Martin Grimes
Web Manager, Manchester Art Gallery
Job overview
My role as web manager at Manchester Art Gallery sits within the Audience Development Team and is predominantly focussed upon marketing the gallery's exhibition and events programme through a range of online channels including a website, twitter, facebook and a number of blogs. Additionally I play a role in projects which use digital technologies to deliver interpretative materials to audiences whether on or off-line.
Motivation and Aims for undertaking the PDP
Much of the work I do in my role could broadly be seen as digital marketing and whilst this is still very much an emergent discipline, it is one that is being rigorously explored by the museum and gallery sector currently. However, in terms of the gallery's online collection and my own future career development I'm interested in exploring how collections can work effectively in an online digital space.
Building upon work already being done by colleagues in the Interpretation Development team at Manchester Art Gallery, and by Artists Hazel Jones and Sharon Blakey, I'm interested in the possibility of taking a crowdsourced approach to the creative documentation of the Mary Greg collection. The questions I'd like to explore are:
- Is it possible or effective to ask audiences to help the gallery document this collection using the digital devices they already own and the social media channels they already use?
- Is it possible to democratise the access to and the creative interpretation of the collection without overly determining the form and destination of the interpretation?
- How might the resultant material relate to the 'official' collection management documentation that the gallery itself produces?
- What this process might tell us about how we can extend the creative potential locked away in hidden stores via social networking.
The Mary Greg collection is being documented on the marymaryquitecontrary blog
Images from the collection itself and our documentation of it so far can be explored in the Mary Greg flickr collection
Object Memories showcase from Asta Films on Vimeo.
Contact
Email: m.grimes@manchester.gov.uk
Phone: 0161 235 8870
twitter: mcrartgallery / martingrimes