2. 31 March 2011
Early (yawn) train from Cheltenham to Manchester, spent the journey thinking of the others at the museum on ‘The last day’. How was it going? I wonder what they are doing? I’m missing the ‘thank you and best wishes do’ for Michelle, our brilliant documentation project officer who has been with us since last June. That’s sad. I will miss her. Also missing the big ‘farewell to the old Art Gallery & Museum do’ at 4.30. That’s odd. Things will be so different when I get back, and I won’t have had the transition, the event to close one chapter and open another.
Is it significant that I am going to a social networking course? Is this a new chapter for curators? Some speakers think so! Discussions about ‘freeing up objects’, allowing people to comment on them in cyberspace, giving them a new life …. an ‘imprisoned object’ is something stuck in an institution or in a museum database, no one can see it or react to it unless they visit the buildings.
Social networking is a new way of working, releasing and trusting staff to blog about their jobs and feelings, entering into dialogue with twitter and facebook followers ….bringing the museum into people’s lives, not just releasing facts and news.
The Wilson 