In recent weeks I have attended conferences, training workshops and social gatherings of museum professionals through GEM, Engage and Museum of London. All are good ways to meet people, discuss shared concerns and learn more about the industry. However, behind the generally cheerful countenances of my fellow muse0philes (frequently flamboyant outfits add to this joyous visage) I have noted a shared gloom whenever the words ‘funding’, ‘budget’ and, heaven forbid, ‘cuts’ break the smiling atmosphere. It’s not that museum employees are defeatists (in fact they’re often extraordinarily resourceful and frighteningly optimistic) but there’s a collective fear that all their work that they really believe in will be dissolved in the blink of a politician’s eye (the bankers have already done their part).

LangleyAcademy

In mid-May I attended the Langley Academy’s Museum School open-day ‘Curiosity, Exploration, Discovery’. The event was aimed at a host of museum delegates from all over the UK…