Fiona Rosher - Museums Association

Conference 2024: The Joy of Museums booking open now – Book before 31 March 2024 for a 10% discount

Conference 2024: The Joy of Museums booking open now – Book before 31 March 2024 for a 10% discount

Fiona Rosher

An artistic connection
Museums Association
Share
Fiona Rosher is the manager of the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes, North Yorkshire. She is speaking at a session about working with artists to reinvigorate collections at the Museums Association Conference & Exhibition in Manchester, 16-18 November.

What project will you be talking about at the conference?

We worked with the artist David Murphy on an idea about taking objects out of the museum to encourage audiences to explore the landscape where they were found. We have a bronze-age spearhead that was discovered by a schoolboy in the 1930s, when the level of Lake Semerwater in the Yorkshire Dales National Park dropped. Murphy’s installation was a spear-shaped pontoon that enabled people to go out on the lake to see the landscape from a different perspective. It was covered in thousands of copper rings that shimmered light onto the water. The work has given us the confidence to take more artistic risks.

Who are your typical visitors?

People who come for the countryside – families in the summer and couples in the winter – so we tell stories about those who lived and worked here over the centuries. We have demonstrations such as dry-stone walling, which is an iconic feature of the dales.

What else is in the collection?

The museum was founded by the social historians Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby who, in the 1930s, were pioneers in saving items that described everyday lives from prehistory to the present. So much material was sold off or thrown away – items such as kitchen and farm implements. My favourite piece is a strickle pricker, a tiny tool that makes holes in the wooden strickle, which is used to sharpen a scythe.

What’s your main job as museum manager?

When I arrived as the curator, the museum was smaller but after a fundraising campaign and Heritage Lottery Fund grant, we built a store, education and research room, exhibition hall and tearoom. I manage the whole site, which includes the Hawes National Park Centre.

When did your interest in museums begin?

My father was the head of an art department in a secondary school, so we were always exploring galleries. I wanted to work in one when at university, but my postgraduate placements were in industrial museums, which sparked an interest in sharing stories of people through collections. Now, I combine art and social history, and get to travel down into Wensleydale every morning.

Leave a comment

You must be to post a comment.

Discover

Advertisement