MA Conference thoughts.

First off, apologies for the delay - haven't been well.

OK, thoughts on the MA Conference and other events.

Great conference, good to be up in Edinburgh, the guys at the National Museums made us all very welcome, from the first evening's reception at the National Portrait Gallery to the ceilidh at the National Museum of Scotland.  Liverpool will have to go the extra mile next year, but personally, it'll be easier for me being just around the corner.  Come up with some good events, Liverpool, or I'll commute to conference next year! Save myself the expense of the hotel (Jury's Inn in my case, which was OK, room good, food average).

The keynote speakers were good on the whole, Martin Roth of the V&A and Aamer Anwar being the star turns.  Martin Roth's very dry and to the point speech and answers to questions from the floor were a particular highlight.  I thought that both of those keynotes were saying a lot of what David Anderson of Amgueddfa Cymru was leading on, the need for museums to be aware of social justice issues. It was good to go to those events and find more Welsh delegates, especially Morrigan and Laura from Bodelwyddan Castle - and Lesley-Anne from CyMAL who is, after all my AMA Mentor.

The first keynote by Fiona Hyslop was a bit political for most, judging from what I'd overheard form delegates leaving the hall afterwards.  A little less overt politicking in favour of the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum would have been nice and a bit more concentrating on the issues confronting museums here and now would have been more welcome.  Having said that, expect more of the same in Cardiff in 2014 when Conference is there, but a bit more subtle, pointing out differences between Westminster and Cardiff Bay.  We're a long way from an independence referendum here in Wales.  Then again if the Scots do go their own way...  Wales will still probably stay in the Union for the foreseeable future. Either way, on the day we were not there to be addressed like a constituency meeting and from my observations many resented the fact that we were.

Anyway, back to the themes. David Anderson's sessions, especially the "Save the Children" on Thursday afternoon were good on highlighting the possibilities for museums in tackling the social justice agenda.  Will Morecombe from Rhyl Adventure Playground (RAPA) and myself went down to Cardiff in March to do a presentation on our involvement in Communities First areas and partnership working, so I was aware of some of the issues raised by David and Huw Lewis, Welsh heritage minister (who also spoke at the Cardiff event).  Living in Rhyl, I'm well aware of the problems of child poverty and cultural poverty in the area - it's certainly something that museums can work on.  At Rhyl, when I was with Denbighshire we worked with communities in creating exhibitions to express their views of their community and follow up with outreach events.  It's one of those areas where with the right eyes you see a whole range of possibilities.  OK, a cliché, but it is seeing a challenge rather than a problem. 

The other sessions I went to were mostly about education and play.  It was nice - and unexpected, I admit - on Friday night to find someone coming to speak to me: Dea Birkett of Kids in Museums. I was involved in KiM events with Denbighshire. It's a great cause and an ideal opportunity.  It was good to catch up with Dea.  It made me think about Llangollen Museum where I'm currently working.  There is one alcove (the building is a 16-sided (!) 1980s building, former library) that is the children's section, with books, toys and dressing up. I was wondering if it could be otherwise used - a bit of creative thinking sees the whole museum as the children's section.  Why not make costumes available at the door?  Why not have the needs of children catered to throughout the displays, not pushed into a corner which can be little more than a crèche?  Hopefully, with the upcoming Sharing Treasures project with the National Museum of Wales that Llangollen are involved with, this might be a possibility.  

More thoughts to come, hopefully, but really a Conference to set the mind into overdrive.  Always come home with pages of notes and ideas buzzing...