Museums n'That

Dan Vo: a vibe.

A VERY exciting episode this week, as we interview self-titled Museum Queerator Dan Vo at Queer Britain - the UK’s first LGBTQ+ museum.

Dan talks us through the stories that the museum tells, why the work they’re doing is so important, and the impact it's had so far. Basically, how to museum good.

Go and visit! Right now! Go go go! 

If you enjoy the episode, subscribe on all the usual podcast platforms and give us a review on  Apple Podcasts.  There’s a good sport.

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Who loves cream soda? Ethan Crabtree loves cream soda. 

This episode, lovely Ethan shares his experience of volunteering as a young person in the award winning Preservative Party - still going strong! - at Leeds City Museum, and essentially just spends 45 minutes proving that all museums should be run by young people.

We learn about their upcoming exhibition, Overlooked, and hear about the time he broke every museum rule ever at the Liverpool Beatles Museum.

If you enjoy the episode, subscribe on all the usual podcast platforms and give us a review on  Apple Podcasts. Bless and thank you!

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Mum, we made it to the V&A!

Meg and Sara embark on an epic adventure to the Big Smoke this episode, and end up in the Fashioning Masculinities exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Where they spent a lot of time studying Harry Styles' footwear.

Curator - and ex Leeds Museums and Gallleries alumni - Rosalind McKever talks us through the exhibition, what it's like working at the V&A, and her list of art history boyfriends.

The Fashioning Masculinities exhibition is open until 6 November, and you can buy tickets here.

If you enjoy the episode, subscribe on all the usual podcast platforms and give us a review on  Apple Podcasts and you'll be simply the best. Better than all the rest.

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In this episode we chat to Assistant Community Curator Patrick Bourne about the history of Kirkstall Abbey: the hottest 870 year old you've ever seen.

What's been excavated here? What's been the haps for the last 8 centuries? Where did the monks go for a poo?

We also find out about the ghostly goings on at Abbey House Museum, and write a little love letter to peshwari naan.

The Kirkstall Lives exhibition we chat about is fantastic, and open until December 2022.

If you enjoy the episode, subscribe on all the usual podcast platforms and give us a review on  Apple Podcasts and we'll love you for at least 870 years. That's a promise.

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We're back! Kicking off series 5 - and getting stung by a bee in the process which we did not arrange - is corker of a guest, Joe Vaughan.

Joe is the Digital Editor at Reading Museum and the Museum of English Rural Life, and he popped on the pod to talk to us about being a pretty big cheese in the world of social media (and everything that comes with it).

Please note that although it may seem like it, this podcast is not sponsored by the Zadar Museum of Ancient Glass or Shed Cafe's sandwiches.

This one's a cracking start to a great series - subscribe on all the usual podcast suspects to be the first to hear every episode, and give us a review on  Apple Podcasts if you fancy being fantastic.

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We’ve only gone and recorded another series. All hail series 5! 

This time around, we've been to London, we’ve been to Liverpool, we’ve been to Reading – and of course, the greatest of them all. We've been to Leeds. 

Expect chats about all things museums, but like, only the interesting bits: bloodletting monks, Harry Styles at the V&A, and absolute units.  

If that sounds like a bit of you then subscribe to Museums n’That wherever you get your podcasts, to be the first to hear Series 5, coming very soon. 

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Wafting a load of rhubarb farts into our final episode of the series is Rob Scargill, Interpretation Developer at the National Railway Museum.

We've done trains before, sure, but we haven't done interpretation now have we guys. Rob explains how everything (literally, everything) you experience in a museum is thought out - from the stories you tell about an object to the colour light you shine on it.

This episode also features a live moderate disaster, when we accidentally melted Sara's headphones. As she was wearing them.

Huge thanks to all of our guests and lovely listeners this series! If you've enjoyed listening to our silly little questions, then subscribe on all the usual podcast suspects and leave us a review on  Apple Podcasts.

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Our guest this week is Visitor Assistant and harbinger of exotic fruits Carmen Webbe.

Carmen talks to Meg and Sara about black artists and subjects on display at Leeds Art Gallery, her opinion on works and exhibitions and, most importantly, her experience as a black woman working in a public facing role at an art gallery.

Links to things talked about if you'd like to find out more:

Five,  by Lubaina Himid (which we say is in our collection - it isn't! Silly us. It's on long loan to Leeds Art Gallery).

Melita, by Ronald Ossory Dunlop

Visit Ashley Holmes' website

There's a case study on the MyLearning website about Retribution by Edward Armitage

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SHIPWRECKS. FINALLY.

And not just any shipwreck. Meg and Sara take a trip down the canal to Liverpool, where they chat with Ian Murphy, Head of the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Ian walks us through their exhibition 'Titanic and Liverpool: the untold story' and we find out about the objects they have relating to Titanic, how collecting from a wreck site works and some of the (sad) stories they tell at the museum.

We also find out about the time Meg threw a piece of fish at the Longleat river boat.

Find out more about the Titanic and Liverpool exhibition and have a look through their Titanic collection online.

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200 years old we are. 200! years! old!

This year Leeds Museums & Galleries celebrates a (very) big birthday, and Projects Curator Catherine Robins has been party-planning the whole shebang. Find out how to open an exhibition with an army of excellent volunteers, what happened when Leeds was bombed in 1941 and what celery has to do with a budgie called Papa Guy.

Do not expect to find out what a fossil is, because we literally do not know.

Find out more about our 200th Birthday

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