@Hannah_Museums

Hello Cultural Cheerleaders,

It’s been a little while. In fact, over a year. A little update – I’ve just celebrated my first work anniversary as a Community Curator for Tees Valley Museums. Remember when I posted updates every few weeks for the first couple of months?

I frequently think about to the times I spent on X (better known as Twitter) in my early career and the amazing communities we formed on there, and a lot of that was because I had a lot of extra time, being very part-time for a bit. As life got busier, I found myself with less time for blogging, and a few other things I used to do, but I think I might be back in my blogging era now, it takes time to adjust you know?

Anyway, I wanted to mark this moment with a little blog, because I’ve had a great year working on some really great projects with museums in the Tees Valley. I feel like I’m alway’s sharing what I get up to on Instagram – follow @Hannah.Museums if you aren’t already for more frequent content on projects etc, but for this blog I thought I’d share more about the job itself, and make this a little bit of a museum job sharing blog. So here is a bit of a Q&A based on questions I get asked about my job.

What is the role of a community curator?

As a community curator, I work with collections and communities. My work is people centred, meaning I work directly with communities, building relationships and making museum collections more accessible. My role has included elements of contemporary collecting, as well as some exhibition design.

How did I become a community curator?

If you remember one of my early posts on this platform was a repost of a video I made 4 years ago now (WHAT?) and that video spoke about the variety of work I was doing early career.
I spoke about working both back and front of house in museums, at the time I had both a collections and FOH job, and I loved the combination of the two, particularly being able to engage people with heritage and share my own passion. It was around the time I filmed this video that I was working as a project officer for a Museums Association Esmée Fairbairn project that was centred around access to collections, this meant a lot more community engagement work, and I loved it. I honestly think my dream job would be in collections access. Honestly, my dream job would be in collections access.

Where am I based?

I may be working in Tees Valley now, but a benefit of my role is that I can work remote if I have research and desk based work to do. This means that I’m able to work from home. If you didn’t already know, I live in the Newcastle area, so when I need to be in the office I commute to work. If you have any suggestions for good podcasts I can listen to in the car, let me know! Otherwise, I typically work in Stockton, meaning that I have a whole new geographical area that I’ve been exploring, and I’ve loved learning more about North East heritage.

Some reflections

This last year has flown over, I have some great colleagues, and I get to see and do so many things, the role has definitely pushed me and opened me up to trying new, creative things. All of this also means a whole year since I left Tyne & Wear Archives, I’ll forever be grateful for the people I met there, and the opportunity to get to learn more about archive work.

Looking forward to the next year of adventures, and more meaningful work.

H