Maritime Musings
If you ever look at my 'About Me' page on this blog you'll have noticed a change. As of today, I am starting on a new adventure as Curator of Art Collections at the Science Museum, based in South Kensington. I'm looking forward to having the great privilege of thinking about what art means in a science museum, and getting stuck into their wonderful collections.
But, first it only seems right to mark the ending of almost-four extraordinary years at Royal Museums Greenwich. When I first turned up there to apply for an internship in early summer 2010, I could have had no idea what a big part of my life the institution would become, from PhD to Curator of Art, with a happy few years living nearby in Greenwich as well.
This was my first full curatorial job, after many temporary and part-time roles over the previous years, and it was a joy to get to work with the art collections. With 4,000 paintings and over 40,000 works on paper I still feel like I only scratched the surface, but I had a lot of fun picking out images of Greenwich through the ages, or getting to know family-related works in the 'Nelson, Navy, Nation' gallery for a baby-friendly tour. Of course, I spent a lot of time with my colleagues thinking about works for the complete redisplay of the Queen's House last year for it's 400th anniversary. What a privilege to work with that building, and how wonderful the new displays look.
A big part of my exhibition and gallery work has been thinking about art and exploration. Just as I arrived, the museum was able to acquire two paintings of a kangaroo and a dingo by George Stubbs, commissioned by Joseph Banks, after the Endeavour voyage to the Pacific led by James Cook. That acquisition led to the Travellers' Tails project, as part of which it's been brilliant to work with partner museums and, latterly, create a pop-up museum in Lewisham Shopping Centre. One of my first tasks back in 2013-14 was to co-curate and project manage the 'Art and Science of Exploration' exhibition in the QH, meaning that I got to know the art from all three of Cook's voyages.
That has since stood me in good stead as I've widened my scope to work on a gallery on 'Pacific Encounters', which opens in September 2018 as part of the new Exploration wing. That's given me the daunting but inspiring task of getting to know the Pacific ethnographic collections and working consulting on these with the UK Pacific community. What an honour to meet so many generous and fascinating people, as well as then spending 3.5 weeks in parts of the Pacific, doing more research, consultation and filming.
Throughout my work at RMG, I've been interested in intersections between art and science, but those perhaps best came across in Unseen, the exhibition I had the pleasure to work on with the contemporary artist Dryden Goodwin. We used his first feature-film, alongside his drawings and objects, and works in the RMG collections to think about the importance of observation across art, science and maritime history, especially linked to the Greenwich sites.
So, I've had the chance to do a lot at Greenwich, but, inspiring as the collections, sites and projects are, it's the people - colleagues and visitors - who really make the difference. I've learnt so much from them about how to be a better curator, researcher, speaker and collaborative colleague. So thanks everyone at RMG, I owe you. And now, on to new adventures ...