MA Conference, Cardiff October 2014
So Museums Change Lives? This was the theme for the Museums Association Conference in Cardiff earlier this month. The Museums Change Lives policy addresses the MA’s vision for the social impact of museums. This is not something I personally needed convincing off. I’ve always been an advocate for the social impact of museums, and have spent a lot of my career so far exploring and investigating ways in which museums can benefit, enrich, and strengthen, the communities which they serve. So it to me, it seemed a bit of an obvious topic to have at conference. So what was I hoping to get out of it all? Well, having recently been awarded Associateship of the Museums Association, I was able to receive my award alongside fellow AMA and FMAs, which was fantastic. It was great to share our experiences, and celebrate our achievements within the heritage sector. However as well as celebrating, I was intrigued to address the social justice agenda, and see how other museums and heritage organisations were engaging with the debate. I also wanted ideas about how museums balance the difficult job of impact versus budget cuts - an area we are all unfortunately too familiar with. I wasn’t disappointed. Conference was lively, challenging, and really hard work, as we all wanted to pack in as much as possible! The highlight for me was the real focus on people, our visitors, and the experience that they have in our museums. Putting the public at the heart of what we do was apparent throughout conference. The session ‘First Impressions’ was a fantastic start to the first full day, and we discussed the benefits of embedding visitor experience throughout our organisations. We talked of training and developing a diverse and talented workforce, that would be truly representative of contemporary audiences, as well as the importance and value of front of house staff in delivering a fantastic service for visitors. A big thank you to James Etherington and Rachel Mackay for creating and delivering this session. In terms of balancing impact in challenging financial circumstances, there were some great sessions and workshops on creating resilient and sustainable museums. We explored new areas of funding, staff development and training, collaborative and partnership working, and many ways of sharing knowledge, expertise, and services. Inspiring stuff! So, for me in summary then, the MA’s 2014 conference theme, Museums Change Lives, was an opportunity for us all to get back to basics. Yes it might be obvious to most of us, and indeed even one of the main reasons that we chose to work in museums. But particularly during difficult times, it can be a good thing to get back to basics, to really think about what we are doing, and why we are doing it. We face more challenging financial times ahead, but with good leadership, commitment and enthusiasm, I feel confident and excited about the future of museums in the UK. -JH
