MUSEUM REPORT

From the Director of Programmes

Cathy Putz reflects on the past nine months and shares exciting plans for what comes next

My first nine months in the role have provided an incredible insight into the art of the possible. The opening of the Hogarth exhibition is a stunning achievement and reinforces my impression of an organisation with graft and passionate commitment at its heart. It is not a coincidence that the exhibition resonates with so many contemporary issues. The values underlying programming at Derby Museums mean our work continues to bring our communities new routes to self-expression and agency. As I was reminded recently by author Samantha Clark, we are all so immersed in day-today challenges that we lose sight of our own agency and are inclined to accept received wisdom, losing sight of that intelligence above language, as she puts it. The rapacity of the contemporary attention economy means we need to work even harder to encourage visitors to engage in new ways with our programme. As Clark says:

“Our attention is in scarce supply today. We don’t have less attention than we used to. But there is more vying for it. The demand far outpaces the supply we bring to market.”

The vitality of our programming across Derby Museums’ three sites proves that exploring our talents and interests together offers new ways to creatively transform our world. We draw on the inspiration we can find every day, right where we are. The way we work with communities, whether for example with the Derby West Indian Association, the Creative Sanctuary Group or Virtual Schools, shows how being ‘skills and making’ focused releases a shared sense of possibility.

Through developing partnerships within our public programme, we express the innate knowledge in our hands. We re-assert the importance of pausing to look differently at things. We need our community partners more than ever in order to activate our sites. Expanding our joint practice is the right response to society’s destabilising unknowns. So we are for example looking to expand the range of courses offered in our Workshop at Museum of Making, and planning on working with schools in new ways. Watch this space for a chance to explore different materials and new ideas.

We also continue to connect with civic partners in thinking about tackling the climate crisis and hosting important conversations around how we want our communities to thrive. We will work more widely with socially engaged artists and craft practitioners on co-designed projects. The community creativity we explore can kick start an explosion pattern –connecting us with local networks, dynamically re-defining what we value. When we connect around art and making, we see ourselves as patternmaking creatures, making deeper patterns around our commonalities.

Cathy Putz, Director of Programmes

Internationally, innovative museums with whom I have collaborated around craft and making, like the Boijmansin Rotterdam, have begun to seek new ways of working across the artificial borders of museums and community. In fact, even the word ‘museum’ is passé. The Boijmans call themselves “a house for imagination, inspiration, and creativity”. They value “versatility; excellence; passion; openness; innovation.” They call their new open-access collection, a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’: an interactive makerspace. I aim to reconnect with my international colleagues at the Boijmans and elsewhere, the Danish Architecture Centre, who develop exciting and disruptive co-produced projects. We can gain greater traction for Derbyproduced creativity through international partnerships, sharing best practice with those who share our values, and who also programme in ways that refine our resourcefulness and celebrate civic energy. In 2023 we’ll bring you new work and ideas produced with local makers and those tackling present day challenges, from the cost-of-living crisis to the urgent drive for social equality.

This new programme will embolden us and give us cause to celebrate the positive. Returning to artist-writer Samantha Clark, Sam reminded me about what is most rewarding: staying engaged, exploring, cultivating our practice of noticing and experimenting; celebrating and sharing what we love – these are powerful acts.