Leadersheep in Museums

My thoughts this week have been turned towards leadership. The museum sector is constantly trying to develop leaders. Why is that? Do we lack the right stuff? Is it proof that leaders are born and as such aren't naturally drawn to looking after old things? 

Who is the greatest leader living today? Arguably it's Nelson Mandela. Can you imagine Nelson Mandela as the most charismatic outreach officer in the history of the Iziki Museums of South Africa? It's a nice thought, but could he have applied himself to museums? Alas during his trial in 1964 he failed to say the following.

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle for museum visitors. I have fought against middle class visitor domination, and I have fought against community group domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free museum in which all persons visit together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

So is the first lesson in leadership to be prepared to die for your museum? By this measure I am not a true leader, although I am prepared to sacrifice my staff and put them on trial. Realistically a man as great as Mandela should be saving a nation and not saving a museum - but isn't that my point?

How about something a little less political? Is the modern day curator a St. Francis of Assisi? Zookeepers obviously are I suppose, but what about the rest of us? As a justification of our trade in 1220 St. Francis failed to say,

"My little visitors much bounden are ye unto your Curator, and always in every place ought ye to praise him, moreover he preserved your objects in the museum, that your history might not perish out of the world; wherefore your Curator loveth you much, seeing that he hath bestowed on you a lovely label; and therefore, my little visitors, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praises unto the museum."

That seems much more familiar and comforting, much more befitting of our status.

So what have we learned so far?

Great leaders sort out national problems while we think we are all St. Francis and treat visitors like ungrateful sheep - is that leadersheep?

Now I can see why we spend so much on leadership development.

From St. Francis to Mandela in a two hour PowerPoint session? If there's one sector that believes it can do it - we can! In the words of Winston Churchill,

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and ongoing leadership training."

Manifesto for Museums in the 21st Century: participation, participation, participation

What are the three most the important factors in selling your house? Location, location location.
What were the three most important policies of the Tony Blair New Labour administration? Education, education, education.
When visiting Scotland for a holiday what are the three things you most remember? Precipitation, precipitation, precipitation.

Given that we are all thinking about the future of museums and the MA may claim to have 20:20 vision in this respect. The Museum of Unreason Manifesto defines what are actually the three most important things for museums in the 21st century.They are: participation, participation, participation.

BUT, and I believe this is where our profession has gone badly wrong, not participation in the way we have seen it applied recently. We took a wrong turn at the turn of the century when there was a 'Renaissance'. We subsequently wasted £200m on museum access projects for the great unwashed to try and make ourselves relevant. How much more money do we need to spend before we realise that at the end of the first decade its just the same deluded people who continue to visit us. I would compare Renaissance approach to the 'war on drugs' an un-winnable waste of money. The big mistake was to give us the money. We should have given it to non-users to spend on museums.   What a different museum sector that would have given us by 2012. Can we still achieve this in a post Renaissance world?

Given that we are still proudly irrelevant and elitist, happily sacking education staff rather than curators. Money is not coming to us (except to the 'excellent' few) and will never do so again. What is now the prime responsibility of a museum manager? To have fun and engage with non-professionals to create an environment of enjoyable learning that is relevant to modern society? No no no - our prime duty now is to preserve the past, ignore the present and forget about the future.

The constant cry of 'put more collections on show' is wrong. Put less collections on show. 90% of collections are in store being carefully preserved, it should be 100%. Objects should only be brought out upon request (in triplicate) by people who can prove that they will appreciate, understand and learn from them. Most people don't know about them, don't care about them and, if given the chance, will break them.

Access policies? Ban them. Disposal policies? Ban them. Collect, collect, collect. If its old put it in store. Industrial decline = empty warehouses = new museum stores.

You may be asking, what has that to do with participation?

By following this simple strategic approach, museums will empty themselves of 'professionals' and the lifeless clutter of objects. Instead we will create real 'warehouses of the past' lovingly cared for by professional curators in perpetuity. The money saved will then be given to non-users who can then use the empty museums for all the fun and uneducated activity that they want. At a stroke the past is much better preserved and museums become instantly relevant to 21st century society.

Participation, participation, participation? Be true to the idea!

MA Conference (T)wittering Awards

In my attempts to let the world understand the true voice of unreason I use Twitter as my main method of communication. In the old days I suppose I would have been found ranting on street corners and being quietly moved on by the local constabulary. Now I am a respected sage in 140 characters or less.

The time to step up to the plate and bear my tweeting teeth came at the MA Conference 2012. I vowed to tweet as much as my RSI would let me. However I quickly realised I would be up against true professionals - could a yokel from somewhere south/north of Yorkshire mix it with top twitterators?

To begin with I noticed many tweets were quotes from sessions with an added 2 or 3 words of analysis  - if you were lucky. The brief for speakers at next year's conference should be to keep sentences to 100 characters or less to help us tweeters. The problem is that this instruction may reduce the clarity of the message by making speakers' sentences a bit too sh

In the end I only managed 20 tweets, a meagre 10 a day. Let's put this into context. I met my new tweeting hero @MarDixon and she had tweeted 4,123,345 times before lunch on the first day with insight, engagement and above all enthusiasm. I was truly humbled. Her best tweets? Perhaps these two as part of a conversation with MannyC?

MarDixon,"Audience are embracing weird and wonderful - why aren't museum people / museums?"
mannyc,"@MarDixon embracing and encouraging a culture of change can be a long, hard process. Not an excuse to avoid it though..."
MarDixon, "@mannyc Culture change should come from within an I haven't seen much change there. The public has changed & is bored waiting."

Biting, perceptive and a too rare perspective from outside of the museum world.

Anyway, having gone through the #museums2012 and not slept for 10 days I have now come up with my own
                                              Museum of Unreason Tweeting Awards                                
* Note I have edited the hashtags out of all the tweets in the interest of sanity

Best suggestion?
Lynz_M_Anderson, "Philanthropy session: Museum Staff should ALL donate to their museums... "
I'll be using that little morale booster at my next team meeting.

Best food for thought?
ee_ve, "Engaging session on conflict in museums. Is it ok to display conflict but not ok to have internal conflicts?"
I think I've got it the wrong way round in my museum.

Best reason to work?
Sharonheal, "Emma Varnam in cultural rights session; why do we go to work in a morning? It's all about social justice."

Best reason not to work?
RachelCockett, "If you work in an organisation for more two years you are complicit. Can you live with it?"
Well to be honest - yes

Best food reference?
AustenJocelyn, "Keith Nichol: 'The UK spends more on cheese than charity.' Love cheese, but a sad statement."
As a cheese based life-form I might be partly responsible for this

Most honest tweet?
museumsrepublic, "Worryingly in the last session I put my hand up by mistake and then saw a microphone coming towards me.."

Most Medieval?
Acuity_Design,"They spent years meticulously making beautiful copies to put on shelves." "Monks?" "No, museums."

Most Excluded?
leehutchinson, "My BlackBerry died (seemingly self-destructed). Consequently, I felt marginalised at MA conference as a non-smartphone user."

The Museum of Unreason Holy Moley award
TamsinRussell, "I loved the Jar. of Moles!"
Great use of a full stop for effect

My best tweet? It gets the 'reducing social media to school playground competitiveness' award

MuseumU, "last tweet 13 seconds can anyone beat that?"


If anyone would like to share their favourite tweets from the conference, or come up with their own awards, I'd be happy to hear from you.
Perhaps together we can put pressure on the MA to come up with some official awards of their own at the next conference.

Museums Association Conference 2012 - The Keyhole Speeches (more career ending thoughts)

As I slowly defrost in the temperate climes south of Yorkshire it's time to reflect on my two days in Edinburgh. A frantic round of coffee drinking, luncheoning, avoiding people you owe money to and having an occasional sit down while somebody on a stage said something they assumed I might be interested in.

As the comfiest seats were in the main hall I was occasionally woken by hordes of museum types wanted to listen to keyhole speeches. It made a change as last year I was perpetually late for the speeches, this year I was perpetually woken up by them.

First up was Fiona Hyslop who seemed to be Minister for Scottishness. I have never heard such sentimental twaddle in all my life as she pulled out cliche after cliche about Scottish identity. You'd never find us bulldog Englishmen getting so worked up about our green and pleasant land of cricket on the village green.....hmm perhaps we are alike after all.

Next up.. a lawyer (better be a bit careful here) Aamer Anwar. This is going to be controversial. Phew! He gives a nice little talk on 'museums I have visited with my kids that I like 'cos I'm a social justice lawyer'. I look forward to a miner's reflection on pit museums he's visited at next year's conference in Wales.

Woken from my slumber (is it Friday already?) by.. Basil Fawlty? I thought it was meant to be Martin Roth. Is this a new strategy for national museums? Will the V&A be renamed the Sybil & Manuel Museum and become the S&M? Hmm...perhaps not. My reverie led me to hoping that Captain Mainwaring will be taking over the Imperial War Museum and Alf Garnet would be an ideal candidate for the British Museum.... then the talk was over, I assume he didn't mention the war, or that he did once but got away with it.

One more to go -  Mark O'Neill (Director of Policy and Research at Glasgow Life) argued that we are too professional. I've suspected that all along. That's why my amateurish museum is ahead of its time.  He stridently argued that everyone needs access to the core collections. Having left Big Baz (see previous blog) in charge  of the museum whilst in Edinburgh - he seems to have fully accessed the coin collection.

Time to go home, but wait who is this? Donald Smith - a storyteller? It can't be a keyhole speech because its a brilliantly informative and entertaining summary of the conference. What a waste of 2 days! All I needed to do was pop in for an hour at the end (make mental note to self for next year).

This year was certainly the digital year - so next week I'll reflect on 2012 - the Twitter Conference

Corrected Correction Corrected

A short but blunt 'phone call from the Editor of 'Inuits Today' magazine about this morning's blog A Corrected Correction was somewhat negative. Upon re-re-re-reading the blog I realise that even more grammatical errors on my very new intern's part may have led her that conclusion. I have therefore sacked her (recently recruited from the Antarctic Bugle) and replaced her at short notice with my new intern (who asked me to buy his Big Issue on the way to work this morning) to correct the corrected corrections as follows:

1.  "I used to regard the East Midlands as a sort of geographical barrier between the Arctic and civilisation i.e. anywhere warm. A sort of regional Hadrian's Wall. It has proved surprisingly good at its main (only) job as I am never assaulted on a regular basis by Inuit dialects when strolling through the leafy thoroughfares of warm places without snow all year round." 

should have read,

 "I used to regard the East Midlands as a sort of geographical barrier between the Antarctic and civilisation i.e. anywhere with polar bears. A sort of regional Hadrian's Wall. It has proved surprisingly good at its main (only) job as I have never seen any penguins strolling through the leafless suburbs of Nuuk."

2. "..Robin Hood an Eskimo? Unlikely, although it might explain the strange smell of fish "

should have read,

"..Robin Hood a penguin? Not even in a Disney cartoon!"

I hope that any, every and all misunderstandings are now resolved in the confident knowledge that penguins are not avid museum visitors, and even if they were, the absence of fingers and a good internet connection in the Southern Ocean will keep them quiet

My new intern has proved such a help that I have given him the key to the museum while I am at the Museums Association Conference - so if you are in the area pop in and Big Baz and his little mongrel dog Osborne will give you a welcome you won't forget.

Corrected Correction

The reaction to yesterdays blog A Correction from the people of God's Own City (London to you and me) has been somewhat negative. Upon re-re-reading it I realise that a few more grammatical errors on my intern's part may have led some to that conclusion. I have sacked my new intern (from the Yorkshire Post) and replaced him at short notice with my new intern (recently made redundant from the Antarctic Bugle as her articles lacked warmth) to correct the corrections as follows:

1. "I used to regard the East Midlands as a sort of geographical barrier between London and civilisation i.e. Yorkshire. A sort of regional Hadrian's Wall. It has proved surprisingly poor at its main (only) job as I am assaulted on a regular basis by fruity southern vowels when strolling through the leafy thoroughfares of Doncaster." 

should have read,

 "I used to regard the East Midlands as a sort of geographical barrier between the Arctic and civilisation i.e. anywhere warm. A sort of regional Hadrian's Wall. It has proved surprisingly good at its main (only) job as I am never assaulted on a regular basis by Inuit dialects when strolling through the leafy thoroughfares of warm places without snow all year round."

2. "..Robin Hood a Londoner? Surely Londoners take from the poor to give to the rich."

should have read,

"..Robin Hood an Eskimo? Unlikely, although it might explain the strange smell of fish "

I hope that any misunderstandings are now resolved and we can all go back to ignoring the north south divide.

Now I can go to the Museums Association Conference confident in the knowledge that my interns have offended everyone equally.

A Correction

The reaction to this weekend's blog More East Midlands Heritage Madness from the people of God's Own County (Yorkshire to you and me) has been somewhat negative. Upon re-reading it I realise that a few grammatical errors on my part may have led some to that conclusion. I have blamed my intern (recently made redundant from the Guardian as a copy editor) so I've given the job to my new intern (recently made redundant from the Yorkshire Post as a t' editor) to make the corrections as follows

1. "I used to regard the East Midlands as a sort of geographical barrier between Yorkshire and civilisation i.e. London. A sort of regional Hadrian's Wall. It has proved surprisingly poor at its main (only) job as I am assaulted on a regular basis by flat vowels when strolling through the leafy thoroughfares of SW1." 

should have read,

"I used to regard the East Midlands as a sort of geographical barrier between London and civilisation i.e. Yorkshire. A sort of regional Hadrian's Wall. It has proved surprisingly poor at its main (only) job as I am assaulted on a regular basis by fruity southern vowels when strolling through the leafy thoroughfares of Doncaster." "

2. "..Robin Hood a Yorkshireman? A Yorkshireman knows too much the value of 'brass' to give it away."

should have read,

"..Robin Hood a Londoner? Surely Londoners take from the poor to give to the rich"

Any offence caused was entirely intentional and any resemblance to person or persons is truly remarkable