Gurdeep Thiara
Curator of Community Engagement, The Manchester Museum
Job Overview
I have been working at the Manchester Museum for six years on a range of outreach and community engagements programmes. My current role see's me co-ordintaing Collective Conversations a unique film based approach developed by the Museum to encourage interested people to discuss the Museum collection. This entails working in partnership with community based organisations to support their participation in museum activities and working with museum staff to ensure integration of this work into exhibitions, gallery displays and public programmes. I am also overseeing the museums role in a two year Grundtvig funded European partnership programme 'Museums Literacy', looking at good practice in the cultural sector related to working with groups facing socail exclusion. My role also extends into overseeing both general and strategic aspects of community engagement work within the museum.
Biography
My background lies in community work where I worked for seven years with young homeless women and then young people with mental health issues. After graduating with a degree in Social Sciences I went on to study for a PGCE in Primary Years but did not take up teaching and instead pursued my interests in working in the voluntary sector. This experience influenced and shaped my understanding of community work and helped to develop an interest and motivation to improve access and participation in the cultural sector, by under-represented groups. I love meeting and working with a diverse range of people in this work and have observed some unique encounters between people discovering the collection for the first time and making personal insights which change the way they view the museum and what its here to do.
Motivation and Aims for undertaking the PDP
I am looking forward to spending some time to think more critically and strategically about my role and practice in the museum through the PDP programme. The offer to spend time accessing the expertise and resources of the Museology department will be very useful and help to reflect on current practice in community enagagement work and develop and test out ways to take this work forward at a time when the museums sector at large may be shifting priorities in this area. The ability to think and act strategically in order to promote new ways of working in museums which may challenge tradtional orthodoxies is a valuable skill which I am looking to develop through the PDP.
Contact: gurdeep.thiara@manchester.ac.uk, 0161 275 8768