Narrator: From Brighton, on the English South Coast, these are the voices of the Royal Pavilion & Museums, with Dr. Sophie Frost. Sophie: Hello! I'm Sophie, and I've spent the past 9 months wandering the corridors of the Royal Pavilion & Museums in Brighton & Hove - otherwise known as RPM - uncovering the stories of the museum people who keep Brighton's historic buildings and collections relevant, vibrant, and accessible for the world we're living in. Sophie: In this episode I'm joined by Marcus Bagshaw, Sue Winkett, Clare Hartfield, and Zak Flannery, who all work in the Visitor Services team at Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove. As we discovered last time, schemes such as the Workforce Development programme provoked a family feel across the workforce at RPM. In what follows, we'll see how the enthusiasm and expertise of different frontline staff provides a collective energy that keeps RPM's objects, buildings, and collections, alive for its visitors. Marcus: My name is Marcus Bagshaw and I'm what they call a Visitor Services Officer - basically front-of-house. The role is all-encompassing - it's not just the one thing - we get involved in many different elements of customer service. And, I think one of the main reasons we are there, is to embellish the customer experience - provide just that little bit more information that they might not get, ordinarily. So, that means that we do get into some very interesting conversations, long and short. And, of course, working in a place like the Royal Pavilion - visitors are never short of questions. Sophie: (laughs) How long have you been in that role for, Marcus? Marcus: From 2014. Sophie: Right - so five years. Marcus: Yes. Sophie: You've mentioned that you've worked across the five sites. Is this all since 2014? Marcus: It is. Sophie: Oh, wow - okay. Marcus: Yes ..it's ...I've crammed an awful lot in, to a short period of time. Okay, so, prior to that, my role was Curator of the Grange Art Gallery & Museum, in Rottingdean. Now, for those of you that aren't familiar with it, I can tell you that, once upon a time the Grange Art Gallery & Museum was part of Royal Pavilion & Museums. And it was our sixth museum, across Brighton and Hove - it had been for many years. Its remit was the fact that it was known, primarily, as a toy museum, but with other bits and pieces - including exhibitions and references, to Rudyard Kipling. He being the most famous resident of Rottingdean which, incidentally, is a couple of miles outside of Brighton, on the South Coast. I picked up the strings of where my predecessors left off. I still work for the Grange Art Gallery & Museum as a volunteer. Sophie: So Grange Art Gallery & Museum ...I mean - I apologize for not knowing - but why did it get divorced then, from RPM? Marcus: Cuts. It was as far back as the very early-1990s. It got to the point where a museum would have to give, and the one that had to give, was the Grange Art Gallery & Museum - with a view of dispersing the collection across the rest of the estate. So the toys were transferred to Hove Museum - so that became a kind of toy museum, or, in parts anyway. And other pieces - they went back to Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. The museum was bereft of a so-called collection. Sophie: And the toy collection, having come from the Grange - where did that ...I probably should know this ...but where did the toy collection come from? Who bequeathed that? Marcus: It was a bequest by, for the most part, by a gentleman - elderly gentleman by then - who was mad on model railways. Sophie: Right. Marcus: And so, part of the bequest to Rottingdean at that time - who were looking for opportunities to exhibit something - wholeheartedly. And on the back of that, other institutions came forward as well, offering up toys - from local people, to other museums. And so, it built up quite a nice little reputation for being a toy museum. And even today, you come across people who remember those times with great affection, and say, "Oh I remember them - is it still there?" And when you tell them not, they seem to be so sad about it, you know. But anyway, that, in part, was then transferred to the Toy Museum, in Brighton, under the railway station. Sophie: Oh yes - that's right. Marcus: There's some link there - in terms of collections. Sophie: Moving back to Royal Pavilion & Brighton Museum now, where you're now based. I'd really like to hear a little bit about being part of the front-of-house team there. And how that works, and how close you feel to the objects and the collections there ...and that sort of thing really. Marcus: There was a day, when, indeed, it was almost a case of ' them and us'. Not to the point of being nasty, but your role was very defined, and you did what it said on your contract, and you did no more than what it said. Sophie: Yep. Marcus: And because the organization is now looking for every opportunity imaginable, they're encouraging everybody, within the organization, to come forward with ideas of possible development, of this and that. And, at the same time, enabling staff to get involved with things, within the organization, that ordinarily would not have been possible 20 years ago. That really has enabled people to really get their teeth into, you know, the business - to find out precisely, in way- more detail, how other departments operate. And, you know, you find yourself, therefore, meeting people that you've never met before, because you had never had the requirement to speak to them. Marcus: We are there to impart knowledge. We are there to provide quirky facts and figures, you know - it helps if they're amusing, of course, because it breaks the ice, somewhat. And if people are a little bit uncertain about things, when they come into a museum, by the time they leave the Royal Pavilion, they'll feel, I think, a lot more comfortable with you, with the concept. You know, it's not all stuffiness, and elitist, and all that - it's open to all. It's such a rich part of the Brighton tapestry - it's enabled all sorts of opportunity; for the local people, as well as visitors. Now, we're able to do much with our role, and, for example, we now have something called Pavilion Tales. Staff - across the board, every department, every level - were being asked if they would be interested in giving a public talk about an object, or objects, or the history of, or whatever of - about the Royal Pavilion. So the umbrella was Royal Pavilion, and you could talk about anything, within reason, beneath that umbrella. And, it was quite a brave move and I don't believe - at the time that it was announced - that there were too many people coming forward. So I think, even then, people were a bit apprehensive about the whole thing, let alone; what on earth is Pavilion Tales?, we don't need this, we've got other things to worry about. But, in retrospect, actually it did a world of good because it enabled staff to engage and to get more out of their job role - which was so uncertain, particularly then. And so, the bottom line is that we run it predominately through the winter months, and, once a month, a person will give a talk before an audience in the Music Room. Happily, the acoustics are incredible... Sophie: (laughs) Marcus: ...so we don't need to be mic'd-up. As a result, we have developed quite a following, in terms of the audience. It's given the members something more to enjoy, as part of their membership. We even get people passing through, who are interested enough in the subject, to want to stop off from the tour and and have a listen. They're generally half an hour to 45 minutes, and we have a Q&A at the end, as well, so that engages the audience even more. But some of the subjects have been tremendous, you know - there was one called 'George IV's Big Pants'. Sophie: (laughs) Gosh, and what happened in...? Marcus: Well, this is ...this is something else that it's achieved - the person who did the talk was able to work with Martin Pel, who, of course, is our Costume curator. And he gave that person permission to have the Prince's big pants out of storage so that it could be a part of this talk. Sophie: How great! Marcus: It was! And it's a wonderful way of utilizing the collection, which, has to be said, for the most part, you know, sits in an acid-free cardboard box and is only bought out high days and holidays, if at all. There's a lot of stuff that we have, that's never seen the light of day - being beautifully looked after - but doesn't see the light of day. So, whenever we do these Pavilion Tales, a lot of it is in mind of, "Oooh, what can we use within the collection - a piece of jewellery, or of this or of that?" And, as a result, you know, that's enabled us to work more closely with the curators, and all of that - it's all good. And then happily, for all of us, the audience find it fascinating and feel quite privileged to be in the presence of the Kings pants, you know? It really is terrific, in many, many ways.