‘At the Frontier’ 2011 Museums Australia Conference

This year the Museum Australia Conference provided me with an opportunity to catch up on what’s been going on in the sector but also to visit Perth for the first time. The conference name was inspired in part by Perth being one of the most isolated cities in the world but I didn't realise how isolated it was until I realised the trip to Perth was longer than the flight to Wellington. Travelling by day over Western Australia much of the time was taken up looking out the window at the huge tracts of empty country. Every now and again however we could see signs of human habitation like the straight lines of the roads and pits of the odd mining or farming operations like this one.

The conference itself was in the new State theatre located in the cities cultural hub which consisted of the W.A. Museum, the State Library, art galleries and the University of Technology. All of this equalled a nice range of good coffee and pubs for after conference activities within walking distance of the conference. The first keynotes started on the Tuesday morning with a wonderful welcome directed by Trevor Walley on behalf of the Noongarpeoples.

There followed a series of key note talks. The first of which was by John Holden from City University London who as a member of the UK Cultural Think Tank DEMOS, talked about cultural leadership and highlighted some of the challenges facing museums in the way they deliver content. Holden suggested that before 1995 it was a small social group who mainly enjoyed the art and museums and that this group defined the cultural products these institutions produced as being superior to other cultural products. To exist this elite could not rely on commercial models to get enough people through the doors and relied heavily on government support.

On the other side of the coin Holden placed Pop Culture, music, car shows, film etc which could survive as commercial entities. In fact he suggested that this the elite felt adoption of pop culture forms actually dumbed down culture approved for heritage institutions. However both high and pop models shared something in common and that was their reliance on gatekeepers to only open the doors to approved forms of art (it fact it all sounds very like curatorial models once in place in many museums). The example Holden used was pop music controlled and marketed by an elite in much the same way as Art galleries controlled the art business.

1995, according to Holden, marked a turning point after which a third culture, consisting of home-made music, amateur theatre and choirs, and craft,s began to take up a life of their own and their products increasingly started to infiltrate the cultural sector. Leadership has been forced to acknowledge this new wave and increasingly this has seen the boundaries between high, pop and home-made works become blurred. People increasingly can make their own judgements on what they like, while technology has put the means of producing work into the hands of more people than ever before.

As a result Holden believes cultural institutions and leadership must encourage the home grown and regional as much as the urban and elite.

Another highlight was the upfront and forthright talk by Kylie Winkworth and Alison Russell. I was surprised at Winkworth's claim that Australia had more museums per head than any other country in the world, 1 museum for every 7,500 people, but she went on to explain how many of these were small privately run affairs spread across the length and breadth of an already scarcely populated country. Winkworth and Russell's questioning of the sustainability of this sector given this large numberwas posited in relation to the kinds of standards expected of professional in the sector. She suggested that perhaps a 'diet' was required to ensure the funding was not so dispersed. But as she has pointed out elsewhere ... “Museum-making in regional Australia is based on a deep attachment to place and it is an expression of community self-belief. It is not just about celebrating the achievements of the past, but believing in the future.” 

I wasn't sure how I felt about this but after managing the Collections Australia Network over the past year I feel that perhaps it would be best not to tamper too much with the current arrangement. I say this mainly because I feel that anyone who wants to start a museum, historical society, gallery or heritage home should not be constrained by too many barriers. I understand that this does lead to a certain amount of inconstancy across the sector but at the same time this the egalitarian approach also allows for many different approaches and we are never going to be able to preserve everything to the standards and protocols set by large professional institutions. However this questioning talk stimulated a vigorous set of questions and was I think one of the more thought provoking sessions of the conference.

This talk was followed up neatly by Laura Miles who outlined Museums Australia's accreditation guidelines and how this could help direct funding once adopted by smaller to middle sized museums. Laura also pointed out how these could be used in conjunction with the newly released MA National standards committee, Museum standards. National Accreditation schemes can also be seen at UK Accreditation and American Association of Museum Accreditation

Sometime at a conference you serendipitously watch a talk which gives you a surprising insight into the museum sector. This was certainly the case with Andy Greenwood's excellent talk on managing the costs of life planning for exhibition technology. Andy talked about his work at Museums Victoria in developing databases outlining the electrical and replacement costs associated with the various lighting environments associated with exhibitions. To do this Andy metered power consumption over the lifespan of various lights and other technologies and entered all of this info into a database. This has enabled the Museum to now factor all these costs into the exhibition development process. I couldn't help but think how useful it would be if Andy made this data available to others in the industry? When asked about LED lighting Greenwood felt the industry was not developed enough to replace traditional lighting methods mainly due to the inconsistency in the production. One of the other areas I thought may be good for a follow up was the use of smart sensors embedded into the infrastructure of the museum to monitor electricity and redundancy – not sure how much take up there has been of this in museum due to costs but certainly got me thinking.

Another inspirational presentation was Peta Knott's talk on the new Victorian Collections a new database currently in beta which will allow users to upload their collection data into a shared online database. This software was developed on the back of what used to be Collectish which was managed by Museums Victoria. This new use of the project seems like a great modification and comes with the added bonus of Peta who is able to travel and offer assistance in getting started with the software.

I enjoyed the addition on the stage of some of the art work of cloth and other material draped over ladders and chairs and it provided the perfect backdrop for Susan Cross's talk on how stories can be used to bridge experiences. Susans was an excellent raconteur and perhaps because of this my notes are a little sketchy but the main points about making content were as follows:

• Characters are key to engagement but you also need a cracking beginning and end
• Use language carefully to vary the pace and uses pauses to create a tone for the story or the character.
• The contagious nature of stories is the silver bullet of interpretation. Without repetition and discussion the value of the story is reduced.
• Storytellers need to watch their audience and respond to feedback to develop stories that work.
• “interpretelling” you need to respect and have command of the content if you don't, don't tell your story.l

The session I was in on Thursday was great fun and rather than write another summary its probably easier to visit Stephanie Rosestone's blog post which does a great job already, in fact she has done a great job on posting for the four days and I would suggest looking at all of Stephanie's conference posts. However I would like to add that during the question time I was interested to note how the three presenters, Michael Harvey (Australian Museum) Michelle Stevenson (Museum Victoria) and myself (Powerhouse Museum) all had adopted quite different approaches to the use of social media based on the guidelines of each of the institution.

Lastly I would just like to add how inspired I was by the final keynote presentation This was Professor Peter Read's paper on Museums and National Reconciliation which looked at state crime and state punishment in Chile and Australia. I was particularly taken with his descriptions of how people had occupied and claimed ownership of the torture houses in the centre of the city in the wake of the dictator's removal and then how the state had then inserted its more sanitised and and euphemistic versions of the role of these houses once they were turned into museums. It was a timely reminder, especially in the wake of John Holden's talk on the need for museums to accept, and participate more, with more home-made product from the broader community and also loosen some of the constraints on content producers employed in museums to personify their own products.

My flight back was the red-eye which left at 11.00pm on Friday so I had an opportunity to have a bit of a look around Perth before getting on the oversight and arriving back in Sydney at 6.00 am the next day to a very quiet and slow Saturday at home. Finally - to all the organisers and volunteers who were so welcoming and so happy to assist – THANK YOU