Meeting museums

It has been a good week so far, and seeing as it is Thursday lunchtime and I'm having lunch opposite the British Library, I'm fairly hopeful it will continue that way.

On Monday I met with Lisa, the Collections Manager at the Museum of East Anglian Life at Stowmarket, to discuss how Atching Tan could contribute to a new exhibition the museum is planning. Although it is early days, we're hoping that some of the interviews that we're conducting with members of the Gypsy/Romany/Traveller community in East Anglia can be used to support the displays that they are creating about lesser known elements of life in East Anglia.

Gypsies, Romanies, and Travellers have a long history in East Anglia, but much of it is silent, so the museum is hoping to draw it out - along with the stories of other group of people who have lived on the margins of society - and make it more widely appreciated.

If we can combine artefacts with the words of people associated with them, it will make it all the more powerful. Just think how much more resonant it is to hear someone describing the people in a photograph than it is to read dry facts about them.

The new exhibition is part of a larger development at the museum, so it is going to be some time before we can enjoy it, but I'm really positive about what we might achieve together here.

I was also pleased to speak with Ely Museum, who have taken an interest in the education pack that we are developing. I'd better get back to library and write some more of it so that I have something to show to them!

Catch you next week!

- Daniela