Running annually since 2011, over three days Museomix participants gather to co-create and test new ways of approaching expositions. The 2013 edition took place in six museums across three countries, with multi-disciplinary teams drawn from a number of specialisms to imagine, protoype and test new ways to engage musuem audiences.
I was invited to be a team mentor for the only English participants, a group of 10 inter-related exposition spaces collectively called the Ironbridge Gorge Museums, which are located in Shropshire and feature significantly in the history of the Industrial Revolution.
The role of mentor - a kind of 'floating adviser' - involved helping to facilitate the evolution of projects from concept to delivery, acting as a neutral voice within groups comprised of professionals from various diverse backgrounds: scientists, historians, museum interpretation experts, digital technologists and graphic designers, each with a specific view on the 'best' way to tackle the challenge the team identified... most 'authentic', most 'beautiful', most 'educationally rich', most 'innovative'... altogether an intense, exhausting but ultimately rewarding experience, in a beautiful neck of the woods.