely on to survive. [NB See #ThankyouIMLS #StandUpForMuseums #SaveTheNEA #SaveTheNEH and #ThankyouNEH]

As many may or may not know @CultureThemes was created purely out of the funding cuts that happened in the UK.  While it was great for many museums (and social media managers) to discuss what this meant, it was vital that the conversations were open for all (eg young people and other ‘groups’ that are hard to reach, etc).  The first hashtag with CultureThemes was ‘WhyILoveMuseums’ and went world trending – why?  Because people do love museums and art galleries but we need to ASK THEM every once in awhile WHY.  This goes for staff also!

Recently I decided to do the same thing in a subtle way.  (Any sadly the day I asked it my phone broke so apologies for the delay in getting this shared).

For the Twitter & Instagram responses I was able to do a Storify which you can find at the bottom of this article or link is here.  For those that prefer infographics, there’s a free site for that …

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February 15th – the day after Valentine’s Day.  The perfect day to ask the public,  museums and culture venues internationally to share items they would like to see go into #Museum101 (like George Orwell’s 1984 book and Room 101).

The idea came when I mentioned to Linda Spurdle I was trying to think of a hashtag that would acknowledge the current issues *cough politics cough* but didn’t create a platform that could be turned into something personal. #Museum101 was a perfect solution.

With every CultureThemes, I try to keep the ‘this is what it is/mean’ statement to a minimum to allow people to make it what they want.

Who knew that for over 8+ hours #museum101 would be trending?

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Almost on a daily basis I’m being contacted about a hashtag for culture to show they care about what is going on in the world. #RefugeesMakeCulture #dayoffacts #thankyouNEA #thankyouIMLS and more.

My concern is we are going to dilute the message and overwhelm the same people we want to support. We also have to remember that not everyone wants to campaign and just want to escape to visit to see art, parks, museums etc.

Being international I’m also fully aware that not everyone can (or should) get involved in some of these campaigns – either it just doesn’t make sense politically or with their collection.

So while my personal account will support many, I am not sure I feel comfortable using Culturetheme, MuseumSelfieDay or AskACurator for all these events. I hope I don’t sound old and cranky! I’m just trying to respect the diversity of followers that have come to follow for fun, weirdness and escape the norm of how culture is perceived. Hope that makes sense.

And don’t forget #Museum101 is Feb 15 🙂 a bit of fun for people to say what they’d add to their ‘Room 101’

For more information, this is from CultureThemes:

For February, we’re shifting gears just a bit for #Museum101 theme on February 15th.  What is #Museum101?  Well if you ever heard of George Orwell’s book 1984 he talks about Room 101 where you can put things you fear or don’t like/understand in the room (ok it’s more about torture but we’re not getting into that for our theme). 

Lets remember that CultureThemes exists to highlight and spotlight the need for culture in our society, internationally. 

Re-sharing from MuseumCamp.org: Welcome to Museumcamp – the home of the museums unconference.  With a passion for cake! If you’ve previously attended one of our Museumcamp unconferences you’ll be pleased to know we’re planning more. And if you haven’t – good timing, you will get the chance soon.

We haven’t had a Museumcamp unconference for a while, although it isn’t for the want of trying. Despite the huge success of the Museumcamps in Birmingham it has been difficult to obtain funding, and unfortunately due to the economic climate we can’t get the same level of sponsorship as in the past. However, funding issues aren’t what I’m blogging about today, rather it is about some thoughts on unconferences that came from a recent Unconference conference and my own experiences at unconferences.

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