Report on London Study Day

 
A member’s report on our London Study Day, November 2014, by Sally Ackroyd.


Once a year we have a London based event, to help bring people together from our wide region. This year we used the day to look at two very different approaches to First World War commemorations, in two very different museums.

We began at the small independent Garden Museum, where we met with the Curator of ‘Gardens at War’. He talked us through the development of that display, and how they chose to work with an floral artist to provide impact and atmosphere, making the most of their First World War collections in the space available there at the moment.  Other team members then walked us through the new plans for development of the spaces at the museum, with plenty of question and answer time.

We then walked up to the road to the Imperial War Museum for a contrasting session with staff who gave us a great insight into how they developed their new First World War galleries. We got the chance not only to talk about the specifics of how that particular project fitted in with the rest of the museum, how they made decisions re their approach and object selection, but also we discussed general themes that we all encounter when developing galleries be they large or small.

Overall an extremely thought provoking and rewarding day; contrasting museums and of course the all important discussion with colleagues about new approaches and techniques to try.