In the fast lane

For someone who has spent much of her career working in museums that are half-way up mountains, Joanne Orr might not seem ideally suited to an office job. But the CEO of Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) says she tries hard not to be tied to her desk.

"I do miss the hands-on collections a little bit, but in this job you do get to visit museums a lot and listen to people's concerns - I try to get out there as much as I can."

As a self-confessed adrenaline junkie, she also enjoys getting out and about in her spare time. "I went from the potholing to the diving, now it's the motorbikes," she says. "Sometimes you have to take a risk. In my career I have taken risks and jumped into things. Sometimes it goes wrong, but you dust yourself down and get on with it."

Museums Galleries Scotland is a membership body that provides funding, advocacy and development advice for about 340 museums and galleries. Orr joined the organisation, which was then called the Scottish Museums Council, in 2004 after a varied career in Scotland and England.

"Industrial heritage has always been an interest and I think I got into that through caving. I used to do a lot of pot-holing, which included exploring old mines, and a did a dissertation on lead-mining in Derbyshire."

This interest led to a postgraduate degree in industrial archaeology at Ironbridge Gorge Museum in Shropshire. This experience was then used to secure a job at Wanlockhead, a Scottish lead-mining museum in a Lanarkshire village. It is an isolated area located nearly 500 metres above sea-level and it still gets cut off by snow.

"I was probably the most well-qualified person for the job but the only one stupid enough to do it," Orr says. "I remember the interview; there was a snowstorm and a power cut and we were trapped."

Undeterred by the experience, Orr took the job and moved her family up there. She stayed seven years during which time she redeveloped the museum, which won a Gulbenkian award for most improved rural museum in Britain in 1993.

"I did not really have any staff, just a couple of people taking tickets, so I really learned my trade there. I learned to fundraise, about catering, about shops, about everything; it was a fantastic opportunity. For anybody starting out, I would say that if you do get a job in a small museum you often learn an awful lot."

During her time at Wanlockhead, Orr also became involved in consultancy work and developed a five-year plan for the redevelopment of a salt-mining museum in Poland. She later left Wanlockhead to work at a museum in Dalmellington, a town in Ayrshire with a large former coal mine.

"Mining communities tend to be very male-dominated, so you have to work hard to be heard and be respected for your work," Orr says.

Orr's next job as the director of Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle provided a different set of challenges. "Moving to Carlisle, to a new, high-profile job with three young children to support as a single mum was very challenging but we survived."

The job at Tullie House also provided a new set of professional challenges. There was a big redevelopment, foot and mouth disease and having to adapt to working for a local council after ten years in independent museums.

"The transition to a local authority culture was quite challenging. It is more constrained and there is a set way of behaving. I had been on a mountain, working on industrial sites, marching down the mine, where if you had an idea you just went and did it. At the time it was really difficult, but it was good for me to go through that process."

The experience of working for a local authority can not have been that bad, as Orr left Carlisle in 2002 to become became assistant director of cultural services at Durham county council. This job widened her experience further and even extended to responsibility for prison libraries.

"By this time I'd had a really broad career, so when the job came up at MGS (then SMC), it was a real opportunity to match my expertise with what was needed here."

Since Orr joined the SMC in 2004 the organisation has relocated, restructured and rebranded to become MGS. She believes it is now in good shape to support its members.

The MGS is an independent charitable trust operated on a membership basis, but one that gets most of its funding from government. It also channels government money through schemes such as Recognition, which supports nationally recognised collections cared for by non-national museums.

"I think the size and model we have is working well for Scotland. We have that base of 340 museums and we work really closely with them and put a lot of effort into maintaining and developing that relationship."

Orr also believes that devolution has helped Scottish museums, not least in getting access to ministers who are starting to recognise how important museums are within communities.

Someone working for a Scottish local authority museums service, who prefers not to be named, says MGS's identity seems to be becoming less clear as it develops into more of a political organisation and he also says there are worries over the transparency of Recognition. But overall, he feels the MGS supports its membership well and Orr is doing a very good job.

The MGS is currently reviewing the services it provides for members and how they are delivered. Another thing that might have an impact on its work is the development of a national policy for museums, which was called for in June by culture minister Michael Russell.

"All portfolios are facing cuts but we are a small portfolio so hopefully won't lose a huge tranche. We have to articulate the case that the sector can impact on lots of other portfolios and if we can do that through a champion such as Michael Russell, then maybe we can pull in funding from other departments."

Orr is confident that the recession won't hit museums too hard. "It means tough times for a lot of people but it is also a time of opportunity. I'm a glass half-full person, ever the optimist. With a bit of creativity you can usually come up with something."