Getting Out There

Any time I get the opportunity to participate in outreach activities, I jump.  In fact, just this past week, I was manning a table at London's Heritage Fair, put on by the London Heritage Council and the London Public Library.  Whenever possible, I make the commitment to attend.  This, I've been told, is somewhat unusual.

There are lots of reasons, often good ones, for why a curator might not want to participate in community events, such as a tight deadline, a collections committee meeting, grant-writing season.  Plenty of museum curators and collections managers use any number of similar excuses to avoid going out into public.  It is to their detriment, and the museums they represent, I believe, that so many curatorial staff choose not to interact with the public.  Even worse, sometimes it is the prevailing culture or attitude of the museum board or management that keeps the curatorial staff from interacting with the public.  The worst response any museum decision maker can give, when asked if curatorial staff can attend a community event, is "It's a waste of time."

No, it is not. That the staff responsible for developing the museum collection and its exhibitions should not attend community events is irresponsible.  Who are we developing them for, if not our communities?  How can we understand what our communities are comprised of if we never interact with them?  

By all means, send a marketing type or intern, perhaps a volunteer, to stand at the booth to smile and chat.   Often, it's they who are more outgoing than the backroom, storage vault-loving academic types, but my feeling is they should be sent along to support the curators and collections managers in public. 

Manning the well-appointed SORM table at a community event, 2013.

When the thronging masses come to a museum's outreach display, its artefact touch-table, set up in library corridors, or community centres, they want to talk to someone who can go beyond the website pitch, or basic history.  They want someone who can actually provide an answer when they ask their burning question about great-grandma's wedding dress, the yardsale painting they found, or the chunk of rock they discovered in a creek. 

I know, I know, there isn't a registrar working in museums who went into that field so they can talk to the public.  I know collections managers and curators can get very protective about people breathing on their artefacts.  I get it.  That's why it's best to send along a social talker, that marketing person, or maybe the volunteer co-ordinator, or the student intern.  Not only can they get snacks, or hold the fort when you have to pee, but they can do the hard part, the small talk and endless smiling.

And, when talking fails, or for the shy, anti-social audience, make sure you have some interesting stuff on your table that can speak to them without demanding they make eye-contact (this is helpful for socially awkward registrars, too).  I have a box of objects that I use mainly for events, durable, stable, (sometimes) touchable objects.  I have several didactic pieces which were created specifically for shows and events.  Sometimes I even bring swag that people can take with them, you know, little things, like bookmarks or postcards or pins.  I always have a stack of brochures.

But, most importantly, I bring myself, the curator, the closest thing to an expert the museum has, and I bring my willingness to not only talk to people, but to listen to them.  It's a way to find out what people like, what they're interested in, their knowledge level about your museum or subject.  It's more than just demographics research, it's real, tangible engagement.  And it's really, really important.