The problem with auctions

Have you ever wondered how it is museums have the things they have? Sure, the stuff might be old - but they haven't always been there and collections are always growing and changing. Donations are a core way we add to the collections, but things don't always come free. From time to time, when we are able to scrape together the funds, curators head to the auction house to bid on a new addition. The problem is... so does everyone else. 

Buying at an auction is a terrifying right of passage for the curator. So many things can do wrong even before you arrive for the big day - did you do all the right provenance research, did you get the approval of your spending limit, are the estimates rights, did you feel out the registration, do you have the right photo idea?! Then there you are in the room as the lot numbers are called and the auctioneer leads the bidding - a strange dance of nods and paddles, bidders on the phone, last minute bids placed online. To win your desires lot is thrilling - your colleagues congratulate you as you jot down the final numbers. To lose can be devastating, as you watch the numbers skyrocket beyond the maximum you have on your spreadsheet.

Such was the feeling I had recently at an auction as I watched a painting sail above my maximum limit to an unknown bidder on the phone. But it would fit so perfectly with my collection, I had wanted to use it in an upcoming exhibition, wouldn't it be great for researchers - gone in a flash, with no recourse. It put me in mind of the famous line from India Jones, 'that belongs in a museum!' and indeed it did.

The idea that museums are fancy, privileged institutions with loads of cash to splash out with at Christies or Sotheby's is an incredibly damaging myth with little basis in fact. While some institutions may have a healthy acquisitions budget, for the most part we scrimp and save, beg and plead, pitch for external funding to even have enough cash to bother coming along to an auction. And the worst part is, we go in knowing that we are most likely going to be outbid by private collectors anyway.

Now here is the thing that gets me really riled up - it makes me mad that people buy historic objects for their own enjoyment rather than either letting a museum purchase them. If you are the kind of person who spends your money lavishly at auctions and then donates or long term loans your purchases to a museum - you are my favourite kind of person. Well done you - keep doing your thing. But in the main, as it was at the auction I recently attended, the other bidders with just regular people with a passing interest who wanted to snap up a piece of history for themselves. 'I live in the area so, I thought I'd come down and buy some things since he lived here.' 'I went to the same school as him so - I thought I'd try my hand at collecting.' These are not good reasons to compete with museums for objects.

The problem I think is this. People assume when museums come to buy things we are going to squirrel them away - whisk them back to the big city, away from communities, never do be seen again in our dusty store rooms. In fact, what we are doing is making sure that everyone - including you - will be able to enjoy this piece of history for years to come. Just imagine the pieces bought at auction - held and enjoyed for oh about - 15 minutes. Put on a shelf, trot out at parties. But then forgotten, people get older and pass away, children don't know the significance of their items. Things end up back at auction, or in a local charity shop, or in the bin.

Now you might ask - well how on earth am I supposed to know if a museum wanted this thing? It's not like anyone in the auction room was wearing a big hat saying I WORK FOR A MUSEUM. (Perhaps we should make hats...). Besides, much of what passes through auction houses isn't of interest to museums - it's just nor original enough or significant enough or relevant enough. Here's an easy answer - if you are going to an auction that you think is really cool - why not check with a museum? Your local museum, or just pick a key word 'portrait' 'doctor' 'science' and then google it with the word 'museum' and contact whatever organization comes up informing them of the upcoming auction.

What if more than one museum wants an object? Now this is where I think museums really can be at their best. We do talk amongst ourselves a lot and if we find out we want some similar things, we work it out so we don't bid against each other thereby inflating the price. We discuss our collections development policies, we share our cases, we share our budgets, we make agreements around loans until we come to a mutual agreement. One auction attendee remarked to me 'Ugh, museums - you form little cartels, agreeing who is going to bid on what so the prices stay low.' Um - exactly?! The main thing is it goes into a public collection so everyone can enjoy!

There isn't really a clear solution to many of the issues I raise. Of course people are going to keep buying things at auction, and so they should. Antiques are lovely for your home and for personal interest. In fact - the responsibility here really lies with the auctioneers to recognize museum quality pieces and notify organisations about them - and some do that really well. They ideally also would advise their sellers to consider private treaty sales with museums - so we don't have to compete with the private collectors (who really, let's face it, are always going to have more to spend). They could advise them of the many excellent government schemes which exist to help keep heritage pieces in the public sector. And, to be fair, I do think many auctioneers do this. There are also organisations like Vastari who are helping to link private collectors with museum curators to support public exhibitions - which is a pretty good compromise.

So all I can say is please, if you are at an auction, think really carefully about why you want to purchase that item. Is that really the right home for it? Would you consider donating it to a museum in the future? Take a look around you - does it seem like there are any institutional bidders in the room? (We are easy to spot - usually in groups at the back, pouring over spreadsheets and calculators). Say hello - and think about passing when you see us bidding. All we want is to make sure pieces are accessible to everyone and cared for well into the future! 

The Battlefield of Exhibition Design

There’s a battle going on behind the scenes of museums and its taking place in project meetings across the world. Collections staff are having to harness their collection management toolkits, arm themselves with knowledge of off-gassing, lux levels and accurate RH and temperature readings. All in the good name of best practice in collections management.

The Times recently published ‘Amanda Levete begs V&A’s curators to see the light and feel the drama’ and it documents an all too familiar battle that collections management face with architects, designers and any creative minds who do not appreciate the duty of care museums need to take to preserve collections for future generations.

The Times article outlines the development of the  ‘occulus’ in the redeveloped courtyard of the V&A – a skylight that would ‘bring light to the historic collections’ (nah mate)  and allow the public to view into the galleries below - if curators weren’t such cowards apparently. For any collections staff it’s an infuriating read that of course sympathises with Levette.

The Occulus @ V&A Photo: Guardian

The article goes on to claim that curators are conventional and terrified of daylight and thus have used black out blinds to block out the scary sunlight since opening.  Levette’s team had calculated that the light would fall down eighteen every hour of every day in every year’ . Yep - you heard right. Every. Single. Minute of every single day light would be falling onto the collections. And naturally the article takes no counter argument or consideration to collections care into account, - there wouldn’t be an issue with daylight falling onto the collections for 18 hours a day – nothing would happen right?

The curators are far from cowards and should be highly commended for sticking to their point and pull down the blinds on such risks to their collections. Indeed, I'd say its a win for collections management everywhere to see a curator who is so clearly on-side with the conservation staff. 

But this battle is not one that the V&A face alone, having spent much time working on exhibitions I’ve heard all of the ‘innovative’ and ‘striking’ ways we should put our collections at risk for the sake of a creative display. It doesn’t matter how many times you pass on collections display guidelines, barrier lengths and glass thickness details designers and architects will still come back with some crazy way of putting their concept first and the museum collection last – in my time I’ve heard of smoke machines in galleries (nope) the all too common staking objects on top of one another (definitely not) and the enraging ‘does it really need a barrier?’ 

How do we overcome it and continue to ensure collections are put first?

Voice your concern – if something doesn’t make sense on a drawing or a design briefing, ask about it! Often designers will have examples of similar displays, ways of mitigate risk or quite simply some ingenious and sneaky way of displaying objects safely and securely.

Assess the risk – if you really think that the collection is at risk and the designers aren’t budging then do a collections risk assessment, outline the eventualities and how the collection can be affected – this can serve as a good midway point to the argument. If there’s too much of a risk can a facsimile be made?

Stick to your guns – Hold your own and don’t be bullied into stepping down, there is a certain amount of creative thinking that can be discussed in early design plans but if ultimately the object is at risk and documented then don’t let it happen. Speak to colleagues in other museums and see how similar projects but remember as collections carers the objects come first.

Put the challenge over to them - Designers are brought on to projects to bring their experience, expertise and problem solving skills. They also work for the museum, who is the client. Challenge them to come up with innovative solutions that work within the environmental conditions you require. The design process should always be a conversation! 

And  finally! 

 Remember the goal - All parties are working towards the same aim a great display and an increase in access to our wonderful collections! 

On PhDs and museum jobs

Recently I've seen a number of conferences and symposiums aimed at PhD students exploring 'alternative careers' outside academia. With recent strikes and the continuing precariousness of short term and zero hour teaching contracts, pursuing a traditional academic career has become unattractive to many recent postgraduates. 'I'm planning to work as a museum curator' one such student said to me recently. Indeed, museum work and curatorial jobs are often highlighted as a logical alternate career. Personally, I think this is an incredibly irresponsible and misguided message to give PhD students and here's why. 

First off, let me just say that I think PhDs are great. I've got one, and I love it. PhDs have so many transferrable skills that can lend them to a variety of sectors - the ability to work methodically, to manage projects, to be self-guided in work, to write convincingly, to research thoroughly, the speak publicly and many many more great attributes. However, a PhD does not a museum curator make. Gone are the days in which curators were simple very specialist in a particular field, sitting in offices, researching all day long and producing niche but well research books. Just as this kind of isolation no longer flies in academia, it's definitely not the case in museums.

To work in a museum is arguably a vocation - it is a career typified by a very specific set of specialist skills. Whether you come at it from an MA in museum studies or from practical experience, museum workers need to be skilled in fields as wide as collections management, registry, documentation, Spectrum standards, hazards, accreditation, object handling, interpretation planning, public programming and engagement, text writing, legal frameworks and many many many more things. Museum professionals take years to build up their specialist skills which enable them to get jobs in a highly competitive field.

When this person at a recent exhibition opening said, 'I'm planning to be a museum curator', I naturally replied 'Oh have you worked in a museum before?'. 'Oh no', they informed me 'but I've always loved them.' Yes, museums are amazing and to work in them is amazing. We are all here because we love museums. But personally, I think the idea that one can just slide into museums is a bit insulting to an entire field of people who have spent years working their ass off to gain the experience needed. This is particularly true when it comes to curatorial work - which is often particularly coveted by those inside and outside the field. These days, curators need not only research skills but collections management experience to boot, not to mention a huge dose of public engagement prowess. 

I also feel like I have to mention in case this might not be apparent to students in the academy, museum work is terribly paid. Like, really. You'll see starting salaries in London museums as low as £16k per year (although we all agree that's terrible). If you are lucky, you might join the sector on £23k. For a full blown specialist curator, you are looking at £30k. Many postdocs get paid £40k to start, and senior lecturers can expect to earn between £45-55k. Plus that short term contract thing - yeah we have that too. It's a highly competitive and notoriously underpaid sector so, let's not get too romantic about the museum field. 

Now this isn't to say there isn't a place in museums for PhDs. For example, many institutions hire specific research-based roles which rely on drawing in new hires from the academy. The Science Museum recently appointed posts aimed at incorporating academic research into their new medicine galleries, and the National Army Museum is looking for a Head of Collections Research with academic chops. Research roles a great initial way for PhDs to join the museum community and start to build the skills they will need to one day become curators. Not forgetting of course that there is so so much more to museum work than just the curator! From learning teams to public programming, fundraising, marketing, social media and more - you'd be surprised how you can develop in the field. 

I'd also mention that museums LOVE to work collaboratively with academics. It is definitely possible that you can get some great experience of exhibitions through collaborative projects based at universities. If you do get to work on something like this, take all the opportunities you can to learn from your museum colleagues. 

My aim here isn't to put a downer on anyone's ambitions. I absolutely love working in museums and want to support others into the field. However, I think its important to be realistic about what museums can offer in terms of salaries and opportunity. Getting a museum job is just as competitive as academic work, so don't expect is to be an easy alternative to lecturing. And as for curatorial work, its some of the most highly sought after - so be sure to think big about the different career paths museums can offer you.

Personally, I am a museum curator with a PhD. But I'm not a curator because I have a PhD. In fact, I was hired for the job on the basis of my museum experience and in particular my years of work managing collections and supporting researchers. That I had a PhD in a relevant subject was something that was icing on the cake and maaaaybe got me over the line. But the core of what a museum worker needs is practical experience, demonstrable achievements and hard work. 

Practical experience of working in a heritage environment will be 100% necessary to getting into the field. So, PhD or not, you, like the rest of us, will need to get onto some voluntary work, a graduate scheme, a paid internship, or some other entry level role. Basically, if you've never worked in heritage before, it's time to get some experience. And if you are serious about museums, it will be well worth it for the job you want! We've even made a handy getting into museums guide to get you started. 

Museum celeb etiquette 101

Something curious has happened to us in the last year, dear readers. In the last 12 months, both Terri and I have (wait for it) met the Queen! Yes it's true! HRH Queen Elizabeth II herself! But the odd part is - that's not so strange in museums. While meeting the longest serving monarch in British history is pretty cool - meeting, greeting and touring celebs and other important people is kind of part of the museum deal. It might be one of the few places where plebs like you and me get to use their titles as Registrar or Curator as the cultural capital you need to meet the stars. Or, let's be honest, sometimes you are just stuck looking after days upon days of filming, waiting to get a glimpse of your favourite Hollywood actor. But the fact is, if you are a museum worker, odds are you are going to end up bumping into a celeb before long. So, drawing on our years of personal experience, here you are -  meeting celebrities in museums 101.

Kristin is pretty excited to give HRH the Queen an exhibition tour. Copyright - Getty Images.

1) Be cool. I think we must start here. The first step is just to be cool around celebrities. Whether you are the Queen or Benedict Cumberbatch, they'd appreciate you not screaming at them or stalking them down the corridors. If a celebrity finds there way into your museum, it's probably because they are themselves there for work - an opening, or research or filming. So they are acting work professional, and so should you. Or at least wait until they are out of the room before freaking out.

2) Know your stuff. In most instances, if you are being asked to meet and greet a celeb, it's because they want your specialist knowledge, whether that's of conservation or an exhibition or a certain subject matter. So to the extent you can it's a good idea to brush up - try and anticipate their questions, or maybe write yourself a little introduction. Having a general idea of what you are going to say also helps calm the nerves. Meeting a celeb is also a great moment for advocacy - lots of people may not know much about your museum or museum work generally, and here is your chance to tell a proper influencer! I know Terri personally explained what a registrar was to the Queen.

3) Stay out of the way. Really celebs are there to get a job done (or just to have a visit) so once you've had an intro or done your bit, just get out of the way and let them get on with it. Particularly important if there is filming happening at your museum - that's lots of intense work and they've got scheduled to stick to! Similarly, if you just spot someone visiting with friends and family, better to just let them be. That said...

Simon Pegg visits a Power Up at the Science Museum.

4) Read the room. Obviously we are all in it for a selfie, but with any celeb, you've got to time your request just right. They might be in character for an intense next scene or in the middle of a piece of research. Or sometimes, they might just be bored and wanting a chat. In which case, the time is right - get that selfie! Recently had to hold back asking Lucy Worsley for a selfie, while she was very friendly, she needed to get back to work!

Tom Hanks filming Inferno at the Palazzo Vecchio 

5) Have a laugh. For the most part, if you are asked to look after a celeb in your museum it's because they are there for a work event. So compared to the work they are there doing - your job is probably pretty cool! People love to hear stories about wacky behind the scenes things, objects you've got to touch, amazing experiences you've had in museums. Feel free to share and entertain and make them smile - it's what you are there for! That said, there's no accounting for taste. I once joked to Eddie Redmayne that I was there to keep him from stealing our stuff. Well, I thought it was funny.

6) Know your protocol. So if you do end up meeting HRH the Queen, there is some more formal protocol. You should wait to speak until addressed. Greeting the Queen takes the form of a light hand shake with a curtsy or bow (your choice!). You should address her as 'Your Majesty' in the first instance and 'Ma'am' after that. No touching of course - and just be friendly! She's just like any other museum visitors... right?!

All sounds common sense, but believe us, it can be hard to remember when Eddie Redmayne is in your museum store. Have you had a close encounter with a celebrity at work? We want to hear your story! Tweet us @curiositytweet #museumceleb 

Moving on up: from early career to... what?

Later this month, the MA will host it's fantastic Moving on Up one-day conference for early career museum professionals. We think it's a pretty great initiative - and not just because we spoke at the first ever one held in Manchester way back in 2013. 2018 marks 5 years since that conference, 6 years since we started the Ministry and a few measly months until we each hit the big 3-0. So that begs the question... when do we stop being early career professionals?!

Ah, so young, so fresh-faced in 2013. 

Maybe its the weight of the big birthday hanging over our heads, but we've spent a lot of time reflecting on where we are actually at in our careers these days. Moving on Up (MOU) is aimed at museum people in the first 5 years of their careers - and we have clocked up more like 7 or 8. Bother. When we started the Ministry in 2012, it was all about being early career professionals trying to make sense of the industry, get ahead, and have some fun. And you know what - we did all those things. We both now have managerial jobs in our respective museums - set programmes, balance budgets, hire staff. Are we the gatekeepers that we went to MOU to try and talk to?

Kristin looking very professional in her current role

It's an uneasy line between early and mid-career in museums - how are you meant to define that crucial shift? Is it years in work? Or is it age? Is it level of responsibility? Or, as one person suggested, having achieved something substantial or innovative (which sounds a terrifying measure of success by the way). I think the challenging thing about museums is that the workforce does tend to be quite young. You will often meet full curators at museums or other quite high level collections workers who are in the late twenties, having been working their way up since about the age of 22. Isn't it possible to be both an early career person and someone in a position of power?

Giving a keynote for the UKRG in 2014

Moving on in your museum career can be quite a scary thing. No longer identifying as early and emerging is scary for, well, the very human reason that aging is quite scary (or disorienting at least). But also, being in more responsible positions means you have an opportunity and an obligation to try and put some of the things you pushed for earlier in your career into practice - valuing the opinions of your junior staff, being more supportive of social media, being risk taking, encouraging diversity in the workplace and in exhibitions - and trying to improve canape provision at openings. And you know what? When it's your budget on the line, you dealing with organisational politics - you kind of get why it was so hard for your boss back in the day. 

Terri repping purple glove club, 2017.

If the goal was to move on up, I think we are on our way. If there's one thing that MOU is absolutely crucial for, it's networking. Networks are a lifeline in museums - partially because its a very unique field and you need to have people around you you can vent to, but also because we are really one small industry, and who you know can be very helpful. Particularly in collections roles (and for some reason especially with registrars) and can feel like there's about 10 people just swapping jobs in different institutions. But, being a closely-knit community is half the fun. 

But there are some things we wish all the early and emerging conferences and workshops had prepared us better for - like leadership skills, decision making, and budgets. These are tasks inherent to more senior roles, and not ones which you often learn before you need to just start doing them. You can be a really really good curator, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can balance a budget or manage a project. Fortunately, there are some good leadership programmes you can go on - the MA Transformers and the Clore Fellowships look particularly exciting. 

MA Transformers session

So what can we say to those of you heading to Moving on Up in a few weeks time - stay enthusiastic, stay curious, stay angry (as there are still many things in the field which need to change), but do what you can to build up not only your networks and social media presence as well as your skill sets. Volunteer to help with project and grant applications, shadow others when you can, take any leadership courses available to you, and for your own good, learn excel and all its mysteries (because it will come for you eventually). 

If you want to read more about our journey check out a few of our advice pieces here: 

Getting into Museums
Pay and the museum sector
Thoughts on museum blogging 
The story so far

Welcome to Purple Glove Club

Do you get a pang of anxiety every time you see a museum promo shot with white cotton gloves? Do you scream at the TV as the 'historian' dons the expected uniform?  We're got the ultimate solution to all collections management problems (well sort of) - introducing the Purple Glove Club! 

The misrepresentation of collections management goes deep into societal ideas of a museum (you know we love to chat about this!). Nope, we’re not all curators, we don’t know everything about every single thing event in history, we don’t know how valuable your Great Nan's vase is, our great institutions are certainly not dusty (*nods to Mark Carnell) and we definitely don't wear white cotton gloves all the time!  

On TV, in newspapers, social media and even in our own institutions the need to wear those impalpable protectors serves little purpose but to signify to the general public that we are handling something precious. They are the favourite accessory of the PR person or journalist, and all of us have been in those uncomfortable photo shoots in which we are forced to wear the white gloves because 'people like them'. Well, people like them because it's what they are told to like. We are ready to dispel the myth and celebrate a bit of purple nitrile.

First, we start with the basics - why do we even need to wear gloves? Yes, this is a question museum people get asked - can't you just do away with them entirely? Especially if its a TV presenter who wants to handle an object. If you don’t already know then head over to this great E-learning tool from Museum of London website.  Every object is different and while they need to be handled carefully in all instances the approach to handling can be diverse so while most objects need to be handled with gloves some just need a clean pair of careful hands or in some (now rare) cases white cotton gloves can be used. 

       @SRSRenSoc     

What's got our gloves in the twist is a thing we like to call the Mickey Mouse problem - getting our collections management hands into Disney costume ready for a show with pristine white cotton gloves. Predominantly the only time we’ve had to use white gloves is for handling photoshoots – in one job I even had a clean pair in my drawer for such occasions! While contorting yourself into an ‘object handling’ pose is a fake representation of museum work so are the cotton gloves. Collections management is a science and we use the gloves you might expect to see in a laboratory or a hospital. The difference between the stereotype of a frazzled, amateurish, secretive curator and a highly experienced museum collections professional can all be boiled down to the hands (and indeed, that's often all you see in photos of museum workers). 

It took several hours to get this shot 

But what is wrong with white gloves I hear you say? We’ll here’s our top three reasons why they are not always suitable: 

1) Can you feel it yet? The density of cotton makes it a bit more difficult to get your hands around an object without a good grip they can slip straight out of your hands (Remember the first time you broke an object?) And no press photo shoot is improved by the object in question getting smashed.

2) Wanna get dirty – you know how sweaty you get on install? Yep, imagine all of that sweat building up onto an absorbent fabric and coming through onto the object (eww). Plus they tend to look pretty dirty pretty quickly - again, not exactly great for your museum brand. 

3) Hazards bingo! If you think all that sweat can make its way out, what can make its way in? Yep, all of our favourite museum hazards can seep into your pores! It doesn't really matter how short a period you are holding the object for - even if its just for a few photos, it's not something we want to risk our lives over! 

If that’s not enough to make you want to go nitrile then ask your favourite conservator their thoughts – there’s plenty more!

  

But why nitrile?  Well my friend, they are durable, tactile non-absorbant and looks pretty freaking good with any outfit. We feel safe, the objects stay safe, conservators are happy, curators are happy - all that's left to do is spread the word! 

Purple gloves they may make you a bit clam-y but...

They look good with any outfit 

Even when they clash with your hair 

Credit: C John Chase

It took a whole day to rip these bad boys up!

They are super bright and cheerful 

They are tactile and help us do our jobs better

They are durable and protective 

and they bring professional museum work into the twenty-first century!

So are you ready to join the #purplegloveclub? We’re calling for a revolution in museums and to celebrate the wonders that are purple nitrile gloves! The more we can make the representation of these gloves the standard, the sooner we can give the cotton glove conspiracy the boot! Share your photos on insta and twitter and be sure to tag us!