The Modernisation of Wiltshire Museum; Chatting with Amber

Okay, that’s enough now! The social media presence of Wiltshire Museum in Devizes has shot from zero to hero. Vlogs of staff dancing in period clothing, creating street art, and generally enjoying themselves far too much! When did working at a museum look so much fun, unless you’re Ben Stiller?! 

This all came to an apex during carnival, which saw them brazenly parading Long Street dressed as Stonehenge’s sarsens and lintels! Where’s the rusty neolithic tools and bits of rock in rotting condensated oak cabinets, and the bearded teacher with leather elbow patches dragging unwilling kids by their ears?! The fault is apparently shouldered by their new Marketing & Events Officer, Amber Pullen. I went down to Wiltshire Museum to meet Amber, and give her a piece of my mind!

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While I waited for this social media virtuoso, some children were exiting the museum, headdressed and clasping gifts with the expressions of someone who’s just had a really fun morning. Devizes should be proud, for it is a great museum already, seemingly as dimensionally transcendental as Dr Who’s Tardis. But while I was there, I had to consider that the bigger on the inside surprise factor might be reversed, once they’ve relocated to the grand Assize Court. I must ask Amber about the project, but also I wanted to focus on her too, because in order to make that transition effective, Wiltshire Museum must make a marketing impact now.

Amber started here in April. Since then it’s been a crucial time for the museum, as it embarks on its most adventurous move ever. I gave thought to the Natural History Museum, and @Bristol, where tech makes them interactive, and I supposed, while Wiltshire Museum has always had interactive qualities for children, like the gold digging pit and brilliant spongy build-your-own Stonehenge, such things are crucial for the contemporary appeal of a museum. Then, I supposed digital marketing was equally as important, to get them through the door in the first place! Here is where Amber shines, but most importantly of all, she took kindly to the Ben Stiller comparison! 

“That’s going to have to go into my marketing strategy,” she said of the film, Night at the Museum!

“I don’t come from a history or archaeology background,” Amber said about my negative memories of seventies school trips to museums, later revealing she came from an acting perspective. “But I think culture and heritage are still a definite passion and interest of mine. And I think for a lot of people, they are. But as you said, I think there’s an element to museums which have, like a wall up or something, which doesn’t always make them always liked by certain demographics, or make certain people feel welcome, but there’s definitely stuff for them to enjoy in them. And it’s changing the conversation, changing the tone or just going, actually, it’s not that scary to walk in because you can still have fun here!”

True that; there’s an extensive program of events for all ages, crafts and clubs for children, which sell out quickly. But does Amber feel the social media is attracting new visitors and opening to a wider demographic? “Again, it’s hard to tell with social media, you can obviously have your stats change, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those stats bring in those audiences. I’d like to think it does. People have said to me, whether it’s a biassed thing, or ‘I’ve seen more about it online,’ so I think just having that voice or that conversation existing is really lovely. And also, being on the edge of town, we can sometimes get driven past or forgotten about. I’m hoping that people remember, in a fun way!”

We talked about the honesty expressed in the videos, and the fun; laughing about encouraging Museum curator David to dance, where Amber confessed, “I think having fun is probably my main go-to!” and “David said to me early on, he pretty much has no shame. And I was like, well this is going to go wonderfully because, me too!” But Amber explained he did forewarn her not to get him singing or dancing!

Amber suggested she was concerned about how the older generations would accept the “more playful” adaptations to the museum’s media content, with the notion “you’re never going to please everyone,” but explained, “I think what’s really wonderful is, actually, they’ve interacted and received it well, way better than I thought! Even the volunteers here, I was like, okay, that’s really wonderful to hear, because I think also they care about, you know, how can we get a younger audience in? And if we’re not, why not? And how can we?”

With the idea of using tech for interactive exhibits, Amber confirmed they would be developing more of this for the new Museum. “I think humans learn in many different ways,” she said. “Some people would love to come in here and read everything, but others might like to learn through the interactives or the costume corner and then just look at all the gold and like the visual interactive which is probably my learning style!”

On carnival’s Stonehenge costumes, Amber said, “we needed to turn up in this community, for sure, but I’m not just carrying a banner!  So, I got five of us dressed as cardboard boxes, which was really good fun! Next year we just know to go bigger and louder. So that’s a nice thing to prepare for.”

If we’re talking about the future, the burning question must be, when will the museum reopen at the Assize Court? Amber suggested, “we’re going for 2030, which would be wonderful. I have every hope in that. Which sounds a long time away, but actually it’s only three years if you think about it.”

The best thing about the project is destiny; the building looks like it should be a museum! “Exactly that,” Amber agreed. “That’s exactly what it looks like.”

And on its modernisation, Amber mentioned how their engagement, creating, and education teams have been working together. “They’ve been doing so many meetings and planning in the background, and with work starting next month, I know enabling works are due to start in October, which will be so exciting for not only us here to see, but everyone else in the town to see.”

Amber exemplified the recent shaman revelation, where the two-centuries long assumption Upton Lovell Shaman’s gender was male, has been turned on its head through recent scientific discovery, and transformed our understanding of Bronze Age gender roles. “It’s she, not he,” Amber expressed, and explained, “she will have her own interactive screens with wonderful bits that you can learn more from. I think the idea is we’ll have cleaner spaces to work around; that’s the ambition.”

Recounting the amount of times Amber used the word “fun,” and speaking about how to engage the community of all ages, throughout our chat, would be impossible! Her optimistic approach and ecstatic enthusiasm rubs off on an institution which might otherwise be wrongly considered dull; that is the magic happening at Wiltshire Museum, proir to this exciting move.

Proof of this is in the way Amber explained that the Upton Lovell Shaman was once described as a stout man, “but not a stout man at all! And that’s really wonderful, going forward in terms of not only changing the museum to a new place and being able to tell multiple stories in new ways, it’s also completely celebrating a whole new story and what we have now learned from modern technology that can retest these things, which is really cool, really great and I think really exciting. This is awesome for sure!”

See what I mean?! I’m actually deleting some of Amber’s optimistic expressions, to save the word count! “Fun is going to be at the root of everything I do, to be honest. Probably just how I function.”

The obvious advantage to having the Assize Court, is a large event space, and it got me thinking about recent occasions when this would have been advantageous; when Brian Edwards made national headlines with the discovering the origin of the thatcher on the Led Zeppelin album cover, David and I discussed the prospect of having a Led Zeppelin tribute, or the possibility of local electronica producer Moray McDonald paying homage to Daphne Oram, these things could have been done internally at the new museum. But day to day, having elements like a café, which Amber said was on the cards, would surely keep visitors for longer, and refreshed.

I mentioned Johnny Ball, and how he made maths and science fun in my youth, and Amber praised the brilliant Horrible Histories television series, which does a roadshow, and we agreed this would be something amazing to bring to Devizes. “I think those things are really important,” Amber said, “and finding new ways to kind of express all the stories. How we can make it interesting for the people who don’t naturally like just reading and absorbing information.”

I asked Amber if there is a secret to social media success that she would like to share?! 

“No,” she replied, “because I am convinced that the algorithms are ever-changing. I think half the time people don’t know what they’re doing. And maybe I’m so foolish for saying this myself, but I think they’re so advanced now; just be authentic. For me, I’m quite a playful, bubbly person, so I try to put that into my marketing style, as well as obviously the element of knowing the team here are so lovely and also similar. So, why not bring that to it? Because those people exist in the space that we’re also trying to promote.”

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We chatted about how fast social media changes, compared platforms, and debated their worth. My aging mind boggled, but I returned from Wiltshire Museum confident about its prospects and growth through this entertaining engagement, and grateful to Amber for such a nice chat!

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