Swansea’s Amgueddfa Genedlaethol y Glannau (National Waterfront Museum) will celebrate its 10th anniversary in October, which is giving Steph Mastoris, its head, the chance to take stock.
As well as thinking about past achievements he is also looking forward to how the museum, which is part of Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales), might develop over the next 10 years.
When the National Waterfront Museum opened in 2005, it quickly became known for its innovative and ambitious use of digital technology to enhance the displays and add depth to the visitor experience.
“I think it is a really interesting example of a bold attempt to do something different, and it has survived well,” Mastoris says.
“When we first started we said that after five years we were going to have to rip some of it out. But this was not the case. Although it’s not whizzo in terms of what you can get even on your smartphone today, it’s still, compared with a lot of museums, a very high spec, slick approach to interactive interpretation.”
As well as being important from a technology point of view, the National Waterfront Museum was also a significant development for Swansea and its regeneration.
The scheme was unusual in that it was a partnership with the City and County of Swansea and National Museum Wales. As such, the museum has a local, regional and national remit.
The museum is also different to many other industrial museums in the UK. It’s not one of the breed of large open-air sites or one of the venues where you can experience an activity first-hand, such as going down a mine.
The focus at the National Waterfront Museum is on using the displays to show the impact that the development of industry and technology has had on the people of Wales.
Mastoris has worked within the social history field since his first job at Nottingham City Museums in the late 1970s. “The social history museums that grew up from the late 1960s and early 1970s dealt with the stuff in museum collections that nobody else really wanted,” Mastoris says.
“They weren’t archaeology, they weren’t fine art, they weren’t decorative art, they weren’t natural sciences.
“By the late 1970s they were developing what we would recognise today as the human history approach to interpretation,” he continues.
“What actually mattered was not so much the artefact per se but what it meant to the viewer and the stories it told. Museum interpretation for virtually every other type of museum has sort of followed that in some way.”
Mastoris has been involved in supporting this approach to museum interpretation through the Social History Curators Group and the Society for Folk Life Studies.
He says that membership of professional bodies is important to him, as is his role as a mentor for professional development schemes such as the Associateship of the Museums Association and Skills for the Future.
“I’ve been involved in professional development for many years, and it has been very interesting to see how each semi- generation is coming through,” he says. “I still enjoy that because it keeps me grounded in the problems as well as the interests, concerns and skills that are around in the new people coming into the profession.
“And supporting organisations such as the Social History Curators Group is a really useful way for me to keep in touch with everything because I do think that there’s a danger that managing museums is such an all-embracing job that you can sort of forget why you’re there.”
Mastoris spent nearly 10 years at Nottingham City Museums, before moving to Leicestershire Museums as the keeper of the Harborough Museum. He later became the curator of Snibston, also part of Leicestershire Museums, before moving to the National Waterfront Museum in 2004.
“All the time I thank my lucky stars – I’ve been extremely fortunate in my career,” Mastoris says. “It was an opportunity of a lifetime to open a new museum and take it forward with a completely new team. And I’m still having fun and that sense of excitement is still there.”
A lot of the early work at the museum was about experimenting with different activities and events and seeing what worked in the spaces.
“We adopted a mantra that was we’ll try anything once so long as it’s legal and safe. And there was this idea of putting the museum onto people’s agendas as a place to visit regularly, not as a unique occasion, but as somewhere you can drop into.”
The museum’s business plan suggested that it should be getting about 200,000 people through the door each year and it has regularly achieved 250,000 to 270,000. The events and activities are important in attracting people as is the temporary exhibitions programme.
Last month, for example, it opened From Pithead to Sick Bed and Beyond, which explores how disabled people were treated and viewed in the mining industry and the south Wales communities that relied on it.
Looking forward, Mastoris says the aim is to build on the museum’s successes rather than make any huge changes. He says that it could do with a bit more space, particularly to display art that relates to industry, and that the IT will need upgrading at some point.
He is also looking at how the museum can do more to make its digital material available to people off-site. And staff development will also continue to be a vital part of the museum’s ongoing strategy.
More generally, Mastoris says that free access is really important in attracting a broad range of people and repeat visits.
“I had a very happy childhood in Cardiff, and it was the national museum along with the city library, which were the two most formative influences on my life,” he says. “I remember when they introduced charging for the first time and it was a major blow for me as I couldn’t afford to go.”
“The current Welsh government’s policy on free access is so important. At the museum we’ve evolved the offer in terms of temporary exhibitions, events and other activities and that programme has really expanded. And I think that’s kept the offer fresh, which means that people do come back again and again.”
The original idea was that the museum wouldn’t have a temporary exhibition space and all the changes would be delivered through using the technology in the displays or from major refreshes of the core galleries. But Mastoris says he and his team quickly realised that the permanent exhibitions would not be great for attracting repeat visitors, particularly from its local audience.
Access for all is a key agenda for National Museum Wales, including at the waterfront museum. And this fits in well with the broader aims of the government in Wales, which recently commissioned Kay Andrews to produce a report looking at how cultural and heritage bodies could work together to broaden access to culture in ways that help to reduce the impact of poverty on people.
“Swansea is very friendly and there’s a lot going on but it has a post-industrial legacy that is difficult,” Mastoris says. “A lot of wards here are heavily deprived, and the city council, the national museum and Welsh government are very interested in how cultural organisations can help to combat that.”
Andrews’ Culture and Poverty report was launched at the National Waterfront Museum and Mastoris feels it is a good document to work with.
“It’s so easy to go out to a community and do an event or even a series of events that is not sustainable,” Mastoris says. “To me, if I was in one of those communities, I’d think I don’t want to get involved with any of this because this was not going to last.
“I’m interested in making sure that we can sustain the contacts we make in a community. The key thing is working with the bodies like the Communities First organisations within the local council or within Welsh government or in the charitable sector. Museum people love to go off and do their own thing, but it’s much better to work in partnership with the people who are embedded in those communities already.”
For now, Mastoris is looking forward to October when he will celebrate the museum’s achievements over the past decade, while also thinking about what it might be able to achieve during the next 10 years.
Steph Mastoris started his career as a documentary historian at Nottingham City Museums in 1978.
He joined Leicestershire Museums in 1987 as the keeper of the Harborough Museum. In 1995 he was appointed curator of Snibston, a site in the former coalmining town of Coalville, also part of Leicestershire Museums.
Mastoris became the head of Amgueddfa Genedlaethol y Glannau (National Waterfront Museum), Swansea, in 2004.
The National Waterfront Museum in Swansea opened in October 2005. The museum, which tells the human story of industry and innovation in Wales during the past 300 years, is one of seven museums run by Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales). The building was designed by architect Wilkinson Eyre and Land Design Studio was responsible for the exhibition fit-out.
The development of the museum was supported by grants from the Welsh Government and especially the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The museum’s interactive galleries include displays looking at Transport, Materials and Networks and other areas covering People, Communities and Organisations.
As well as thinking about past achievements he is also looking forward to how the museum, which is part of Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales), might develop over the next 10 years.
When the National Waterfront Museum opened in 2005, it quickly became known for its innovative and ambitious use of digital technology to enhance the displays and add depth to the visitor experience.
“I think it is a really interesting example of a bold attempt to do something different, and it has survived well,” Mastoris says.
“When we first started we said that after five years we were going to have to rip some of it out. But this was not the case. Although it’s not whizzo in terms of what you can get even on your smartphone today, it’s still, compared with a lot of museums, a very high spec, slick approach to interactive interpretation.”
As well as being important from a technology point of view, the National Waterfront Museum was also a significant development for Swansea and its regeneration.
The scheme was unusual in that it was a partnership with the City and County of Swansea and National Museum Wales. As such, the museum has a local, regional and national remit.
The museum is also different to many other industrial museums in the UK. It’s not one of the breed of large open-air sites or one of the venues where you can experience an activity first-hand, such as going down a mine.
The focus at the National Waterfront Museum is on using the displays to show the impact that the development of industry and technology has had on the people of Wales.
Mastoris has worked within the social history field since his first job at Nottingham City Museums in the late 1970s. “The social history museums that grew up from the late 1960s and early 1970s dealt with the stuff in museum collections that nobody else really wanted,” Mastoris says.
“They weren’t archaeology, they weren’t fine art, they weren’t decorative art, they weren’t natural sciences.
“By the late 1970s they were developing what we would recognise today as the human history approach to interpretation,” he continues.
“What actually mattered was not so much the artefact per se but what it meant to the viewer and the stories it told. Museum interpretation for virtually every other type of museum has sort of followed that in some way.”
Mastoris has been involved in supporting this approach to museum interpretation through the Social History Curators Group and the Society for Folk Life Studies.
He says that membership of professional bodies is important to him, as is his role as a mentor for professional development schemes such as the Associateship of the Museums Association and Skills for the Future.
“I’ve been involved in professional development for many years, and it has been very interesting to see how each semi- generation is coming through,” he says. “I still enjoy that because it keeps me grounded in the problems as well as the interests, concerns and skills that are around in the new people coming into the profession.
“And supporting organisations such as the Social History Curators Group is a really useful way for me to keep in touch with everything because I do think that there’s a danger that managing museums is such an all-embracing job that you can sort of forget why you’re there.”
Mastoris spent nearly 10 years at Nottingham City Museums, before moving to Leicestershire Museums as the keeper of the Harborough Museum. He later became the curator of Snibston, also part of Leicestershire Museums, before moving to the National Waterfront Museum in 2004.
“All the time I thank my lucky stars – I’ve been extremely fortunate in my career,” Mastoris says. “It was an opportunity of a lifetime to open a new museum and take it forward with a completely new team. And I’m still having fun and that sense of excitement is still there.”
A lot of the early work at the museum was about experimenting with different activities and events and seeing what worked in the spaces.
“We adopted a mantra that was we’ll try anything once so long as it’s legal and safe. And there was this idea of putting the museum onto people’s agendas as a place to visit regularly, not as a unique occasion, but as somewhere you can drop into.”
The museum’s business plan suggested that it should be getting about 200,000 people through the door each year and it has regularly achieved 250,000 to 270,000. The events and activities are important in attracting people as is the temporary exhibitions programme.
Last month, for example, it opened From Pithead to Sick Bed and Beyond, which explores how disabled people were treated and viewed in the mining industry and the south Wales communities that relied on it.
Looking forward, Mastoris says the aim is to build on the museum’s successes rather than make any huge changes. He says that it could do with a bit more space, particularly to display art that relates to industry, and that the IT will need upgrading at some point.
He is also looking at how the museum can do more to make its digital material available to people off-site. And staff development will also continue to be a vital part of the museum’s ongoing strategy.
More generally, Mastoris says that free access is really important in attracting a broad range of people and repeat visits.
“I had a very happy childhood in Cardiff, and it was the national museum along with the city library, which were the two most formative influences on my life,” he says. “I remember when they introduced charging for the first time and it was a major blow for me as I couldn’t afford to go.”
“The current Welsh government’s policy on free access is so important. At the museum we’ve evolved the offer in terms of temporary exhibitions, events and other activities and that programme has really expanded. And I think that’s kept the offer fresh, which means that people do come back again and again.”
The original idea was that the museum wouldn’t have a temporary exhibition space and all the changes would be delivered through using the technology in the displays or from major refreshes of the core galleries. But Mastoris says he and his team quickly realised that the permanent exhibitions would not be great for attracting repeat visitors, particularly from its local audience.
Access for all is a key agenda for National Museum Wales, including at the waterfront museum. And this fits in well with the broader aims of the government in Wales, which recently commissioned Kay Andrews to produce a report looking at how cultural and heritage bodies could work together to broaden access to culture in ways that help to reduce the impact of poverty on people.
“Swansea is very friendly and there’s a lot going on but it has a post-industrial legacy that is difficult,” Mastoris says. “A lot of wards here are heavily deprived, and the city council, the national museum and Welsh government are very interested in how cultural organisations can help to combat that.”
Andrews’ Culture and Poverty report was launched at the National Waterfront Museum and Mastoris feels it is a good document to work with.
“It’s so easy to go out to a community and do an event or even a series of events that is not sustainable,” Mastoris says. “To me, if I was in one of those communities, I’d think I don’t want to get involved with any of this because this was not going to last.
“I’m interested in making sure that we can sustain the contacts we make in a community. The key thing is working with the bodies like the Communities First organisations within the local council or within Welsh government or in the charitable sector. Museum people love to go off and do their own thing, but it’s much better to work in partnership with the people who are embedded in those communities already.”
For now, Mastoris is looking forward to October when he will celebrate the museum’s achievements over the past decade, while also thinking about what it might be able to achieve during the next 10 years.
Steph Mastoris at a glance
Steph Mastoris started his career as a documentary historian at Nottingham City Museums in 1978.
He joined Leicestershire Museums in 1987 as the keeper of the Harborough Museum. In 1995 he was appointed curator of Snibston, a site in the former coalmining town of Coalville, also part of Leicestershire Museums.
Mastoris became the head of Amgueddfa Genedlaethol y Glannau (National Waterfront Museum), Swansea, in 2004.
National Waterfront Museum at a glance
The National Waterfront Museum in Swansea opened in October 2005. The museum, which tells the human story of industry and innovation in Wales during the past 300 years, is one of seven museums run by Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales). The building was designed by architect Wilkinson Eyre and Land Design Studio was responsible for the exhibition fit-out.
The development of the museum was supported by grants from the Welsh Government and especially the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The museum’s interactive galleries include displays looking at Transport, Materials and Networks and other areas covering People, Communities and Organisations.
