‘Pop-Up Talks’ launch this week!
by Kimberley Coates, Visitor Services and Volunteer Manager
At
the Jewish Museum we’re always looking for ways to help our visitors explore
our amazing collection and develop our volunteer team. Our new Pop-Up Talks programme will comprise
of a series of talks on objects chosen by the volunteers themselves.
To develop this Roz Currie (Military Collections Curator) and I applied for an in house
grant from the Museum of London for training. We wanted our volunteers to get
the best possible training so invited award winning blue badge guide Rachel
Kolsky to deliver two days of intensive in-house training. To foster closer
relationships between the Jewish Museum volunteers and the Jewish Military
Museum volunteers, both volunteer groups took part in the training.
‘Pop-Up Talk’ Volunteer Lindsay Malin giving a talk in the History Gallery
Our
volunteers often give their time to the museum as they feel a personal
connection to the collection. Whether for religious or personal reasons, or an
interest in a certain historical era, our volunteers are extremely knowledgeable
and always have a fascinating story to tell about objects from the collection.
These Pop-Up Talks are a way of
allowing volunteers to share this personal connection with visitors.
The talks will cover a range of subjects from a hands on talk (and
demonstration!) about the meaning of the Shofar horn, to a poignant talk about
the life of 20 year old Marcus Segal through letters he wrote on the Western
Front. Our volunteers are involved in the museum in many different ways: one Pop-Up Talk volunteer helped to painstakingly
transcribed 150 of Segal’s letters, so they could be uploaded for everybody to
access online.
Marcus Segal’s letters, written in pencil, are displayed in the History Gallery
At the end of February the Pop-Up Talk Volunteers trialled their talks to the
museum staff who were amazed by how good they were. From March we will be
rolling out the talks to the public. The Pop-Up
Talks programme will run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Sundays and alternate
Thursdays.
The Pop-Up Talks are an exciting
opportunity for visitors to engage with the collection through our volunteers. We
really hope the public enjoy hearing the volunteer’s unique Pop-Up Talks and we see this as the
first of many new opportunities for volunteers here at the Jewish Museum.
Come by and hear one of the Pop-Up
Talks from our experienced and knowledgeable volunteers!
To read more about Marcus Segal or any of
the Military stories, click here:
http://www.letters.thejmm.org.uk.gridhosted.co.uk/biography_marcus
