The working life of Museum of London

This week Mia asked me what does a typical week look like for me in my job. It got me thinking, now how do I actually explain what I do? My family and friends often ask me and I cannot explain that it is about legal compliance and stuff like that. Because they’ll say - now what exactly do you mean?

Now you’d think working for a museum means sitting in a stuffy place whole day. No, that is indeed far from the truth, because museums are about people out there (about you as readers and where you are) and getting to know more about you and other Londoners and inviting you to “own” this museum where we work for you and in your interests. But that also means that I do a lot of work with my colleagues inside the walls of the museum building.

I am very busy and do many interesting things. For example, I am at the moment arranging a lot of meetings with colleagues for one to one discussions on their progress with making equality and diversity happen in their departments. For example, last week the Head of Design (she puts up exhibitions that make breaking news on television) and I discussed how to bring in more volunteers from Black and Ethnic minorities and disabled people for training into her department where these communities are severely under-represented in museums in the UK. So we worked on a plan and agreed on a strategy to make this happen. I gave her some advice (where she can find the money and support for this ) and promised to be there for her to help her in achieving this as an important milestone for her department.

Sometimes, the solutions come as we speak and work and plan together. For example, another colleague of mine (who manages about 1 million urban objects - the largest in the world) and I got this idea that we could work with the Police Department to promote the importance of Archaeology skills in every day life of solving crimes, for example! His department already works very successfully with volunteers and vulnerable adults. So the two of us and his department are currently thinking through a plan for this for youth, especially London boys from cultural backgrounds that have been excluded from heritage.

I also established a relationship with the Diversity Manager of SOAS who is a disability champion and she has told me that SOAS serves a community of 400 languages; so we can see how we can strengthen a partnership that will attract more Londoners to come work for us. I also work on LGBT issues with the Tower Hamlets Council and have shared with our head of Schools and Learning, the “Schools Out” project, which is about working on sexuality issues with schools.

And, oops just got an email from a colleague in Press and Marketing who has come up with this absolutely fascinating idea of addressing new ideas about beauty in our London, Sugar and Slavery gallery! Now I’ve just been talking about this with a colleague who sits next to me works in the fashion industry, and she is very excited. Because you see there are still people who think women from Africa are ugly and research shows that this affects their chances to get work and be treated fairly. And did you know that we talk about these things in our London, Sugar and Slavery gallery at Museum in Docklands which you must go see! Now International Women’s Day is coming up next year in March, the archaeologists are arranging something exciting around objects found in London and what the diverse women around the world think of them…and then we may also have a new take on beauty and women. A fashion show perhaps? Or perhaps a fashion design workshop? What do you think? Want to come along?