Attendant's View Blog and Cartoons

Unsolicited Best Intentions

16/6/2018

The awkward moment when your museum finds that a local facebook page has been cheerfully copy/pasting your facebook events to create Their Own event pages, because they think it'll help your events reach more people.

What is mainly seems to do is reach people, confuse them, and make them frustrated over unanswered questions in the event discussion section.

Why didn't we answer your question on the event page? We weren't notified about a question on the event page. There isn't a question on the event page. Oh, that's a link to an event page which isn't ours. But looks exactly like our event page...

Road to hell, best intentions, paving, and all that.

0 Comments

For posterity

3/10/2017

0 Comments

I must not do this if we remodel the museum in the future.
I must not do this if we remodel the museum in the future.
I must not do this if we remodel the museum in the future.

0 Comments

Glamour

30/3/2017

0 Comments

When you point out in a sudden panic to a colleague "DON'T PUT YOUR HAND THERE!" and then have to chisel lumps of dried on nasal matter from an exhibition wall.

0 Comments

Musuem experiences in the School Holidays

5/9/2016

1 Comment

I’m not saying that these wouldn’t happen at other times of the year, just that they certainly happened during the school summer break at our museum.

Picking up what I thought was a piece of paper from the floor, but it was wet, chewed, ham.
A visitor placing their bag “out of harm’s way” on top of a display cabinet, intending to leave it there all day. Cue our explaining about bomb scares, and the very real fact that their bag could have caused a fire, sat as it was in direct contact with the lighting for the cabinet and hot to touch when we found it.
A visitor pointing out that the lights were off in a cabinet. Discovering it had been deliberately unplugged at the wall. We suspect someone wanted to cheekily charge their mobile phone.
Cleaning a glass cabinet covered at knee height in so many very opaque hand and face prints, and so much wiped nasal matter, we firmly believe it wasn't a normal child, but some form of biological weapon testing in toddler form. How could a single child be that sticky and not actually have adhered to the cabinet?!
A small child purposefully, slowly and methodically poking their entrance ticket through a gap until it was stuck inside a locked display cabinet. It was part of the display for the rest of the weekend.
If you are sat drinking coffee and your children are four rooms away from you, they are not being accompanied by an adult. If you now want to leave, upset that we don’t trust your 12 year old to be mature enough to accompany their 9 year old brother, that’s fine by us, but a shame for them.
Lots of adorable and badly written messages in the visitor comments book about it being “amaysing” and “the best moseum ever”

More museum holiday fun? Find out what I've overheard in the holidays here.

1 Comment

"Why is this paper wet?"

22/8/2016

0 Comments

I thought it was a piece of paper on the floor of the museum.
I honestly thought I was just picking up a receipt or a crunched up ticket.
That was why I blithely picked it up.
And then froze as I pondered "Why is this paper wet?"

AND IT WAS HAM.

0 Comments

Historic office space

6/7/2016

1 Comment

A previous venue I worked at had some offices in the older refurbished areas of the building, as well as the newly built extension. They were cramped, but very beautiful as a work space. One staff member had regular "visitors", as her office was the first door at the very top of the main stair case.

To get to the top of the stairs, people had to actively climb over or unclip two rope barriers, and squeeze around or move a Private sign on a freestanding post.

On one occasion, she had to ask a visitor if they would delete the photo they had just taken of her sitting at her desk.

1 Comment

Family Friendly doesn't mean bubble wrapping everything

4/6/2016

1 Comment

I just had to have the same conversation three times regarding "You shouldn't chase your sister near the big glass cabinets"

In the first instance the children stopped, and the parents backed me up with a sorry smile and "Come over here, don't do that."

In the second instance, the parents were in another room entirely, with a closed door between them and their children aged about 4 and 7. "Sorry, we didn't realise they had slipped in there."

In the third instance they were in the same room, and could see the children. I asked the parents "I really don't want to administer any first aid today. Please make sure they understand about all of the glass in here."

The parents were well dressed, well spoken, and apparently utterly indifferent to, or blissfully unaware of, the impact their children were having on other visitors, and also the potential hazard of allowing very young children to run around a museum.

This happened yesterday, and I bring it up because kids and accidents are a big topic at present.

1 Comment

Please Do Not Sit on Steps

13/4/2016

0 Comments

Sketch done at the British Museum, of two of the many offenders happy to be trampled come an evacuation.
I chose these two as they were sat slap bang by the signs, and couldn't have not seen them when sitting down.

0 Comments

Vandal may have to write research paper on site he damaged

12/8/2015

0 Comments

When someone vandalises your ancient monument, would you want to:
A) Imprison them.
B) Fine them.
C) Get them to do community service on the site.
D) Get them to write a research paper on the site, so they have to look into it's history, religious and societal significance, and then explain what they have learnt about it.

Kudos to the manager of Serpent Mound, and the local Assistant Prosecutor, who think that A is unlikely, B won't change any attitudes, so want C and D to happen.

A 19-year-old man, accused of taking a joy ride over an ancient Native American earthwork at Serpent Mound, has confessed to the crime and agreed to pay $3,790 in restitution for damages, according to Adams County authorities and park officials.

Adams County Assistant Prosecutor Ken Armstrong says he's seriously considering seeking a healthy dose of community service – and even a research paper on the site's rich history.

"He has been cooperative, so we're working with him," Armstrong said, "But I don't think he appreciates the significance of the site, the gravity of what he's done."

Daniel Coleman Dargavell allegedly jumped the curb in the parking lot in the middle of the night over the Fourth of July weekend and attempted to drive a large white pickup over a 2,000-year-old Adena Mound.

Prison time – if he's found guilty – is a long shot, said Armstrong of the prosecutor's office, who is unsure whether he'll ask that Dargavell do any time.

"Someone else, a family member likely, is going to pay the restitution up front," Armstrong said, "but I want (Dargavell) to have a significant investment in this, that would mostly be community service."

Sometimes, when things like this happen, the party that was vandalized never wants to see the vandal again, Armstrong said.
Not Serpent Mound manager Goodwin.

"In fact, they were already coming up with a list of things they want him to do," Armstrong said.

Story pulled from here.

0 Comments

Hug a Museum Worker day. OK...

2/7/2015

0 Comments

So I have just heard that June 29th was the first ever Annual International Hug A Museum Worker Day: http://hugamuseumworker.org/about/

Feeling nervous? The idea of the annual day is "to educate the public about various professions in the museum world" with a website "to provide museum professionals with a platform to inform the general art and museum-loving public about the myriad responsibilities and challenges that they face at work on a day-to-day basis."

Why hugging? "The event is fun, well, because it is, as are museums. And, most of us can do with a hug on a regular basis – especially all over-worked, under-paid with little job-security museum staff." (more here)

They admit themselves that the day's name is "a somewhat flippant title", and it led to some entertaining responses online, (my favourite of which is this article "Many museum workers are introverts who went into museums specifically because they did not want to be near, much less touch, regular people. In fact, they often don’t want to be around their own colleagues either.") followed by a swift explanation on the Hug A Museum Worker blog.

There doesn't seem to be a huge following for the idea yet, with their social media numbers low, and most discussion about the day being jokes made by self-confessed introverted museum workers. What solid interaction there has been seems to have taken to the concept with a good sense of humour.

It's also given a small platform to raise awareness of what benefits museums bring to the community and the broader stage.

It's a good ambition, to make people aware of the full crew that go into making museums happen, and encouraging appreciation of their work. Will it catch on as a thing? Not sure, so let's brace for June 29th 2016.

0 Comments

<<Previous

Unsolicited Best Intentions

For posterity

Glamour

Musuem experiences in the School Holidays

"Why is this paper wet?"

Historic office space

Family Friendly doesn't mean bubble wrapping everything

Please Do Not Sit on Steps

Vandal may have to write research paper on site he damaged

Hug a Museum Worker day. OK...

Topics

Archives

Author