About me
Museographer doesn’t actually mean someone who creates museum stories but if it did – that would be a good way of describing me. Spatial storyteller, that’s another one.
I work with museums and cultural organisations in the process of imagining or (more often) reimagining their relationship with the public. I think narrative is an essential tool for this imaginative work and I believe that if we can be brave enough to embrace storytelling in these spaces (I mean, really commit to it) well, then … we can move mountains.
And what is this?
A writing project where I unpack ideas about reimagining museums, as well as storytelling in cultural spaces. Oh, and sometimes, it’s just a compendium of things that are inspiring me right now.
And why is it called …
‘Resonance and wonder’? Well they’re good things, don’t you think?
The phrase ‘resonance and wonder’ was coined in an essay about exhibitions by the literary critic Stephen Greenblatt. I think of them as the warp and weft of museum experiences. We need resonance – the moments where an encounter hooks us and links us to a bigger narrative – and wonder – the moments of sheer absorption where something, in Greenblatt’s words, stops us in our tracks.
There are no guaranteed formulas for success (4 parts R to 1 part W, add a splash of water) but I think there are strategies for creating environments where resonance and wonder can thrive.
I mean, I could also have titled the newsletter, ‘everything I know about telling stories in cultural spaces’, or ‘five billion things to think about when you’re planning museums’ but neither really trips off the tongue.
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