If short-term contracts are so good, put senior managers on them
Having read Felicity Heywood's article, I am amazed at the views stated by some senior managers. So Rita McLean says short-term contracts are not a problem and that they encourage creativity?
This is surely hypocrisy at the highest level, unless she is also on short-term contract. And if such contracts are so good for lower-ranking staff, then they should be replicated at the highest levels.
One member of the South West hub believes such contracts to be a "fact of life". Does this mean they should be seen as a good thing? No, it doesn't.
I worked in the NHS when the first attempts to reduce junior doctors' working hours were introduced. I remember senior consultants and managers saying 100-hour weeks were a "fact of life", that junior doctors enjoyed working them and they encouraged better performance. When I see senior museum managers claiming that poor employment conditions are a good thing, I am reminded of those times.
There is always talk in the museum sector of the need for "21st-century museums" and for staff to change the way they do things to achieve this. Perhaps it is time for a new campaign to modernise employment practices. It should not be acceptable in the 21st century for a profession to be based on short-term contracts and all the uncertainties they entail.
We can no longer expect young people coming into the sector to give up their social wellbeing for the job nor, if we are to diversify the workforce in the way we are told we need to, can we expect them either to live in poverty or rely on families or partners to support them in gaps in contracts.
Jason Finch, London
Short-term solutions
Fixed term contracts are probably the worst threat to the heritage industry that it currently faces. Obviously it is terrible for people trying to plan career development or bring up a family to have to chase around for a new contract, move home or leave the profession temporarily (or permanently) every two or three years.
Has anyone worked out the "casualty rate" of people dropping out of the profession as their contracts expire with so few opportunities to be seen in the jobs pages of Museums Journal?
However it is not just the problems faced by those struggling from contract to contract never getting more then the average national salary that are the real issue for the industry. Museum and Archive work is the ultimate knowledge based industry.
A curator is only as good as their knowledge of their specific collection. I would say that it takes even the best of us between three-to-five years to become even competent in a new job let alone to be able to provide the sort of in-depth knowledge and expertise that the public expect from us and are right to expect from us.
There has been an argument about whether the drive for accessibility has "dumbed down" the content of our museums. I would argue that the more frightening question is whether the lack of knowledge in our professionals has dumbed down the content of our museums.
The knowledge needed to present complex ideas and issues in an accessible form is the real deal for testing our professional skills.
Anyone can regurgitate a learned academic work as a "book on the wall" but it takes real understanding based on years of personal study to pick out the really important points and present them in a concise, jargon-free way that offers education and entertainment to as wide a range of visitors as possible.
All too often accessibility is used as a smokescreen for our inability to do anything more than state the obvious and repeat unquestioningly the contents of the Shire beginners guide to the subject in hand because we just don't know what our collections have in them or what they can tell us.
This situation is getting worse and worse because of fixed-term contracts and short-termism, the blight of our industry.
Erik Blakeley, curator, Staffordshire Regiment Museum
A wealth of history
Felicity Heywood highlights some of the long-term questions that were raised for the heritage sector during the 2007 Bicentenary of the Parliamentary abolition of the British transatlantic slave trade. In particular what do we know about the impact of the slave trade and plantation wealth on the development of the historic environment in Britain?
English Heritage and the National Trust are proud to be presenting, in partnership with the University of the West of England, a day conference Slavery and the British Country House: Mapping Current Research on 21 November.
Building on important new research in this area, the conference will promote wider public understanding of the many ways in which the fortunes of the landed elite and their country houses were intertwined with slavery and the slave trade. Nick Draper from University College London's research project, cited by Heywood, will be among the speakers.
New research from Nottingham and Manchester universities on four houses in the care of English Heritage will also be launched at the conference. We welcome this engagement between academic researchers and heritage bodies. The question we need to ask next may be - when we have the facts, how do we present them effectively?
Rachel Hasted, head, social inclusion policy, English Heritage, and Heather Smith, head, access for all, National Trust
Photo opportunity
I was disappointed to note that the photo captions in the profile of Joanne Orr, chief executive of Museums Galleries Scotland, did not mention that they were taken at Prestongrange Museum, part of East Lothian Council Museums Service.
Never shy of a bit of good publicity we were delighted when Joanne decided to have her profile picture taken here, so it would be great if you could include the following information.
Prestongrange tells the story of East Lothian's industrial heritage, including coal mining, salt panning, brick making and potteries. A site of varied and fascinating history Prestongrange is also home to a Cornish Beam Engine, unique in Scotland.
Kate Maynard, principal museums officer, East Lothian Council Museums Service
Your next move
John Holt's article discussed how a competitive job market has meant a growing number of professionals are having to relocate in order to further their career in museums. But you don't necessarily have to relocate in order to achieve the next step in your career.
When we asked employers what they were looking for from prospective employees they told us that they seek candidates with: a broad understanding of museums; networks throughout the sector; an area of expertise; an ability to develop job skills; adaptability; and management skills
Whatever your situation or location we can all take some time to focus on developing these types of skill, improving our career prospects and job satisfaction.
Charlotte Holmes, museum development officer, Museums Association
Having read Felicity Heywood's article, I am amazed at the views stated by some senior managers. So Rita McLean says short-term contracts are not a problem and that they encourage creativity?
This is surely hypocrisy at the highest level, unless she is also on short-term contract. And if such contracts are so good for lower-ranking staff, then they should be replicated at the highest levels.
One member of the South West hub believes such contracts to be a "fact of life". Does this mean they should be seen as a good thing? No, it doesn't.
I worked in the NHS when the first attempts to reduce junior doctors' working hours were introduced. I remember senior consultants and managers saying 100-hour weeks were a "fact of life", that junior doctors enjoyed working them and they encouraged better performance. When I see senior museum managers claiming that poor employment conditions are a good thing, I am reminded of those times.
There is always talk in the museum sector of the need for "21st-century museums" and for staff to change the way they do things to achieve this. Perhaps it is time for a new campaign to modernise employment practices. It should not be acceptable in the 21st century for a profession to be based on short-term contracts and all the uncertainties they entail.
We can no longer expect young people coming into the sector to give up their social wellbeing for the job nor, if we are to diversify the workforce in the way we are told we need to, can we expect them either to live in poverty or rely on families or partners to support them in gaps in contracts.
Jason Finch, London
Short-term solutions
Fixed term contracts are probably the worst threat to the heritage industry that it currently faces. Obviously it is terrible for people trying to plan career development or bring up a family to have to chase around for a new contract, move home or leave the profession temporarily (or permanently) every two or three years.
Has anyone worked out the "casualty rate" of people dropping out of the profession as their contracts expire with so few opportunities to be seen in the jobs pages of Museums Journal?
However it is not just the problems faced by those struggling from contract to contract never getting more then the average national salary that are the real issue for the industry. Museum and Archive work is the ultimate knowledge based industry.
A curator is only as good as their knowledge of their specific collection. I would say that it takes even the best of us between three-to-five years to become even competent in a new job let alone to be able to provide the sort of in-depth knowledge and expertise that the public expect from us and are right to expect from us.
There has been an argument about whether the drive for accessibility has "dumbed down" the content of our museums. I would argue that the more frightening question is whether the lack of knowledge in our professionals has dumbed down the content of our museums.
The knowledge needed to present complex ideas and issues in an accessible form is the real deal for testing our professional skills.
Anyone can regurgitate a learned academic work as a "book on the wall" but it takes real understanding based on years of personal study to pick out the really important points and present them in a concise, jargon-free way that offers education and entertainment to as wide a range of visitors as possible.
All too often accessibility is used as a smokescreen for our inability to do anything more than state the obvious and repeat unquestioningly the contents of the Shire beginners guide to the subject in hand because we just don't know what our collections have in them or what they can tell us.
This situation is getting worse and worse because of fixed-term contracts and short-termism, the blight of our industry.
Erik Blakeley, curator, Staffordshire Regiment Museum
Museums Journal August 2009, p13
A wealth of history
Felicity Heywood highlights some of the long-term questions that were raised for the heritage sector during the 2007 Bicentenary of the Parliamentary abolition of the British transatlantic slave trade. In particular what do we know about the impact of the slave trade and plantation wealth on the development of the historic environment in Britain?
English Heritage and the National Trust are proud to be presenting, in partnership with the University of the West of England, a day conference Slavery and the British Country House: Mapping Current Research on 21 November.
Building on important new research in this area, the conference will promote wider public understanding of the many ways in which the fortunes of the landed elite and their country houses were intertwined with slavery and the slave trade. Nick Draper from University College London's research project, cited by Heywood, will be among the speakers.
New research from Nottingham and Manchester universities on four houses in the care of English Heritage will also be launched at the conference. We welcome this engagement between academic researchers and heritage bodies. The question we need to ask next may be - when we have the facts, how do we present them effectively?
Rachel Hasted, head, social inclusion policy, English Heritage, and Heather Smith, head, access for all, National Trust
Museums Journal August 2009, p17
Photo opportunity
I was disappointed to note that the photo captions in the profile of Joanne Orr, chief executive of Museums Galleries Scotland, did not mention that they were taken at Prestongrange Museum, part of East Lothian Council Museums Service.
Never shy of a bit of good publicity we were delighted when Joanne decided to have her profile picture taken here, so it would be great if you could include the following information.
Prestongrange tells the story of East Lothian's industrial heritage, including coal mining, salt panning, brick making and potteries. A site of varied and fascinating history Prestongrange is also home to a Cornish Beam Engine, unique in Scotland.
Kate Maynard, principal museums officer, East Lothian Council Museums Service
Museums Journal August 2009, p36
Your next move
John Holt's article discussed how a competitive job market has meant a growing number of professionals are having to relocate in order to further their career in museums. But you don't necessarily have to relocate in order to achieve the next step in your career.
When we asked employers what they were looking for from prospective employees they told us that they seek candidates with: a broad understanding of museums; networks throughout the sector; an area of expertise; an ability to develop job skills; adaptability; and management skills
Whatever your situation or location we can all take some time to focus on developing these types of skill, improving our career prospects and job satisfaction.
Charlotte Holmes, museum development officer, Museums Association
Museums Journal August 2009, p26
