The working life of Museum of London

What goes into an exhibition like this?
A project team of many people across different departments in the Museum work together on exhibitions. These are just some of the different jobs that are needed to create Outside Edge at the Museum in Docklands.

Curator
Ajamu was the external curator of the exhibition so he chose the objects, wrote the storyline, wrote the exhibition text (object captions, panels etc) and was involved at every stage to approve the designs that the Museum’s designers created. He also came up with the programme for the exhibition’s study day and helped promote the exhibition through his many contacts.

Designers
Once the storyline and the objects were finalised, the designs were produced. The Museum’s head of design, Leigh Cain, developed the design concept for the display, the layout and even decided where each object should go in each showcase. Once this was done, Jayne Davis, one of our graphic designers, worked on the look of the exhibition – what the graphics would look like, the colours that would be used and how Ajamu’s text would appear on each caption and panel.

Once the designs had been approved, the designers had to talk to the Museum’s technicians to work out how exactly the display would be built and how the objects would be mounted.

Registrars and conservators
All the objects for the display were borrowed from people outside the Museum so our registrar, Nickos Gogolos, had to arrange this – sending out loan agreements to all the lenders, making sure all the objects were insured, arranging the collection of all the objects from their owners and keeping all the documentation updated so we had accurate records of everything we borrowed.

As the objects were mainly 2D paper items (posters, flyers and magazines) Eugenie Karen, our paper conservator, was responsible for checking the condition of each item as it came in and mounting each item on special board in preparation for display. Eugenie also discussed the mounting of objects with the technicians and designers so that items could be displayed in the most attractive way possible while ensuring they would not get damaged.

Technicians and electricians
Technicians Cliff Thomas and Hilmi Nevzat built the display. They made plinths on which the showcases would stand, put up temporary walls on which to hang all the posters, graphic panels and other wall-mounted objects, made mounts for all the objects, framed all the posters and another hundred tasks besides. It’s a very important job and requires a great deal of skill and accuracy.

Andy Murray and Seniye Niazi were the electricians for the display. They put in all the lighting, wired up the gallery so the sound track for the display would play, installed a plasma screen and fitted up a listening post where visitors could listen to examples of reggae music.

Learning
Carol Seigel, our adult learning officer at Museum in Docklands, had the task of organising the Outside Edge study day, along with the curator, Ajamu. Ajamu chose all the speakers and wrote the programme for the day and Carol had to make sure that everything ran smoothly on the actual day.

Press and marketing
This team are vital for making sure that the public are aware of museum events and exhibitions. Stacey Witter, press officer, contacted newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations to promote the exhibition. We received good coverage on radio, in newspapers and magazine and in listings. Alison Parry, marketing officer, worked with Jayne Davis, the graphic designer, to produce a flyer advertising the exhibition and the study day, an email invitation for the opening launch and an exhibition web page on the Museum in Docklands website: www.museumindocklands.org.uk/outsideedge.

Special events
This team were responsible for organising the opening party, which was part of the programme of Late Openings for the Museum in Docklands, as it fell on the first Thursday of the month. Melanie Pay and Donald Mullis discussed the event with Ajamu to find out what he wanted to happen during the evening. The event was a great success – there were speeches, a DJ and a bar and over 240 people attended.

Visitor services team
The front of house staff at Museum in Docklands also had an input. They were consulted on how the exhibition should be installed as they had to close off various areas of the Museum to allow the technicians and electricians to work and so the objects could be installed in a secure area away from the public. They also were kept informed about the content of the exhibition so they could be prepared to answer visitors’ questions and make sure the exhibition operated smoothly on a daily basis.

Head of Public Programmes
Darryl McIntyre, Head of Public Programmes for the Museum of London Group (of which Museum in Docklands is a part) is ultimately in charge of all exhibitions, events and other public programmes at the Museum. He initiated the project with Ajamu and had final say on the exhibition content and how it was displayed. All the text was read and approved by him and all the proofs had to be given to him to edit for style, spelling and grammar.

Project manager
My job was to coordinate the work of everyone involved in the exhibition and make sure that everything ran according to timetable and within budget. I also helped to edit the text, checked proofs of all the graphics, sourced the film footage that played on the plasma screen and liaised with the film editor, organised the content of the listening post, helped to install the objects and even some emergency painting of the display. A lot of my time was spent writing documents (design brief, film brief etc.), emailing people, making phone calls and having meetings with various members of the project team.

By project manager Meriel Jeater (curator, Department of Early London History and Collections)

Outside Edge: a journey through black British lesbian and gay history explores the history of the black LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community in Britain, with a focus on London. It publicly commemorates people and events important to the black LGBT community, celebrates its achievements and highlights the issues it has faced in the past and still faces today. The exhibition documents the emergence of the black LGBT community from the 1970s and demonstrates its contribution to campaigns for fair representation and against homophobia, as well as celebrating the black LGBT cultural, club and music scene.

So why is a curator in the Department of Early London History project managing a display about life in modern London?
At the Museum of London our jobs can become quite flexible and members of staff often get the opportunity to become involved in projects that, on the surface, have little to do with their everyday jobs. It’s all part of staff development and gives us a chance to learn new skills, work with different people across the organisation and externally, and gain experience.

The Museum was contacted back in March 2007 by an organisation called the rukus! Federation, who wanted to put on an exhibition at the Museum in Docklands about the history of the black LGBT community, a story that is not well known and rarely covered by museums and similar institutions. Together with the Museum of London’s Head of Public Programmes (Darryl McIntyre), Ajamu, the co-founder of rukus!, wrote a proposal and a business case for the exhibition, which was approved by the Museum’s exhibitions committee. Once the concept of the exhibition had been given the green light, they needed someone at the Museum to organise the exhibition and a project team to produce it.

I was chosen as project manager and worked closely with Ajamu and the museum project team over seven months to put the exhibition together.

What goes into an exhibition like this?
A project team of many people across different departments in the Museum work together on exhibitions.

In my next post I’ll talk about some of the different ways people across the museum were involved in the project.

Below are some images of objects from the exhibition. Click to view larger versions hosted on Flickr.