Something different this time- a little illustrated diagram about how to use sandbags to mitigate flood damage, for an exhibit I am helping design and install at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park - Seattle Unit. If you’re in the Seattle area after December 5th, stop by and check out our exhibit! (And if you’re curious about how this looks in layout, you can see the full version here, in my portfolio. )

New Museum Podcast: Queering Museums

A new podcast began in February to mark LGBTQ+ month and is seeking to give an insight into the different way that LGBTQ+ museum workers and people in related fields are changing and shaping museum practice and museums themselves.

In it’s first week, Queering Museums focused on not only the importance of telling queer histories in museums to address how they have long been ignored or silenced, but also the how important it is for young people and the LGBTQ+ community to see their history represented, as well as the different ways that museums and museum professionals are trying to do it.   

Each episode features interviews with people from different museums, the project doesn’t limit itself to a particular project or approach. This includes Margaret Middleton who talks about the importance of language, including the family friendly language, that makes space for children from families in all their shapes and constellations (see poster below). Their is also a discussion about how the stories and objects are often already there in museums collections, but have been hidden or obscured by euphemism (great example given about soldiers in the American Civil War). It’s also great to hear from people who work in “less obvious” positions in the museum infrastructure, or those discussing the ways that different types of museum approach the the topics (e.g. Episode 3 when talking about science museums and centres). 

Margaret Middleton’s poster summary of family friendly language, buy it here.

The podcast quality is great and the production is slick, which makes it a pleasure to listen to. You can download it via iTunes, listen on Soundcloud or sign up using the podcast app of your choice. And don’t forget to follow their profile on Twitter and those of the masterminds behind the project: Sacha Coward,Russell DornanandShaun O’Boyle. 

Current Episodes: 

• Episode 1: Voices 
  

• Episode 2: Experiences 
  

• Episode 3: Boundaries 

Related reading, projects and exhibitions:

QueeringTheMuseum.org An online resource that states: “We focus on museums due to their ability to shape and define the communities in which we live. QTM believes that museums have a responsibility to account for the role played in constructing normalized ideas of race, gender and sexuality.”

Never Going Underground exhibition at the People’s History Museums in Manchester, opened last week by Ian McKellen and telling the history of the figt for LGBTQ+ rights. 

The National Trust’s page on Exploring LGBTQ history at their sites. An interesting looks at how the LGBTQ+ stories become hidden or obscured, but not all are lost forever. Working together with Leicester School of Museum Studies to create a legacy from the 2017 anniversary of partial decriminalisation. 

Historic England’s Pride of Place project has a list of aims and objectives, not least - as the body that administers listed buildings in the UK - “nominate buildings or landscapes for consideration for local heritage listing on the basis of their significance to LGBTQ histories”.  
 
Ablogpost by the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand about their LGBTIQ+ collections and their importance in making the histories visible. 

The National Archive’s page on the Queer City project. 

If you know of any other resources, projects, podcasts or websites that you think should be inclided, get in touch. 

Listen here

We’re Not That Hard to Find: Hiring Diverse Museum Staff

An infographic based on the guidelines by Joy Bailey-Bryant from the Jan/Feb edition of the AAM’s Museum about ways that museums can change their hiring and employment practices to encourage a more diverse and representative workforce. 

Rather than just repeating the data we already know about the worrying lack of diversity in many areas of museum education and employment, this attempts to unpick some of the causes, offering concrete advice about engaged museum might enact change and help recruit a more diverse workforce. The reasons for a lack of diversity in the museum field are manifold, but this addresses some of the mechanisms that are in place that can tackled, such as unpaid internships, proper career support and management of existing staff, where positions are advertised, and looking more deeply at applicants to see identify skill sets that aren’t necessarily formal qualifications. 

As classically interdisciplinary places of learning, museums can only thrive when their perspectives are as diverse as the audiences and communities that they serve. If museums seek to be representative, then their staffing and institutions need to be as well. We know that speaking for marginalised voices and groups is inadequate, here’s how to do something about it. 

Other interesting resources and links

• Museum Hue
  
• Museum Detox
  
• University of Leicester, School of Museum Studies Diversity Scholarship
  
• UK Museums Association: “Museums Directors’ Report Outlines Targets for Improving Staff Diversity” 
  
• Report: “Valuing Diversity: The Case for More Inclusive Museums”
  
• Video: “Working Class Heroes”, a session from the 2016 Museums Association Conference in Glasgow. 
  

Posts on this blog that are of relevance:

• Punk Museology Project
  
• Knowing when to call it a day
  
• The Tomorrow People: Entry to the Museum Workforce
  
• Immaculate Integration
  
• Museum Workers Speak
  

If you know of any more projects or resources of interest, please feel free to submit them here. 

✨05.05.2022| I DID IT! My final grad class is over! My museum thesis on vinyl exhibition passed, and my museum advisor nominated it for a best thesis award. My museum studies grades are still floating, but my library science MLIS will be a 4.0. I really have never had so much fun doing such hard work in all my life. ✨

12/12/2021   I’m back! I’ve handed in the first chapter of my thesis! I finished my fellowship, waiting to see if it could be renewed. I only have one final left, and I’ve been looking into the difficulty of archiving gaming servers. Which I know nothing about so its going pretty slow, but I have a week to sort it out. 

Hope everyone is doing well during this finals season! Take care xx

10.02.21 | ⚜️ I’m a bit healthier but drowning in Knowledge Organization as a course. Its a huge topic! Kind of overwhelming. I’ve been reading about domain analysis for a reflection paper, and criminal evidence warehouses through the lens of the archival turn. At least I can read outside and enjoy the leaves and parks.

What’s everyone working on this fall? Any cool courses, or research?

September 2021 :  master’s thesis, archival research, library mornings, and caramel coffee 

bronze and stone busts

Wk 8 (43hrs) : Weird Preservica loading problems. Been booted from the file back out to the Access page. Also won’t load images. “HTTP status code 504″ won’t load in timely manner. Great. Next “unknown error, please contact your systems admin”. Twice.

: Satsugai Yokoku- Acute (2013), Le Tigre- Le Tigre (1999), Good Mourning-Alkaline Trio (2003), White Crosses- Against Me! (2010), Flamejob- The Cramps (1994), Pretty Hate Machine- NIN (1989)

7.16.21 | Things are good! Things are paying off! I have a 3.8 and a 3.9 in my dual degrees masters program, I just nailed 2 interviews in both job fields I’m aiming for at premier institutions, with one more next week. My thesis is outlined, research fitting my theory. Just celebrated a friend’s birthday, my parents are coming to the city next week. Life’s just good.

If anyone’s feeling burnt out, please know that the effort you put in does pay off!

7.14.21 | I’ve shifted my museum thesis around, and found a call for papers on my last topic. The workload and importance was going to be too large to condense into a master’s thesis. Maybe a book someday. Until then, I’ve been looking into authentication of modern art styles, and have to say, I’m loving studying old rock and roll flyers.