MaILHoC practitioner interviews and talks

MaILHoC practitioner interviews and talks

As part of the project Museums and Industry: Long Histories of Collaboration (MaILHoC), the project team have run a series of practitioner talks and interviews with current-day and former museum practitioners. In this collection, you will find transcripts from these talks and interviews for download and for reference.
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    Interview with Sir Neil Cossons by Tilly Blyth
    (2025-05-05)
    Cossons, Neil
    ;
    Blyth, Tilly
    This discussion with Sir Neil Cossons took place as part of an event hosted by the Museums and Industry: Long Histories of Collaboration (MaILHoC) research project in conjunction with the University of Leicester School of Museum Studies. The event was offered as part of a training module for the MA in Museum Studies on ‘Developing Professional Practice’. The event began with a short lecture from Dr Harry Parker, a Postdoctoral Fellow on MaILHoC, which was followed by a conversation (from which this edited transcript is drawn) between Sir Neil and Tilly Blyth, then Professor of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. Professor Blyth had previously held the role of Head of Collections and Principal Curator at the Science Museum, where she oversaw the creation of the Information Age gallery mentioned later in their discussion. Also participating in the discussion is Heather Mayfield, former Deputy Director of the Science Museum, and Andrew Nahum, formerly the Principal Curator of Technology and Engineering at the Science Museum. An audience Q&A followed the main interview. The interview covered Sir Neil’s extensive career in museums, starting from his student assistant role at Leicester Museum. He highlighted the evolution of museum roles, emphasising the importance of practical experience. Cossons also discussed his tenure as Director of both the National Maritime Museum (1983-86) and the Science Museum (1986-2000). He detailed some of the changes he instituted while leading these institutions, from managerial restructuring to charging admission, then a topic of wide concern. He then went on to discuss his relationships with the Board of Trustees, his view of the role of a curator, the need for collections-driven display, and the challenges of obtaining sponsorship while retaining editorial independence. The discussion concluded with some reflections on society’s changing relationship with its industrial heritage.
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    Interview with Heather Mayfield by Emily Rees
    (2025-05-05)
    Mayfield, Heather
    ;
    Rees Koerner, Emily
    In this practitioner interview, Heather Mayfield, former deputy director of the Science Museum, spoke to Emily Rees about her career at the Science Museum Group, which spanned over 30 years. Unlike many other curators, Heather’s background was not academic; her experience in the museum world was acquired through practical means, with a strong focus on temporary exhibitions. Having begun working with the Wellcome collections in the late 1970s, Heather moved to the newly opened National Photography, Film and Television Museum (now the National Science and Media Museum) in Bradford in the 1980s, before returning to the Science Museum, where she was curator on the gallery Food for Thought: the Sainsbury Gallery. Heather and Emily discussed the legacy of this gallery, including the curatorial approaches, its reception, and its place within museum history (it was the subject of Sharon Macdonald’s now seminal ethnography Behind the Scenes at the Science Museum). Heather talked about the importance of directors at SMG, in particular, Neil Cossons, who became director in 1986, following the departure of Margaret Weston, and arguably revolutionised practices at the Science Museum after it moved from an arm of government run by civil servants to oversight by trustees. An important shift identified by Heather is the focus on contemporary science in the 1990s – which she conjectures was led by the trustees – and resulted in the creation of the Wellcome Wing in 2000, home to the flagship permanent gallery Making the Modern World. This practitioner interview offers insight into the varied career of one museum curator, but it also tells the story of the Science Museum – and the wider Science Museum Group – in a time of transition, when museum practices, personnel and funding models changed, paving the way for the Group in its current guise.
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    Interview with Andrew Nahum by Harry Parker
    (2025-05-04)
    Nahum, Andrew
    ;
    Parker, Harry
    In this interview, Andrew Nahum discusses his career, starting as a museum assistant at the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, becoming Curator of Aeronautics (called Assistant Keeper then), then Senior Keeper/Chief Curator at the Science Museum, London. He highlights his role in two galleries which can still be found in the Science Museum in 2024: the redisplay of the Flight Gallery, which took place in 1993, and the Making the Modern World Gallery, which opened with the new Wellcome Wing in 2000. (He also worked on two further displays which are still in the museum: the ‘Bicycle Tour’ feature in the entrance hall, and the redisplayed James Watt workshop.) Andrew discusses how he brought his background as a magazine writer and editor to bear on these displays. He also details the collecting work he undertook while working as a curator at the museum. Among the more substantive topics of discussion are the challenges of balancing historical and contemporary collecting, the importance of effective museum design, and striking a balance between objects and interpretation in a museum display. Andrew discusses resisting contemporary fashions to abandon traditional collections-based displays in favour of more narrative-led approaches, and in particular the injunction to promote a ‘less is more’ philosophy, where appropriate. He also suggests that profusion can be eloquent, too. He details how the Flight Gallery sought compromises between all these divergent views. Throughout, Andrew stresses the need to preserve and protect autonomy and creativity in curatorial work. The final part of the interview reflects on the complexities of working with industry sponsors, and in particular the learning experience of an exhibition on information technology that involved the input of Austin-Rover. 
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    Interview with Dave Patten by Scott Anthony
    (2025-05-04)
    Patten, Dave
    ;
    Anthony, Scott
    Dave Patten was Head of New Media at the Science Museum until retirement in 2024. Having joined the museum in 1986, for nearly forty years Patten played a foundational role in developing public-facing AV, IT, and digital media at the museum. The interview covers Patten’s career, from an apprenticeship working in medical electronics in hospitals to developing interactives for Launchpad, the creation of the Wellcome Wing, and the development of the museum’s digital presence. He recalls what it was like to develop experimental museum projects with large companies such as Cable & Wireless and Google, as well as the gradual move to more ‘bought-in’ technical expertise. There’s also a discussion of where organisational leadership of technological innovation comes from, and how changes in management culture and curatorial preferences affect the application of technology in the museum, as well as the connection between the use of interactives in the Science Museum and the rise of audience research.
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