Guest Blog – ‘Doing What Feels Right’

A head shot photograph of Tom Hughes.

By Tom Hughes

Over the past few years, I’ve experienced the widest range of emotions in my museum career as I’ve tried to connect with non-traditional audiences for our museums service and create opportunities for people to participate and tell their stories.  Sometimes, this has been met by resistance from colleagues who feel we should concentrate on core audiences, or that we shouldn’t work with certain groups, such as asylum seekers or people in prisons.  Views like this left me disappointed and frustrated, but I’ve continued all the same and, although it has been a steep learning curve, I’m pleased to have persisted. 

I’ve continued because it feels important to do the right thing.  I know from experience of the negative effect on our wellbeing by not being true to our identity.  Working with people and museums is a big part of who I feel I am.  I was lucky enough to participate in the ‘Emotions in Museums Work’ session at Stirling and the GLAM Cares conference in Birmingham and at both events I heard from several inspiring practitioners who spoke about “working by stealth”.  This was exactly what I’d been experiencing, so why are we having to do this? 

It feels that the wider sector might prevent this work happening otherwise.  Are museums nervous of getting involved in work with an emotional impact?  Is this a sort of risk averse approach, concern that colleagues might be overcome by emotions, or that community groups might be distressed? 

Connecting with these communities, particularly my ongoing work with our Ukrainian guests, has been a great success, with people reporting their emotional response of being welcomed and accepted into the region and moments of joy in difficult times.  Through it all, I’ve had a sense of guilt at my privilege and inability to help as much as I would wish, along with regular humbling experiences at the generosity of spirit and reciprocal welcoming of this community.

It’s difficult to explain what emotion this is, but I’m left with the recurring thought that this is the right thing to do, and perhaps we should listen to these instincts more often.

Tom Hughes is Access Officer with Dumfries and Galloway Council Museums

A photograph of 6 people in a room at a Ukrainian Burns Night celebration, Dumfries and Galloway Council Museums.
A Ukrainian Burns Night at Dumfries and Galloway Council Museums

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