As I sit here typing
away on my laptop in late July 2019, it's approximately almost 2 months since
the Citizen Curators course finished. I've had time to gather my thoughts and
think things over without that initial bias that creeps in when you are still
riding a high. Before I leap into summarizing the course as a whole, I shall
briefly recap what happened after the final Core Session up until when the
course technically ended.
So long, farewell, until we meet again.
The final core session was in February and well documented in my
previous blog post but after that we had what one can regard as the official
finale/send-off as a collective group of Citizen Curators from across the
county. For us, this was a day's experience at the The Old Cathedral School in Truro on Monday, 29 April.
The morning was an opportunity to do final reflections on the course via
feedback forms with all groups from across Cornwall present in the same room.
Well, those who were able to turn up, that is. Although advertised as a "short"
questionnaire, this was about 30 questions; even my brief log I'd hastily rushed
to complete before this day wasn't enough use to me in order to recall my
memories sufficiently enough to do the questionnaire any justice. I need time
to sit and reflect rather than quickly recall. I therefore "dumbed"
down my responses somewhat to simplistic one-word answer sentences as at least
that way I could give a gist of an opinion. Although one expected the
opportunity to feedback, I don't think any of us expected such a comprehensive
feedback form, nor that we wouldn't be able to mingle with members of the other
Citizen Curator groups, create dialogue between ourselves and then give
feedback in a more conversational manner, which I think would have been easier
for us, but probably harder work for Tehmina. Sadly, we didn't really get to
find out much about any of the other groups. Most faces we didn't recognise (as
they were from the other cluster) and there was no opportunity to find out what
they'd done for their projects or their own individual thoughts about the
course, which, for most us of in my group, was of more value than what we
thought ourselves. We got our certificates of achievement but, suffice to say,
the real value of the course was not able to be conveyed on paper.
We'd anticipated at least a snack/cuppa opportunity too but that
didn't happen although I believe that was down to an error on the building’s
function team part. Any food didn't come until the end of the day, by which
point we'd gone off for a Penlee posse group lunch in the city at lunch time.
After lunch, those who were left (a lot did leave at this point)
sat through an hour or so of presentations by CMP on all the opportunities they
were providing for people to get into museums, such as citizen curators,
internships and apprenticeships. There were guest speakers, which wasn't too
mind-numbing I'll admit, and then there was the opportunity for the group I was
in, and a few other Citizen Curator groups, to get up in front of the audience
(I'd guess 40-50 people) and give a 3 minute speech about what we did for a
project. It wasn't really long enough, and I don't think we really managed to
convey our efforts. Not because we were rubbish, but because we weren’t in
control of the presentation projection behind us (CMP were) and we weren't
suitably educated on what to expect beforehand. Literally 10 minutes before we
got up to speak, and seeing how others had given their presentations, we
realised we needed to prepare some words, so I scribbled down 3 sentences, most
of which went out the window when I fumbled through my bit of the presentation
and somehow went off on a total tangent by saying how I wanted to do some dressing
up in drag! Don't ask me how I got to that. I wanted the floor to open up
:D
After all this CMP show, it was mingling time with whoever was
left, of which I can't really remember now as after that presentation I was
ready to wave a white flag and go home. The food came out but even though it
looked a lovely selection, I'd had the biggest sandwich ever only a few hours
earlier and could barely touch anything more. I didn't really chat to anyone
other than my own gang, a few other citizen curators from our cluster who
lurked about, and the official photographer who was rather cheerful.
And, officially, that was the end of it. However, it also wasn't,
because at this point, we'd not actually started our exhibition at Penlee which
was in its final stages but ran for several weeks during May. I can't recall
exactly how things transpired but I will give an outline of our project for
you.
Project Improbable
At the start this did feel like "how the heck are we going to
do this" and we certainly dropped several of our busier ideas as time went
on. What we ended up with though we were quite pleased with. We'd got an advertisement
for our mini exhibition up in a large shop window in the town by way of two
larger than life figure cut-outs and a banner. Our title for the exhibition was
"Penlee House and the Branwells". I won't go too much into the
history aspect, but they were the couple who built and lived in Penlee House in
Penzance in the late 1800s of which the Penlee Museum and Art Gallery now
lives. Inside the museum we had a display case to ourselves to house objects
related to the house and the Branwells, such as photos of the museum's
refurbishment and items that could be attributed to the Branwells. Behind the
display case we'd had mounted and framed numerous large old photos of the
family, house and surrounding park. Additionally (and this was my main individual
contribution) we'd set up an iPad on a stand that could interactively or
automatically show off up to 40 more photos along with captions. Nearby we put
one of the cousins of the Branwell's wedding dress on display (the first time
it had actually come out of the storeroom), and we'd got a few more
photos/plans up in the passageway outside the social history area where our
exhibition was held. By far our proudest part of the exhibition were the
windows outside the house on the way up the steps to the main entrance, of which
we'd filled two of them with life size b/w photographs of the dining room (that
was originally the room behind those windows at one point) with Mr and Mrs
Branwell in each window, and suitable blinds filling up the top part to add
character and hide the bit the photograph couldn't fill. There's also an
interpretation panel for the windows on the wall. It's safe to say we all felt
and still feel most pleased about these windows which were lifeless and boring
beforehand (with just hardboard filling them up). We feel the Branwells are
remembered and back home, and that, unlike the rest of our exhibition, this
part will stay up for as long as they stay in good nick, which hopefully will
be many years.
Final Thoughts
Was this course worth my time and effort?
In short, yes.
Was it everything I expected?
Mostly.
By far the most common feeling from myself and other group
members, was that the level of commitment, and thus time given to the course
far exceeded our expectations. As with most things, you can give as much or as
less as you like in many respects, but if you're going into this fully
enthusiastic to seize the opportunity and gain the maximum result you possibly
could, then you're going to be giving a lot more of your time than you might
have thought, especially if you have work and home commitments. You've got to
be able to juggle matters sometimes. In many ways this course is a bit like
those part-time adult learning courses you'd do at any college and requires
that you not only attend but do the homework. Now, the homework is all the
optional things, like extra reading, seminars or training but that's all
usually free (aside potentially from the transport aspect) and adds tremendous
value to the experience and engrossment of the heritage world. Then, on top of
that, you must think about your fellow group members. My group met up quite
regularly, even in the first 4 months before any project talk, where we went
off on excursions together, met up and chatted/drank coffee/ate cake, in order
to get to know each other, discuss what we'd learnt at core sessions and give
early thoughts on project ideas. For us, we met for 4-5 hours at a time. If you
think about it, every month, it's quite possible to take up a day for core
sessions, a few hours or so for any "extra reading" related stuff, a
day or two for any seminars/training sessions you go to, and then a day for
meeting your group, and of course, your museum mentor. It could be 4-5 days a
month if you went full whammy.
Should you do the course?
My thought is that it's well worth doing but only really consider
it if you got the time to go the full hog; don’t go into it half hearted. Not
only is the time to commit what I've just said previously, but when the project
time starts about half way through the course, you're talking 1-2 days a week
(although of course not all day) you will be involved for multiple hours in
some respect with the course. You need to have the flexibility in your life to
be able to meet your group, do project work, attend seminars, and of course,
those core sessions.
The value for me in the course, and the main reason why I decided
to do it in first place, was the project aspect. Although my volunteering in
the museum sector has got me involved in a lot of various aspects of that
world, I'd never had the opportunity to put my stamp on an exhibition from that
initial spark of an idea. I’d done proofreading and given feedback to staff but
to design an exhibition, plan it and put it on, was something that was very
rarely going to happen when volunteering. Additionally, I was determined to
make it even more worthwhile by making sure there was a legacy aspect to the
project. So many times I've seen objects in exhibitions go on show and then
disappear never to be seen again. I wanted to do something that would be there
for years afterwards and we achieved that with the windows that will inform the
public and invoke their curiosity for some time to come. Out of everything,
that made the course powerful for me.
The end? Or the beginning?
Now that the course is well and truly over, you might well surmise
that museum life isn't for you, but for myself, I'm still volunteering in the
same capacity as before. Although I like what CMP offer in terms of
opportunities for people to get into the museum sector, the long and short of
it is that there are very few paid opportunities in this area, and those that
are, will be funding reliant. Most museums are run and kept alive by volunteers
with only a handful of paid staff. If you're looking for paid employment and a
heritage career, this course will seriously whet your appetite but can also
leave you somewhat pessimistic about the future. There are jobs out there,
because I've seen them, but they are all "up country" and I'm not
wanting to move for a job at this moment in time. Therefore, I'm holding out
for a local opportunity to arise. I have applied for two jobs since the course
finished, gaining an interview for one of the jobs, but alas I'm still without
employment. In order to make my ongoing volunteering count towards employment
opportunities I started my Museum Association’s AMA at same time as the Citizen
Curator's course; In a nutshell you can think of the AMA as Citizen Curators
multiplied by a factor of 10. Maybe I'll blog about it, as it's also not for
the faint hearted as it costs money, runs for 2 years but should you pass you
do gain a qualification that is well regarded in the museum sector.
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| You can call me Mr Branwell ... |
