#AskACurator; or when Twitter works well
A wonderful thing happened last week (among the many enjoyable parts of my job at the Science Museum), which I feel it necessary to immortalise on here. As one of my colleagues put it, it feels like we won the Internet for a little bit.
Wednesday 13 September was #AskaCurator day on Twitter, a hashtag that encourages people to ask whatever questions they would like on social media and be answered by members of museum staff, often, but not always, named curators. I've taken part in the day a number of times over the years, from both sides of the hashtag, and it's always good fun. Questions can usually be broadly grouped into three: tell me something cool/unknown/that you love about your collection/museum; give me some advice on getting into the museum sector; and more specific subject/object/theme questions from enthusiasts.
This week, a group of us from the Science Museum got together for an hour and a half over lunch to answer questions and generally take part in the discussion. All kudos to @Bednarz who asked the question that started the fun: 'Who would win in a staff battle between @sciencemuseum and @NHM_London, what exhibits/items would help you be victorious?'.
We had great fun trading missiles and robots with their dinosaurs and vampire fish. And the trade-off kept on going until the following day (long after I'd gone back to my desk). My personal favourite was when the V&A chipped in with 'Guys... we are all friends here at Exhibition Road! #LoveWins #WeHaveDragonsToo #JustSaying' and an image of Robert Indiana's famous love graphic.
The Twitter responses to the interchange would have been fun and exciting enough, but this 'epic battle' also hit the media zeitgeist, appearing in the Evening Standard, Time Out, Digital Spy and as far afield as news outlets in Denmark and the USA (dramatised no less!). And to cap it all, Stephen Fry tweeted about the exchange!
Readers of this blog no what an advocate I am for social media and digital humanities in general, so I'm so delighted to see how this fun interchange, essentially showcasing objects, has clearly struck a chord with so many people.
And the Science Museum clearly won, of course ...