What a busy day we had on the 17th September!
We took part in #Askacurator day, which has now become an annual fixture, alongside many other Museums, Galleries and Curators from around the world.
We’re ready and waiting for your questions for #AskACurator day! #poised #excited
— Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
For those of you fond of figures, there were 721 different Museums from 43 countries that participated, and 47,546 tweets were sent by 13,000 different users. It meant there were lots of conversations happening – some were serious, others much more lighthearted.
The idea behind #askacurator is to promote interaction between museums and individuals as well as each other.
La Magnetica produced this rather interesting graph that shows visually some of this interaction.
For clarity, this graph shows the top 6% in the world – (any more in the image would have made it completely illegible), and we’re pleased to say that we’re in there – there’s a little red arrow pointing to us in the graph.
They’ve also produced an interesting blog post here, analysing statistics from the day.
We thought you might be interested in seeing a selection of the conversations we had over the day, although it’s by no means all of them!
Lots of Museums do show parts of their collections online to share knowledge. Can’t beat visiting though! @BradScienceFest #AskACurator — Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
Tricky Question! All are great in different ways. @BD_Angry
— Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
We love them all, but:
Social History team has a soft spot for ones that were homes first. We like seeing the adaptations over the years! @BD_Angry #AskACurator — Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
‘Strange things’ questions are always popular.
Good question. We’ve got a few strange ones relating to witchcraft and charms including a animal heart studdied with pins @bradfordlibs247
— Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
Cont… think might have been a hex rather than protective magic. It’s on display at #CliffeCastle #AskACurator @bradfordlibs247 — Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
Favourite items got a varied response too
Heather (Social History) says her favourite piece depends on her mood @BD_Angry! Mrs Salt’s fancy dress always makes her smile though!
— Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
@BD_Angry As a lover of all things beautiful, the carving that adorn #CartwrightHall will always be a favourite of mine! — Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
@BD_Angry I’m sure that we’ll all have different answers, but one of mine is a tea cup designed for those who sport moustaches #CliffeCastle
— Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
A great question asked by @mardixon (who coordinates the day each year) gave us the chance to share what we’d love to find to add to the collection:
@MarDixon #CliffeCastle‘s is a canopied bed slept in by three generations of the Butterfield family before being sold in 1949. — Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
@MarDixon it was the bed the composer Rossini died on. If anyone out there is currently getting a good nights sleep on it please let us know
— Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
That’s still true by the way – if you know where that bed might be, we’d love you to get in touch.
Conversations we liked, but weren’t actively answering included one discussing the (theoretical) scientific explanation of why a dragon wouldn’t burn it’s mouth if it was breathing fire… It did give us the chance to share this picture though.
@PaoloViscardi @eng_cam_noel @Nexusdog_UK @greg_jenner @HornimanMuseum meet our dragon he belongsto 1 of our curators pic.twitter.com/RgtXZ7seNF — Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
For those wondering why there was a cuddly dragon handy, Drake had been attending the Teddy Bear’s picnic held this year at Cliffe Castle and was waiting for his owner to collect him! ( he’s now safely back at home)
Great hilarity ensured from the sharing of ‘funny things asked’ in the museum, with some of the following gems:
Re Kid’s questions, we’ve been asked: 1. When it was the olden times, did you live in a house or a cave? @BradfordVC #AskACurator
— Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
others include 2. My granddad is from the olden times miss, did you see him when he wasn’t old? Me: How old is he? Child: 40 — Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
We also got to share discoveries we’d made:
#AskACurator Have you ever “discovered” an object hidden in storage that now has a prominent place in the museum?
— Mondegro (@Mondegro) September 17, 2014
We displayed a lantern designed by Sir Albert Richardson for #CliffeCastle that had been stored. @CultureThemes @mondegro. #askacurator
— Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
We returned the Bracewell Smith Gallery to 1950s colour scheme, with lantern. Sir Albert worked on the conversion of the Castle to a Museum.
— Bradford M&G (@BradfordMuseums) September 17, 2014
We enjoyed it so much both this year and last year that we’ve already signed up to take part in #Askacurator again in 2015.
We really hope you’ll join us on the 16th September next year with your questions -get those thinking caps to come up with some questions!