Cos it’s great – the end!
No seriously, I think I am in a good position to tell you why you should join in with Museomix UK, I came to Museomix last year very reluctantly.
I really didn’t want to do Museomix in 2013, my partner had heard about the project and he coerced me into signing up. He is an engineer, a maker by trade, he has seen a call for makers to join Museomix in September last year. “Well it’s museum based and you work in the heritage sector, sounds great for you” I wasn’t sure, what if everyone was better than me, I’m not a curator, I’m not really qualified. “Just fill in the form, you might not get picked” he said, so I did. I’ll be honest I didn’t put much effort into the form, half hoping I wouldn’t get chosen! (sorry Mar!). We had to put on the form stuff we could do, and stuff we were interested in.
At some point later in time, I got an email asking me to be part of the social media and website team. Well that I could do some of that, excellent! So in November we packed our bags and headed to Shropshire, to Ironbridge. By this point I had already started to panic that everyone on the team knew what they were doing, and I didn’t, I would look daft and wouldn’t be any use.
However, within about 3 hours of arriving I didn’t have time to worry. The media team were well balanced and friendly, I could ask for help, I found myself being useful in areas I didn’t realise I had skills in. Enthusiasm in the room was high, so much stuff was going on, I was worried I’d miss something and this continued for the next 3 days. We were tired, we were busy, we were proud but most of all we were a we not a scared little me.
Sitting on my sofa the day after I thought, this must be a bit like being on Big Brother, it was intense, it was hard work, it was a learning curve, it was forming relationships in moments and you can’t really describe the experience to anyone but there is a bond with all those who were involved.
7 months on and the ball has started rolling again. Museomix taught me lots, it boosted my confidence, it gave me new ideas and goals and a whole new network of like-minded people to talk to. Museomix needs all kinds of people, not just engineers and heritage folk. They need designers, communicators, IT people, thinkers, doers, tech peeps, anyone which enthusiasm. If this sounds like you, then what are you waiting for?
http://www.museomix.org/en/call-for-participants-2014/
Custard on 