: Community Engagement

Who are you? How and why did you join Demystifying Acquisitions? 

My name is Abraham Makanjuola, I am originally from London and I work as a Health Economist for Bangor University. During my masters, I was working with the Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel (SSAP) on a documentary about narratives about the African Continent from the perspective of people from the diaspora linked with the UK. Following the release of this, I was approached about being involved with filming behind the scenes content for Demystifying Acquisitions. I was initially not sure, because I didn’t know what I had of value to offer the project, but I was met with encouragement and that helped me make my decision. I think that was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life to date. 

How did you find the overall experience of working for Demystifying Acquisitions? 

It was sensational, I would do it all over again exactly as it has played out. I genuinely have nothing negative to say and there aren’t any glaring issues that require addressing from my perspective. I think that is a testament to the people I was blessed enough to work with. I have enjoyed myself and learned so much over the past couple of years and I am grateful to all involved. 

What set of skills did you gain while working on the project? 

Specific to new museum knowledge, I learned about the conservation of artwork, how the bid and grant writing process works, and how to write labels for artworks in galleries. Wider softer skills I was able to develop were teamwork and collaboration, and project management. 

What was your favourite part of working on the project? 

My favourite part was being a part of the install day of the redisplay, I even got to put up one of the works which was cool. Prior to this day though, my favourite part was learning about label writing. Did you feel listened to? Were you able to influence or change things? What instance? Throughout the process we were given complete autonomy and were encouraged and supported with our group decisions. With this support we were able to respect museum practices but also shake things up and challenge how things have previously been done. We did have push back for certain decisions we made but there was always mutual understanding and respect.


 

In March 2024, I became part of a team of volunteers at National Museum Cardiff, our objective to setup and maintain a second-hand bookstall in the main hall of the museum.  

I have a background in education, community arts, and creative writing. When the opportunity to volunteer as bookseller with National Museum Cardiff came about, I eagerly applied and was over the moon to have been invited to join. Being involved in the running of the second-hand bookstall resonates with my, and the museum’s, commitment to making education accessible. At the stall, we always have a host of history, science, and arts books available for children and adults. The bookstall also promotes an ease of access to a wide variety of fiction books, which thrills the creative writer in me. 

Whenever I go into the museum, I am warmed by how interested everyone is in the bookstall. I often chat with visitors about their unique finds, or how excited they are to get stuck into a new book, as well as talking about the museum and its exhibits. Members of staff at the museum are always taking an interest too, and I’ve gotten to know some members of the front of house team well. It is always nice hearing about their book finds, or updates about the money the stall has raised, or to catch up and chat about how our weeks have been going.  

We stock the bookstall with second-hand books donated to us by members of museum staff, and members of the public via donations to St Fagans National Museum of History, at which they have their own successful second-hand bookstall. I go into the museum once a week to sort through these donated books, in addition to tidying up and restocking the bookstall. Sorting books sees me sort books by genre, and alphabetise the fiction, as well as to make sure that books are marked with a suggested donation. Green =50p, Blue =£1, Yellow =£2, and our red stickers mark custom prices, usually to highlight rare editions, or bundles.

Sorting through the books is a great joy, we never know what is going to come in, and there are always fascinating gems to be found. I’ll set myself up in the volunteer hub, usually with an audiobook or some music and make my way through the book piles. Some of my favourite donations have been the unique specialist books donated by museum staff, books that you simply wouldn’t find in your average bookshop. But the fact is, I never know what is going to turn up. Several finds which have stood out to me, and highlight the diversity of books that come in, include: the score to Westside Story, a guide to scuba diving, a book of Mastermind questions, and an omnibus of Alien vs Predator novels! Just goes to show that it’s always worth popping in to see what’s there.  

Being a part of the bookstall has been greatly rewarding, I’ve gotten to know lots of museum volunteers and staff alike, and my relationship with the museum has provided me with opportunities to attend unique talks and events for volunteers, such as our tour of National Roman Legion Museum, back in November ‘24. Notably, I am proud of the money that the bookstall has raised for the museum, £4300.88 at the most recent count up by staff!

The second-hand bookstall is made up of four bookcases which can be found in the main hall of National Museum Cardiff. Books can be purchased by making a donation at the card reader, or by dropping some cash into the collection box beside the shelves.   

Daniel Skentelbery – Book Sale Volunteer

When it came to writing this article, my thought space had been taken to the theme of journeys; the unknown ground between a beginning and an ending. My journey as a young producer for Bloedd’s latest project, an LGBTQIA+ oral histories exhibition, has been a nearly yearlong one. What began as conversation in a shared space containing mutual interests and passions, defined the nucleus of my work here. The beginnings of this time had been an unpacking of what we felt as a collective was important to represent for an upcoming exhibition. We knew from the jump that we wanted to represent voices that may often go unheard; those whose experience may not be recounted upon by the mainstream perception of what it means to live an LGBTQIA+ life. 

Moving away from the typical portrait of queerness being a thrown brick in protest, that while important, we are more than our fight for freedoms; our stories can be found in the everyday, in the places we visit, the jobs we keep, the people we love and share our lives with. The given name of this exhibition, Ours to Tell, came only after we had completed our collection of stories, the self-described journey we undertook over several months of visits and interviews, holding dialogue with well over fifty years of experience. But what is in a name? Ours to Tell is a reclamation. It’s our way of saying “here is a story, told by a firsthand account of the storyteller”. It’s our way of saying “these words are cut from a book hidden away in the attic of my mind. I’ve ventured into the attic, and I’m dusting it off for you.” It’s our way of saying “this is where I come from”. 

While the journey of this project has been underpinned by a great deal of planning and preparation, what you can’t prepare for is what you might uncover in someone else’s story. You commit to the routine of presenting a series of questions, from you to the storyteller, with only a table between you. It comes as a surprise the level of detail, which is excavated by the storyteller, they are like a hoarder being handed a stepladder, invited to dig up their stowed away possessions from the attic. Your questions are prompts: “when did you first see your identity reflected in someone else?”, “what does a safe space look like to you?”, the list goes on. The exciting part is that you don’t know what’s coming next, and you are there, alongside the storyteller, who guides you through a journey which may well bring up a familiarity or nostalgia for the listener. During these times when I’ve had the great pleasure to listen to these stories, I can confidently say that I have felt every kind of emotion in response. I laughed. I have cried. I have been moved. I have been taken on a journey.

Enabling the participants of this project to confidently speak about their experiences has proved an undeniable joy, though I cannot understate how this project has affected those coordinating its launch. Fellow young producer Joss Copeman, like me had been drawn to this exciting opportunity, Copeman’s “personal work is largely centred around queer narratives and themes of identity and the self.” The journey which unfolded from Ours to Tell has been greatly beneficial, as it pertains to young LGBTQIA+ creatives and makers, taking inspiration from unheard voices, now affected and transformed by echoes of their experience. This is a feeling I know will resonate with the audience, and I can only hope it will stir others in future, to share what might be put away, gathering dust in the attic. 

I’d like to conclude with a quote that shook me like a cat in a tree, “Art is not just for oneself, not just a marker of one’s own understanding. It is also a map for those who follow after us.”

Written by Ivy Kelly, Amgueddfa Cymru Producer (Bloedd).

Bloedd is the platform for youth engagement at Amgueddfa Cymru.

We're busy getting ready for the redevelopment project at the National Slate Museum, which is due to start November 2024! We want to give volunteers the opportunity to be a part of this phase of the project by helping us clean, catalogue and pack our collection in the Pattern Loft. 

To ensure our wonderful industrial collection is protected whilst essential conservation and renovation work is done on the Gilfach Ddu, the collection will be moving. Or at least some of it! Our Collections & Cataloguing Assistants, Osian and Mathew, have been busy labelling and cataloguing items of the collection that haven't before been looked at in such detail. They will be cleaning them, and packing them safely in crates with tissue paper. 

This is a unique opportunity to welcome volunteers and involve them in new ways. We want to make the most of this opportunity to provide experiences, skills development and help improve people's wellbeing through volunteering. 

Sound interesting? Want to Take Part? Take a look at the full Collection Volunteer role description on the website.  You will be able to volunteer on Tuesdays or Thursdays, 10:00-1:00. We can be flexible to suit public transport. This project will run from 24 September to 31 October, but further collections volunteering opportunities will become available in the new year. Any questions? Get in touch with Chloe Ward, Volunteering & Engagement Coordinator on chloe.ward@museumwales.ac.uk. 

I’m currently studying heritage conservation at Cardiff University, so I wanted to undertake his placement as I have a keen interest in how museums digitise their collections for educational purposes and to increase the accessibility of the heritage they safeguard, and I also wanted to explore how museum collections are used for research purposes.

What are diatoms?

Diatoms are microscopic, single-celled algae that inhabit oceans, rivers, and lakes. They are notable for their intricate cell walls made of silica, which resemble delicate glass shells when viewed under a microscope. These cell walls, called frustules, have unique and complex patterns. Diatoms play a vital role in the environment by performing approximately one-fifth of the total global photosynthesis. This process not only produces a significant portion of the Earth's oxygen but diatoms also form an important part of aquatic food webs, supporting a diverse range of marine and freshwater organisms.

Their importance for research lies in their ability to act as bio-indicators in aquatic ecosystems. Analysis of diatom populations and diversity studies have been used to evaluate human impact on freshwater and marine environments. As bio-indicators, diatoms can be used to assess the levels of organic pollution, eutrophication and acidification of their aquatic environment. Different species have differing tolerance levels of environmental conditions like water pH (the acidity or alkalinity of the water) and nutrient concentrations. Several diatom indices have been developed and are used by the Environment Agency to monitor water quality in UK rivers and lakes.

Analysis of diatom populations can also be used to demonstrate trends over time, as Ingrid’s work on the restoration of water quality of the rivers Wye and Irfon through periodic liming shows (for more details visit https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X20309961#ab010). The same case can be made for historical collections stored in museums, which can provide unique insight into historical diatom populations, and which can be used to infer previous environmental conditions and compare them to those found in contemporary studies.

In addition to their environmental and research importance, diatoms are incredibly beautiful. So much so, that during the Victorian period, they were often assembled into decorative arrangements on microscope slides. For the uninitiated, I would highly recommend searching for images of Johann Diedrich Möller’s work as well as the more contemporary works of Klaus Kemp; they are truly astounding arrangements. 

The Placement

Under Dr. Ingrid Juttner’s excellent guidance I learned basic diatom morphology and how to identify Gomphonema species, which typically display asymmetry along the trans-apical axis (i.e. the top and bottom halves are not usually mirror images of each other).

Ingrid took me through the process of diatom analysis in light microscopy, from “cooking” the water samples with hydrogen peroxide to remove organic cell content and preparing the microscope slides, through to photographing, editing and uploading the images to the museum’s diatom website. The photographs featured were taken with a light microscope at x1000 magnification, and measurements (length, width, striae density) were recorded. These images were then edited and prepared as plates to provide an overview of the cell size distribution in the species population. The plates were uploaded to the website with corresponding literature and morphological descriptions. 

Some notable species I photographed which are now featured on the website are Eunotia arcubus, Eunotia botuliformis and Planothidium incuriatum.

Overall, my placement within the Lower Plants section has

• Provided me with invaluable insights into scientific and particularly, taxonomic, practices
• Highlighted the role that diatoms play in our natural environments
• Demonstrated how museum collections can and are being utilised for the benefit of science as well as being important repositories for mapping changes in biodiversity.
• Illustrated how projects like the Diatom Flora and Fauna of Britain and Ireland can help create accessible resources for professional and amateur researchers as well as opening up collections to a wider public, who might otherwise be unaware of their existence.
• Finally, this placement has been an opportunity to admire the exceptional beauty of diatoms.

If you would like to know more about the diatom collection at the National Museum of Wales, please see the museum’s Diatom Research page  as well as  blog posts by Ingrid entitled ‘Scientific expedition to Rara Lake, Nepal’ and ‘Diatom diversity of the Falklands Islands’. I would also highly encourage anyone interested in diatom identification to view the Diatom Flora and Fauna of Britain and Ireland website.

My heartfelt thanks go out to Dr. Ingrid Jüttner for her instruction, her wealth of knowledge and, not least, her conversation. I would equally like to thank the various staff members who coordinated and supported this placement at Amgueddfa Cymru, may there be many more such opportunities.