I have just got back to the office after being away at the Museums Association Conference in Birmingham last week. It was a really interesting couple of days. It is always good to hear about new ideas, meet up with other museum professionals and learn about the wider context of the sector. It has given me lots of ideas to take back to the office!
There were lots of great talks, but my personal highlights were:
‘Travellers’ Stories’ a session exploring an outreach project run by the Pitt Rivers Museum which explored the stories of traveller communities. They brought along some beautiful objects to the session too.
‘Museums Know Nothing’ by staff at the Museum of Gothenburg explored two fascinating projects ‘Are you Roma’ and Funktek.
The session on ‘LGBTQ History’ showcased many different projects, I found the discussion on collecting at the Walker Art Gallery very interesting. I also enjoyed the session on the ‘Museum of Homelessness’.
As part of the Transformers programme I also took part in the ‘Influence 101’ session and really enjoyed the speed mentoring.
As well as the conference sessions, it was great to visit the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery again.