
What will you ask?
Ask a Museum was a social media event which ran from 2010 to 2022. No event is planned for 2023.
About
Ask a Museum will not happen in 2023
Ask a Museum (or Ask a Curator as it was called at the time) started in 2010 in an effort to harness Twitter’s networking power to drum up some direct engagement with curators across the globe.
The idea was that a curious public would be able to question the keepers of cultural heritage about the objects in their care and what it is they do with them.
The event became an instant hit with museums around the world fielding questions from their audiences, and trended number one on Twitter worldwide.
Over the following decade the event grew from being something that just takes place on Twitter to also encompass Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok.
With the death of Twitter in 2023, the team behind the event decided it was time to rest the event.
Downloads
From New Zealand to Hawaii, Ask a Museum spanned the globe with cultural and heritage organisations answering questions from members of the public.
Many ran Ask a Museum on Twitter asking their followers to send them questions, others prefer to participate on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok.
Some questions from previous years include:
What does your typical day look like?
What’s the weirdest object in your collection?
What do you love about your job?
What’s your favourite object?
Have you ever broken an object What’s your most valuable object?
What’s your oldest object?
How have you done your job during the pandemic?
If you could add any object to your collection, what would it be?
Which artist alive or dead, who would you like to meet?
Who is your favourite artist?
Who is your favourite scientist?
Who is your favourite figure from history?
Is your museum haunted?
How do you get a job in a museum?
What is your museum doing to diversity your collection?
What’s a surprising fact about your museum?
What’s your favourite museum to visit other than your own?
Do you collect anything yourself?
What’s the difference between a curator and a conservator?
What’s on a Curators playlist?
How can I get my art in a museum?
What’s in a curators bag?
Which object would you like to see come to life?
What item would you most like to take home and why?
Do you have any cats in your collection?
If you could only save one object from a fire, what would it be?
Why are museums important?
What’s your largest object?
If you could live at any time, what year would you choose?
What’s the role of a museum in 2020?
What’s the strangest thing to ever happen in your museum?
Why did you become a curator?
What part of your job has surprised you?
Which object would you use to explain humanity to Aliens?
Got any advice for someone who wants to become a curator?
How are you making your museum relevant to young people?
The event last took place in 2022, and there are no plans for it to happen this year.
Further resources:
– Museum conferences to attend
– Digital skills for museum professionals
– Digital training for museum workers
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