Post Christmas restart

It’s time to start up the Citizen Curator Core sessions again tomorrow and so this week I’ve really started to have a serious think about the brief we’ve been given to select objects for the Cornish National Collection. 

It’s one of the objectives of the Citizen Curators' Programme that we help to build this collection of artefacts that ‘reflects the diversity of Cornish society past and present’. 

You can read the full brief here:  https://www.cornwallmuseumspartnership.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Cornish-National-Collection-Brief-2019.pdf

A Helston Flora Day poster from the Museum of Cornish Life Collection

Definitions

The first thing that strikes me is the complex nature of defining ‘Cornish Society’. What makes something uniquely Cornish and, as a person of non-Cornish origin, is my view of Cornishness the same as the next persons?

Then there’s that thorny issue of ‘past and present’ – there are very few museums I have visited that really collect truly modern items and I feel that finding these may prove tricky. 

Add in the request within the brief that ‘poorly-represented people’ are particularly to be considered and you have another dilemma: do the collections in our Cornish museums harbour items that reflect a diversity of society?

Items in The Museum of Cornish Life, Helston

My take

Whilst contemplating these wider definition issues, I also turn my attention to a set of bullet points within the brief mapping out the tasks we must undertake to navigate the wider assignment.

• ·      Take part in the Cornish National Collection First Survey (May 2019)
• ·      Make a list of things you want to know more about in relation to Cornish identities
• ·      Identify themes and items from your projects that might be included
• ·      Think about under-represented people, ideas and stories that we will curate
• ·      Identify types of artefacts outside your museum’s collections that could be included
• 
  

Initial brainstorm of 'Cornish' things

I've reflected on my own place in Cornwall and know that I will never be Cornish - I live here, but am proudly from Lancashire and always will be. So what right do I, as a stalwart of a different county have to select objects to form a part of this collection? Well, I have been given that right and I can only do my best with it. And I turn to an adage I have always held as a writer and a journalist which is that sometimes those in a profession, situation or place are not the best to explain it to others. Sometimes it takes the astute questioning of someone who understands nothing about the situation to translate the knowledge of the experts into something the average person understands. And I hope a similar situation applies here. I hope that not having the blinkers of in-depth knowledge will be a help rather than a hindrance.