Museum’s role—educate and entertain

Press, 29 August 1984, Page 17

Museum’s role —educate and entertain

By

LINDA CLARK

Beverley McCulloch was squeezed between plastic bags of old bones and the mounted skeletons of small animals. As she fossicked about for an extra chair it was obvious that in the midst of all this restored decay she was quite at home. Mrs McCulloch is a voluntary worker at the Canterbury Museum. A geologist and an experienced archaeologist, she has been working in and around museums for nearly 18 years. But from September 3 she will no longer have to share her desk with the spare bits of dead animals. She is the new liaison officer for the Canterbury district.

It’s a new position and as yet it is not properly defined. “It’s going to be a very much play it by ear sort of job. I’ll just have to try to take each thing as it comes.” The position ftas been set up by

the art galleries and museums scheme of the Department of Internal Affairs, funded largely by the Lotteries Board. There are three other officers around the country but this is the first for Canterbury. The region extends from Haast to Karamea in the west and from the Waitaki River to Blenheim in the east. Included in that area are some 80 museums. Mrs McCulloch’s job will be assisting and advising these museums in any way possible.

“There’s a limit to what I can do personally,” she says. “I probably won’t be able to give them the answers straight away but my job will be to find out answers from various experts.”

It’s an efficient and necessary way of sharing resources and expertise. “Canterbury Museum already helps a number of smaller museums, but this’-'is a formal

extension of that service.” Her definition of a museum is broad enough to cover almost anything. It includes any specialist, natural history, and local history collections as well as any archival or photographic collections. Owners of valuable objects can also approach Mrs McCulloch for advice on such things as storage.

Beverley McCulloch has a deep respect for the work she is doing. “Museums have a terrifically important part to play in any community.

“The first function is, obviously, to preserve and conserve materials that would otherwise be lost and in so doing, they provide a resource for’research,” she said. But to Mrs McCulloch their-frnost

important role is that of educator. “This is the thing I’m particularly interested in. It should be a museum’s primary aim.” But if a museum is to educate it should also entertain. “We shouldn’t force things down people’s throats. The educational aspect should probably be unconscious.” Nowadays museums face a lot of competition. “You can get in your car and drive a hundred miles to the ski fields without batting an eye-lid. People are no longer confined to spending afternoons in a museum.” So museums have to face up to the demands of the modern world. It is a challenge Beverley McCulloch feels they have met head on. “People no longer regard museums just as repositories of A

large collections of rather fusty old things in the charge of equally fusty curators. Anyway, I hope they don’t think that,” she says, with a laugh. On a personal level Mrs McCulloch has written easy-to-read informative booklets. She calls them her “popular publications.” Not very long and easily understood, these, more than anything else, show her enthusiasm for her work. She is also a regular contributor to “The Press” column, “Museum Pieces,” but is modest about her literary achievements. “I hope people read them and say, ‘Hey, that’s interesting.’ Even if only one or two do that, then I’ve achieved something.” Meanwhile she is looking forward to September and the promise of her own office. But chances are that it will still have bits and bones in the corner.