Experiments in Public Curation
Today I ran two public sessions at the University of Nottingham Museum entitled "Curating Celtic Coins". These were bookable (but free) sessions, aimed at public attendees aged 14 or over. The blurb invited people to come and 'help the museum curate its collection of Iron Age coins'.
These sessions were an experiment - something which I hadn't really tried before, and I was rather nervous about how they would be received! I was concerned that the sessions may be dull, or too complicated, such that people might be either bored or frustrated by what I was asking them to do.
I structured the sessions in 3 sections. Firstly we met in the museum and I gave a quick introduction to the overall collection, followed by a brief run-down of the history of coinage in the British Iron Age; Secondly we moved into the collections room where I gave a short talk explaining what we mean by 'curation', and outlining the processes which museums undertake to curate their collections; Finally, after a short break (and a bit of furniture rearrangement!) I brought out some Iron Age coins, together with books, magnifiers, scales, measuring calipers, recording sheets, pens and pencils, and invited people to identify and research the coins. There were original coins as well as replicas and casts, and the attendees had access to the museum's computer database and the internet, as well as the books. In addition I offered the chance to do some interpretative work, including researching the context of the coins (such as the tribes and rulers represented, or the British Iron Age in general) and producing written information, or responding to the coins in a creative way, through poetry or drawing.
I should point out that these coins had previously only been catalogued to a very basic level, and had not been closely identified. Therefore there was a real sense that the research which the attendees were doing was original and valuable to museum. I confirmed that I will be adding all the information which they provided to the museum database.
I found that people seemed generally interested in my introductory section, and there were varied responses to my talk about museum curation; although no-one complained, a few people seemed less engaged in this part of the session, while conversely some attendees were very interested and asked a number of questions. One attendee even asked if I could develop this section into a talk which I could present to the local numismatic society as he feels that many of their members would be interested, and would find details of how museums work both useful and novel.
The practical part of the session was the most popular and produced a real buzz of excitement at both sessions. People were generally able to identify the coins using the books, in some cases to the level of providing reference numbers relating to the British Museum catalogue. Even where this level of detail was not possible we managed to identify the coins to tribal level, and the attendees seemed almost equally satisfied with this as with the closer identifications. A number of the people who attended these sessions told me that they had been enthused by the study of coins in a way that they hadn't really considered before, which was very satisfying for me! Hopefully I've created a whole set of new potential numismatists!
However, it was notable that the attendees didn't really make use of the digital resources (neither the computer database nor the internet), and no-one did any contextual research or interpretative responses. It may be that given more time, or a more structured approach to this aspect, people might have been more engaged with that process but as it stood this offer was not taken up. It should also be noted that the coins which I selected for use in the sessions were the more legible of the ones in the store!
Some concluding thoughts, therefore:
People are interested in 'behind-the-scenes' details of how museums work and how they curate their collections
The public can be very engaged by the process of object identification, and can produce high quality information which is of real use to the museum
A longer, more structured session may encourage people to undertake more different aspects of museum curation, including updating database documentation, research and creation of interpretative material
If the session was longer, and more complex, it might be easier to bring in some of the more tricky objects!
This approach to engagement with coins in museums is certainly worth further development (and as such could be usefully considered as part of my PhD project)
