Attendant's View Blog and Cartoons

Let's share good news

13/6/2018

I'd like your good museum stories!

I mentioned while chatting with a representative from Museums Journal that museum staff should embrace and shout out more about the good things which happen to them. Because it's those moments that keep us going, and often tip the day massively back into the light again.

I'd like to turn some of your "then suddenly the noisy kids were engrossed" or "my colleagues bough me flowers" into cartoons which show the rewarding side and beauty of working in museums and galleries.

Please comment here, drop me a message on my contact form, or let me know on Facebook or Twitter!

You can be anonymous if you like (I know most of you prefer that) or open about who, what and where. It's your choice.

Looper

6/6/2018

1. Lengthy series of emails as we establish with someone planning a visit what we can and can't provide for them.
1.5. They engage emotional blackmail to try and get what they want.

2. We reach an understanding. In which we carefully aren't going outside of the bounds of what we offered to begin with.

3. They are happy, but tell us to contact someone else, now organising the visit.
3.5. We wonder why we have to contact them, not them us, but, OK.

4. We contact them, nervously including the line "Hopefully you are up to speed on the discussions with your colleague."

5. An entirety different person contacts us, to say they're running the visit.

6. They ask for THE EXACT SAME THINGS we refused to do for the first person.

How well do we reach visitors with announcements?

4/4/2018

Since the end of January ish we prominently listed our Easter opening hours on our website, and mentioned this on social media.
In the building we has posters with the Easter opening hours.
In website blogs and updates we occasionally called back to the Easter opening hours.
In the run up to Easter we posted regular reminders, and links to the website Easter opening hours, on social media.
In the week before Easter our email newsletter listed our Easter opening hours.

Someone has blamed us of “only announcing you were closed on social media when it was pretty much your opening time".

On the one hand, do you not check opening hours before driving for miles at Easter?
On the other, have we fallen down here?

Charles I: King and Collector - I finally write up my visit!

27/3/2018

There have been many many reviews written about the Royal Academy’s Charles I: King and Collector exhibition, pretty much all of which boil down to “you're not going to see the likes of this again, some waffle about a new perspective on King Charles, it's good, bloody well go and see it”

And I concur.

I've already shared some of the comics I drew after my visit, but now here's the view from a punter, who knows about art mainly thanks to the content on BBC iplayer, and a brief stint of asking people to not touch things in a gallery.

National Trust looking for Assistant Curators - It's fantastic

22/3/2018

The National Trust are launching a 3 year fixed term programme to develop a new team of Assistant Curators, currently recruiting for 8 roles across all regions of the National Trust.

As pointed out by @kathleenlawther on Twitter, this is a Very Good Opportunity:

"@nationaltrust is recruiting Assistant Curators at £27K, giving on the job training and development, recognising skills gained outside the sector and not insisting on academic qualifications for applicants"

When you look into it, oh yes, this is a very open offer, apparently aimed at getting a more diverse Curatorial team, and understanding that those coming into the role will require training and development along the way.

"We are particularly interested in considering applications from people from a wide range of diverse backgrounds who may or may not hold formal qualifications in the heritage or museum sector, but who can offer evidence of relevant experience and personal capabilities."

It's a shame that this seems so good, as one would hope that what they are offering would be industry standard for a position like this. It's not though, as so often the expectation is that you've got a "piece of paper to prove you are clever" rather than relevant hands on experience, and that you're willing to work for almost tuppence because it's such as hotly fought for position.

So if you're after a change, or just after a job at all, have a look.

careers.nationaltrust.org.uk/OA_HTML/a/#/vacancy-detail/63207

Things we don't know we don't know

31/1/2018

"Why didn't you arrange an exhibition of X's work when X was in the country?! I love their work!"

"Their work does look good! But, we didn't know they were in the country, and also, we've not heard of them before. That would have been a pretty big stumbling block to arranging a loan with them. If there's a fab artist you think we should know about, please do let us know, so next time we can make plans before they leave the country."

*These exchanges edited for comedic value*

Yes, it's a shocker, but our staff aren't clued into all of the creatives we possibly could be, and even with those we are, we aren't constantly tuned into their international movements.

If you think your local museum or gallery should be aware of an opportunity, do drop them a line before, rather than after, that opportunity occurs.

Loans and exhibitions are often arranged many months, if not years, in advance, but someone being in the country might provide the chance for a chat, which may get you closer to physically seeing art you love being exhibited in your local area. You never know, you could be helping the artist and venue forge links they would never have known about otherwise!

(yes, there is a chance that they're not the right artist for the venue, there's too much red tape, the artist isn't interested, but if you're too late in sending the information, that connection may never be made.)

We go together like museums and warm pizza

17/11/2017

Tumblr. It's a rather odd place sometimes. Some of the users are a bit, special. (So much porn going on) but there are some great and clever things from the arts and museums world.

However, I wouldn't have thought looking for museum would also cross over so firmly in the search Venn Diagram with warm pizza.

Incidentally, you can find Attendant's View on tumble at: www.tumblr.com/blog/attendants-view

Art for your masses

8/11/2017

Looking for an unusual way to get some of your art and objects to the masses?
How about starting your own gif collection for your museum?
Check out https://giphy.com/lacma to see what The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been creating.

Sassy, sarcastic, cute, strange and all very visually appealing, these (I hope...) may help shunt some of the pop culture icons off their shelves, and see art becoming a staple of the "I'm saving this gif to my phone to use as a reaction later" method of sharing imagery.

Ask A Curator - September 13th 2017

12/9/2017

Tomorrow (September 13th) is Ask A Curator Day, and it’s a chance for people inside and outside of collections, museums, galleries and heritage venues to connect and chat - with an impressive 1519 museums taking part!

It can be a good way to educate people on what curators actually do, open minds about what your collection holds and how it can be relevant. It can be a fun way to share and explore. Sometimes, the questions asked can lead to rethinking what visitors are interested in and would like to know more about.

You’ll find #AskACurator being used on Instagram and twitter, so have a look, and see what is being nattered about.

If you want to see who is taking part, or be more involved (last minute!) see the details and sign your venue up here: http://www.mardixon.com/wordpress/askacurator-who-to-ask-sept-14-2016/

“The Lady Said No”

1/8/2017

“But we’ll be travelling all the way from X to do this? Can’t you squeeze us in for it? How much difference would three people really make?”

Ah, we have reached the “I failed to plan ahead for the summer school holidays, and now my children are about to be disappointed by not getting to do something they want to do, so I’m going to somehow blame you” stage of the summer break.

Here’s my caring face: