Making Space for Curiosity and Innovation: Reshaping Sheffield Museums
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Making Space for Curiosity and Innovation: Reshaping Sheffield Museums By: Pippa Gardner A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sheffield Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Geography January 2018 This work was supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (grant number AH/1514171). 1 Acknowledgements Firstly, I want to thank my partner, Elizabeth, for her continued and unwavering support from my first application to study for a doctorate through to my final submission. She is my anchor and has provided a safe harbour when the PhD process has been particularly stormy. Secondly, I want to thank my parents, especially my Mum, for fostering in me a love of learning and such a degree of self-belief to know that anything is possible with enough persistence and ingenuity. Thirdly, I also want to thank the team of supervisors who have guided me through some or all of this process. Thanks to Professor Richard Phillips for instigating this project and prompting curiosity along the way. Thanks to Professor Rosie Parnell for offering direction through this creative process. And thanks to Sian Brown and Laura Travis for helping to make my time with Museums Sheffield meaningful. Thanks also go to the many staff at Museums Sheffield and visitors to Weston Park Museum who participated in my research; to all those who gave up their time and who gave me insights into how adults are curious, creative, innovative and make meaning in the museum. And finally, I want to thank all the friends and colleagues who have inspired and supported me along my journey. As well as Memphis, who gave me space to ponder on our daily walks. 2 Abstract This collaborative doctoral project, in partnership with Museums Sheffield, examines a redevelopment project at Weston Park Museum from 2014-2016. This research addresses the question: “What is the relationship between adults’ curiosity, meaning-making and innovation, and museum space?” An ethnographic methodology was used including: 85 participant observation sessions; 9 interviews with 11 members of Museum Sheffield staff; a workshop with 13 members of Museum Sheffield staff; 130 observations of visitors in public gallery spaces; 70 write-draw submissions from visitors; and ongoing documentation of the museum redevelopment project. The collaborative nature of the research blurs the boundaries between researcher and research participants: museum staff contributing to the design and development of the research project, and the researcher contributing to the daily work of the museum. The findings show that space is made by all museum users. Therefore, the curiosity, meaning-making and innovation activities of staff, visitors and those in-between each impact upon how space is made. In turn, the type, intensity, duration and location of these various activities is influenced by the institutional form of the museum generally, and specifically that of Museums Sheffield. Institutional curiosity shapes how a museum acquires new information, how it empowers staff and how it engages audiences. Institutional form also influences how meaning is made in the museum. Additionally, the context of a particular museum or other institution, in this case Museums Sheffield, is part of the specificity inherent in vernacular innovation. This thesis builds three distinct contributions: a theory of institutional curiosity; the application of the concept of ‘professional meaning-making’ to a new context (i.e. the museum); and the identification of a new concept - vernacular innovation. The research findings also informed the knowledge held and practiced within the museum, and within Museums Sheffield in particular, such as through processes of prototyping new design with visitors. 3 Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………… Page 8 Chapter 2.1: Making Space in the Museum ……………………………………………………….. Page 16 Chapter 2.2: Contested Terms: Curiosity, Meaning-Making and Innovation……….. Page 35 Chapter 3: Methodology ……………………………………………………………………………………. Page 56 Chapter 4: Curiosity in the Museum as Institution …………………………………………….. Page 82 Chapter 5: Making Meaning in the Museum ……………………………………………………… Page 118 Chapter 6: Innovation as Product and Process …………………………………………………… Page 147 Chapter 7: In Conversation with Museum Practice …………………………………………….. Page 169 Chapter 8: Conclusions ………………………………………………………………………………………. Page 196 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Page 204 Appendix 1: Glossary …………………………………………………………………………………………. Page 217 Appendix 2: List of Research Activities ………………………………………………………………. Page 221 Appendix 3: Interview Discussion Guides …………………………………………………………… Page 225 Appendix 4: Weston Park Museum Visitor Personas …………………………………………… Page 226 Appendix 5: Write-Draw Template ……………………………………………………………………. Page 231 Appendix 6: Observation Template …………………………………………………………………… Page 233 Appendix 7: Before and After Photographs ……………………………………………………….. Page 234 4 List of Figures Figure 1 A diagram depicting the relationship between Museums Sheffield and its five sites. ........... 16 Figure 2. An example of a completed visitor tracking sheet with elements of the gallery drawn in as the individual interacted with them. .................................................................................................... 73 Figure 3. A table set up for collecting write-draw responses from adult visitors. ................................ 76 Figure 4. Illustrations of wheelchair users, adults and intergenerational groups within the designers plans for spaces at Weston Park Museum (October 2015). ................................................................. 96 Figure 5. Prototyping labels for the Romano-British case with visitors in March 2016. .................... 103 Figure 6. An example of curiosity-driven practice such as question asking evident in proof-reading notes. .................................................................................................................................................. 104 Figure 7. Packing Romano-British objects at the museum store ahead of their transportation to Weston Park Museum in January 2016. ............................................................................................. 105 Figure 8. An image of myself at work in the Beneath Your Feet gallery demonstrating my curatorial role. This image was taken to be shared on the museum's instagram account. ................................ 107 Figure 9. Left – the designers’ proposed case layout with the lead pig (J96.1) and Hathersage head mounted near the top of the case. Right - the final case layout with the lead pig and Hathersage head resting on the base of the case. ................................................................................................. 108 Figure 10. Museums Sheffield Instagram account with a selection of images indicating aspects of staff activities. ..................................................................................................................................... 111 Figure 11. Route of an adult visiting with a school group. ................................................................. 121 Figure 12. Route of an adult visiting with one other adult ................................................................. 121 Figure 13. Route of a younger adult visiting with one other adult. .................................................... 121 Figure 14. Route of an older adult visiting alone. ............................................................................... 121 Figure 15. Route of an adult visiting alone. ........................................................................................ 121 Figure 16. Route of an adult visiting with one child. .......................................................................... 121 Figure 17. August 2015 – History Lab (open to the public) ................................................................ 126 Figure 18. February 2016 – De-install of History Lab .......................................................................... 126 Figure 19. June 2016 – Install of Beneath Your Feet .......................................................................... 127 Figure 20. October 2016 – Beneath Your Feet Open to the Public .................................................... 127 Figure 21. A drawn response from one visitor describing the game played with their children in the Treasures gallery. ................................................................................................................................ 128 Figure 22. The map at the centre of ‘Beneath Your Feet’, Weston Park Museum, Sheffield. ........... 128 Figure 23. Maps within ‘Sheffield Life and Times’, Weston Park Museum, Sheffield. Left: 3D model, image, button interactive and touch screen installed in 2006. Centre: Map including 3D model 5 elements, images with captions, braille panels and touch screen installed in 2016. Right: View of touch screen and gallery context as installed in 2016. ....................................................................... 128 List of Tables Table 1. A chart of research methods by month and key moments in the project chronology ………63 Table 2. A summary of participant observation activities ………………………………………………………………67 Table 3. Semi-structured interviews conducted within the ethnographic project ……………………..….69 Table 4. Summary of Visitor Tracking Observations …………………………………………………………………..….74