Organised by MEG’s Early-Career Subcommittee, this session of the Keeping Connected series seeks to explore practices of care for museum staff and how they can be embedded within an institution. The session will include three presentations from practitioners and academics who have been working on networks, policies, and practices aimed at fostering support for employees across departments. Our speakers will be:

Sacha Marson (they/them) – a Visitor Experience Assistant bringing Wellcome Collection’s objects and themes to life for visitors through a range of activities. Sacha is particularly interested in exploring how philosophical and political thought relates to lived experience throughout history. They are part of the Collections Working Group at the Wellcome Collection, formed to reconsider how it feels to tackle the challenge of dealing with a 19th century perception of race, gender, and disability and to change the Wellcome Collection’s perception of this. They will be talking about a Resource Booklet which is in the process of development and discuss how it aims to help new-starters and existing members of the team to access critical literature and sense-check their research methods, especially in relation to ethically sensitive collection items. They will also discuss how this will support and ultimately develop Visitor Experience Assistant’s confidence in their research process by providing not only context to items but various points of contact to discuss their research approach.

Jasmine Brady (they/them) – a Front of House Team Leader at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and Chair of the Change Makers Action Group (CMAG) for the University of Cambridge Museums. They are particularly passionate about using leadership skills to create more inclusive, welcoming, and nurturing working environments. They will be speaking about the experience of chairing CMAG and the importance of staff networks for solidarity and wellbeing.

Anna Woodham (she/her) – a Senior Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Management in the Department of Culture, Media, and Creative Industries (CMCI) at King’s College London. Her research focuses on contemporary challenges impacting museums and archives. Her recent collaborative projects have focused on the impact of climate change on heritage in the low-lying island nation of Kiribati and in exploring emotion, care, and enthusiasm in ‘unloved’ collections. These projects and others have led Anna to become interested in the emotional labour involved in the development and management of museum and archival collections. Inspired by research on heritage and climate change conducted for two AHRC funded research projects, Anna’s presentation briefly outlines an initial framework for how we can conceptualise emotional and affective labour expended by museum professionals during their work and concludes with some thoughts on where this leaves the sector in terms of training, support and leadership gaps.

Each presentation will be 10–15 minutes long, and will be followed by breakout room discussions, focussing on each presentee’s topics, as well as a general discussion with all the attendees. The event will be free but will only be open to MEG members. Please do not share the event’s Zoom link when you receive them.