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.

Collection Details

Creator (organisation)

MaILHoC

Keywords

professional practice

Related collection

Museums and Industry: Long Histories of Collaboration (MaILHoC)

Licence

CC BY 4.0

Now showing 1 - 10 of 11

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Interview with Robert Bud conducted by Emily Rees
(2024-10-29)
Bud, Robert
;
Rees Koerner, Emily
In this interview with Robert Bud MBE, we hear an overview of Robert’s career at the Science Museum, which spanned 40 years. This included roles as an assistant and deputy keeper, before rising to the role of keeper. Robert outlines his changing professional practice, and the various roles he took on, which spanned collecting, curatorial and research. Research initiatives included a research seminar, conferences and several books (most recently, on applied science). Significantly, Robert talks about his experience working on some of the early (now defunct) museum websites, including Making the Modern World and Ingenious. There is discussion of the three exhibitions Robert curated on petroleum, plastics and chemical industry, with a focus on the relationship with the patron Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) for the latter. Robert reflects on the changing role of industry in Britain and how this reshaped its relationship with the Science Museum. Robert also explores some of the frustrations in his career, including projects that did not receive funding or were cancelled by senior management. The influence of directors was another topic of conversation, in particular, the tenures of Margaret Weston – who Robert first served under – and Neil Cossons, who was director in the late 1980s and 1990s. A major change Robert recognises is the changing role of the curator in this period, and the rise of managerial practices, with less and less autonomy for the curatorial staff, and a rise of new professional arenas such as fundraising and marketing. However, the interview also explores how this era was marked by more “self-conscious” museological practices, which centred the visitor experience more than ever before.
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Applied Science, Politics and Power: A conversation between Robert Bud and Sir Geoff Mulgan
(2025-05-05)
Bud, Robert
;
Mulgan, Geoff
‘Applied Science, Politics and Power’ was a conversation held at the Science Museum on 22 May 2024, between Robert Bud and Sir Geoff Mulgan. The discussion was moderated by the former BBC journalist Deborah Cohen and introduced by Scott Anthony. The event was organised under the auspices of the Museums and Industry: Long Histories of Collaboration project, with its interest in understanding the historical impacts of changing patterns of commercial and state patronage of science, technology, and museums of science and technology. In Bud’s address he discussed the rise and fall of applied science, linking its fortunes with a larger story of political economy: applied science provided liberal politicians with an acceptable way of intervening in the economy without seeming to intervene in the economy. Sir Geoff argued that governing might increasingly be thought of as and applied science that not only requires high levels of scientific knowledge among policy makers but also the existence of scientists with the training and confidence to go beyond offering ‘disinterested’ domain specific advice. They go on to discuss how to design (and staff) institutions able to synthesise scientific and political knowledge, whether the decline in scientific productivity is reversible or not, and how the dominance of biomedical research impacts the funding of science and public perceptions of progress. They also address the role of museums in synthesising public understandings of scientific and technological research.
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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 John Durant by Harry Parker
(2025-05-05)
Durant, John
;
Parker, Harry
This interview hears John Durant discuss his long career working at the borderline between academia and museums. Having begun his career working in continuing education, first in Swansea and then Oxford, John took up a newly created post as Assistant Director and Head of Research and Information Services at the Science Museum in 1989. Alongside this role, John became the UK’s first Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Imperial College, where among other things he created a Master’s programme in Science Communication. In 2000, John left London to become Chief Executive of At-Bristol, a newly built specialist science centre, before becoming Director of the MIT Museum in 2005, where he also held an Adjunct Professorship in Science and Technology Studies. The interview focuses for the most part on John’s time at the Science Museum. He discusses the challenges of balancing an academic post at a university with a senior management role in a museum. He also discusses some of the changes that the Science Museum was undergoing during the late 1980s and early 1990s, under the directorship of Sir Neil Cossons. In particular, John recounts some of the tensions involved in pivoting the museum towards contemporary science and technology instead of the history of these subjects. John’s role as an early adopter and pioneer of what became known as the Public Understanding of Science is a major topic of conversation. He recounts his interest in the field as having stemmed from his early experiences in continuing education and then discusses the role of the Royal Society’s Committee on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) in bringing the term into more widespread use. He details how the Science Museum became involved in PUS initiatives, and his role in leading them. Finally, John discusses his recollections of working with industrial sponsors, particularly with regard to the Science Box programme of displays on contemporary topics that the Science Museum began in the early 1990s.
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Interview with Dame Liz Forgan by Scott Anthony
(2025-05-05)
Forgan, Liz
;
Anthony, Scott
This interview with Dame Liz Forgan took place as part of an event hosted by the Museums and Industry: Long Histories of Collaboration (MaILHoC) research project in conjunction with the Museums, Galleries and Contemporary Culture MA at the University of Westminster. The event was attended by students completing the ‘Management in Cultural and Heritage Institutions’ postgraduate module convened by Dr Alison Hess. This is an edited transcript, the majority of which is drawn from a conversation between Dame Liz Forgan and Dr Scott Anthony. However, some of the questions are drawn from interventions made by Dr Alison Hess and the postgraduate students attending. For clarity, the contributions of Anthony, Hess, and the students have been amalgamated into the voice of a single Interviewer (Int). The interview provides an overview of Dame Liz Forgan’s career, what she learned from her training as a journalist, and the models of management she bought into the cultural sector. Dame Liz reflects in detail on the impacts of Lottery funding on the UK’s cultural landscape, the challenges of cutting budgets at the Arts Council in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis, and the future of arts funding in the UK. Lastly, she reflects on the ethics of sponsorship and the impacts of museum charging, the place of arts and culture in British politics and society, and the importance of confidence, resilience, and self-development for a successful career in the arts sector. Before the event students were asked to read a portfolio of press articles about Dame Liz’s career as well as a valedictory speech, ‘A Farewell to Arts and a plea to Michael Gove’, given after her departure from the Arts Council in 2012. Some of the questions in the interview are based on this speech. You can read it here: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/farewell-to-arts-and-plea-to-michael-gove/
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Practitioner interview with Anna Omedes conducted by Miquel Carandell Baruzzi
(2024-10-21)
Omedes, Anna
;
Carandell Baruzzi, Miquel
In this interview, Anna Omedes, director of the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona for twenty-five years, reflects on her experience in the field of funding of science museums and the sponsorship of exhibitions. The interview begins with a description of her professional trajectory and a summary of the recent history of the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona, which includes the merger of the zoology, geology, and botanical garden museums, the opening of a new location at the Museu Blau, and the plan to create a national museum of natural sciences. Afterward, Omedes comments on how the Barcelona City Council has been the main funder of the museum, and how the price of tickets for the permanent and temporary exhibitions, which are always very affordable, has not allowed for the funding of temporary exhibitions from ticket sales. The interview then discusses the process of finding sponsors, the relationship with the sponsorship department of the City Council, the hiring of a person to seek sponsorship deals, and the arrival of extra budgets for events such as themed years. Later, Omedes explains some cases of sponsored exhibitions, as well as how this funding is recognized in the exhibition. Among these examples, the “Ciència+” space for small external exhibitions, often sponsored by companies and individuals, stands out. In the last section of the interview, Omedes talks about the policy of accepting sponsorship and its relationship with the museum's master plan and the codes of conduct that derive from it. She also discusses the policy of space allocation, collection loans, and exhibition loans, highlighting the free digital exhibitions that the museum offers under certain conditions. Finally, Omedes reflects on the funding of science museums, their sponsorship, the issues surrounding affordable ticket prices, and the lack of tradition in Spain regarding the patronage of science museums. Please note this interview is currently only available in Catalan and Spanish.
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Spending Patronage: MaILHoC address by Dinah Casson
(2025-05-05)
Casson, Dinah
Dinah Casson CBE RDI is a British museum designer who has worked on several Science Museum projects including the Wellcome Wing and The Garden. After being introduced by Dr Alice Byrne, Co-I of the MaILHoC project, Casson looks back at 30 years of working in museum and exhibition design, a profession which she describes as a ‘bridge’ between curators and visitors. Casson gives an overview of her diverse portfolio of designing museums and exhibitions in the UK and internationally. From the seminal British Galleries at the V&A Museum, to projects such as Cité du Vin Bordeaux and the Benjamin Franklin Museum in Philadelphia, the designer describes how they approached the dynamics created by tensions between message, purpose and aesthetics. She also discusses the pragmatic challenges faced in projects funded by the Heritage Lottery, such as budget constraints and long planning processes. She talks about her experience of managing propaganda, sponsorship, and private patronage. She shares experiences of creating exhibitions with political undertones, such as for British Nuclear Fuels, which aimed to reframe the public perception of nuclear power. She illustrates how private sponsorship can shape not only exhibition politics, e.g. Lord Ashcroft’s donation of a large collection of military medals to a museum in exchange for naming rights, but also cultural production at large, e.g. the private purchase and transformation of Bishop Auckland, which effectively, reshaped the town and its cultural offerings. The keynote is followed by a Q&A with the audience, where Casson elaborates on relationships within exhibition teams, the use of text in galleries, and ‘matchmaking’ between museums and designers.
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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.â€ƒ
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Interview with Marta Lourenà§o conducted by Miquel Carandell Baruzzi
(2024-10-24)
Lourenà§o, Marta
;
Carandell Baruzzi, Miquel
In this interview, Marta Lourenà§o details her experience as an employee of the Lisbon Museum of Science and Natural History, where she has worked for more than twenty-five years, with the last five of them as director. The interview starts with a brief explanation of her professional background, then it moves to the history of the Lisbon Museum, its budget and activities, and how it has changed in terms of visitors and visibility since the end of the 1990s to today. Then the interview deals with the types of exhibitions that the museum puts on and how they relate to budget, sponsorship and the museum’s strategic objectives. After that, Lourenà§o answers questions on sponsorship and fundraising, especially on fundraising for buildings and heritage restoration. She gives the example of the museum’s chemistry lab, which has been restored thanks to sponsorship from pharmaceutical companies, and of the astronomical observatory, which has not received any sponsorship yet. The interview then moves to how other public bodies, such as the local government in Lisbon, have sponsored exhibitions and the features of the negotiations with those institutions over the content and aims of the exhibition. The next topic is the museum’s fundraising policy and how it relates to the university’s policies, to which the museum must adhere. In the subsequent questions, Lourenà§o also gives some examples of ethical dilemmas and conflicts of interest with sponsorship from private companies. In relation to that, Lourenà§o explains the decision-making process once a sponsorship proposal is made to the museum. The last few questions are devoted to the museum’s policy on lending collection items, the use of the museum’s spaces, and the revenues that these activities provide for the museum. The interview finishes with some final reflections on public funding of museums and sponsorship, which, according to Lourenà§o, has different features in continental Europe than in the United Kingdom.â€¯
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MaILHoC practitioner interviews and talks

MaILHoC practitioner interviews and talks

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