Lynette Allison, Learning Manager at Colchester and Ipswich Museums, tells us all about the awesome work experience students they’ve had at the museum:
“Colchester and Ipswich Museums have been pleased to host the first of four work experience weeks scheduled for July and August. Students have worked alongside different teams to complete tasks from conservation and preservation of artefacts, to designing creating an accessible and engaging exhibition. The aim, by the end of the week, was to have developed and presented their own ‘Mini exhibition’ from object selection to public engagement! As part of their final day feedback, 2 of the students have written short articles to share with the AFSM newsletter!”
“We started off our week by meeting staff from across Ipswich and Colchester and set out our plan for the week. We worked closely with curators, Anna and Simon, to select our artefacts to be presented at the end of the week, after having had a very intriguing tour of the store. That afternoon, the Collections Information Officer helped us to navigate accession numbers, loans and history files for the museums’ objects.”
“Come the middle of the week, we had a tour of the Christchurch Mansion attic with Visitor Services and worked with them in the mansion. In addition to seeing preservation in action (tackling the moths!) we also experienced ‘hands on’ conservation with the museum’s Conservator, Bob. In the lab Bob showed us how to gently clean our chosen artefacts, the process differing to suit their needs.”
“The curators helped us to write out our captions ready for presentation to the public, and the museum’s exhibition designers allowed us to bring all our efforts together when we arranged our case composition. All four of us, on the last day, worked with the learning team whilst presenting our exhibition to the public.”
“The week’s activities were thoroughly enjoyed by all of us, and we were able to fully appreciate how much goes into what you see when you visit museums”
Georgina, 17
“On the 4th day of work experience we had the pleasure of working with the Conservator, Bob, in the conservation lab, where we cleaned and checked our chosen artefact for any dirt and cracks.”
“It was really amazing to see the depth and effort that goes into this. Bob showed us a picture of a glass vase broken into pieces and the now fixed vase, it made me realise how much time and effort it takes.”
“In the afternoon we had a meeting with the design team who helped us with the display of our artefacts. I found it very interesting because you get to see what happens in the background and it taught me that everything you see in a museum has intention in how it’s exhibited, right from the colours to the text format, which developed my understanding of museums.”
Tamanna, 15