30: The Elephant in the Room

For the last 10 years, there has been a large willow and paper elephant suspended in the museum entrance hall.  The Barnstaple Elephant, discovered in a clay pit in Summerland Street in 1844, has become an important part of the museum's identity.  The carnival version has provided a friendly welcome to the museum to thousands …

29: Struggling for a Strapline: A House of Stories

I'm having one last go at creating the "strapline" that will tell people what we are all about.  Having said in my last post that it's all about the objects, this is 2019, and we have to recognise that much of our interaction with the world takes place digitally. The major part of our new …

28: Struggling for a Strapline: A Centre for Curiosity

In our search for a "strapline" we have realised that providing opportunities for learning is not our only role, and certainly not what makes us unique.  Museums are primarily about real physical things, and as the world becomes more and more digital, so that even once-sacred family photograph albums are few and far between, it …

27: Struggling for a strapline: A Place for Learning

There was a time when museums sat quietly in the centre of their town, opening their doors to welcome the occasional researcher or local enthusiast.  Now we are part of the local tourism industry, as well as a resource for local people, and we see our role as supporting well-being and identity as well as …

26: Every object tells a story

Our museum holds many thousands of objects, but only a small proportion can be displayed.  Space is always short, and even those things which are "out" can easily be missed by visitors.  We cannot explain all the details of each item's story in the small number of words available on a label or graphics panel. …