Cultural Content with guest Meg Jones
Catching up with Leeds Museums' and Galleries Digital Engagement Officer
Hi there,
This week we’ve got a Q&A with Meg Jones from Leeds Museums and Galleries.
You might know Meg from her fab Museums ‘n’ That podcast – as well as other great social media gold.
Role: Digital Engagement Officer, Leeds Museums and Galleries
Age? 29 (just!)
Where can we find you online? @MuseumMeg
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Stephen Gately’s girlfriend (but I realised that was out of reach pretty quickly). I never really settled on one thing, but teacher was high on the list – that thrill of writing on a whiteboard with a chisel tip, whew - and author too. The one thing that I've always really loved has been writing, and I spent lots of my childhood writing stories about anything and everything and getting my Dad to ring-bind them so they looked snaz. Which they absolutely didn’t!
Could you give us a whistle stop tour of your career to date?
When I left uni, I worked at a restaurant for five days a week on obscene hours and volunteered on my two days off: one day at Abbey House Museum working on a community exhibition and one day as a room guide at Harewood House.
I got really burnt out from not having a break literally ever, and took a gig working for an online dispute resolution service as an operations manager (mainly because it was Mon-Fri 9-5 which was a dream). I realised really quickly that I hated it, so carried on volunteering on the side and started writing food reviews for a Leeds based paper to keep that creative writing muscle flexed.
I considered doing an MA in museum studies, but landed a three-month social media placement at Leeds Museums & Galleries in the Audience Development team. Whilst doing that, the Digital Engagement Officer moved roles, and I stepped into the role I’m in now – which I’ve been doing for five and a bit years.
In May 2021, I also bagged a spot on the Board of Trustees at Bakewell Old House Museum, which I love almost as much as I love Bakewell puddings.
I do a bit of freelance work in my spare time too, running workshops on digital content etc for some really great institutions like the Irish Museums Association and Sotheby’s Institute.
Proudest moment of your career?
This is a hard one! I get tingly heart feelings whenever anyone I’ve not met before tells me that they listen to our podcast – it happened last weekend at a wedding I was at, and that was so lovely.
Last year we were featured on BBC Radio 4extra and getting told about that was a great day. That’s the project I’m most proud of I think – it feels a little vulnerable to put your own voice and opinions and silly little promo videos out there, so when it’s paid off with compliments and stats that say it’s working, it’s a hugely satisfying feeling.
What idea has got you really excited at work recently?
I’m starting to get really excited about bringing the tone of voice we have on social media and digital platforms – which is informal, a bit irreverent but always welcoming – into physical galleries. I love that idea of starting with digital and working backwards to physical, because so often it’s the other way around.
We’re starting to think a lot about how we use audio in galleries, and how we can mirror the success we’ve had with the style of the podcast in our audio interpretation. The new audio tour at Kirkstall Abbey is a great reflection of that. It’s 10 QR codes dotted around the ruins in no particular order, linking to 2-3 minute interviews between me and our Archaeology Curator Kat, with a few Indiana Jones references thrown in for good measure. I’ve got a meeting next week to talk about doing something similar at Temple Newsam, possibly linking to the research happening there around colonial histories. If it’s a project on an important topic that we can find a way to talk about in a creative way, to deepen our connection with a visitor - I’m in.
If you had a £10k grant to spend within your department as your pleased, what would you spend it on?
More people!
I think everyone that I’ve ever spoken to working in digital (come to think of it… every other department too) has said that the biggest thing holding them back in their role is lack of capacity.
It can be hard not to get down about all the things I haven’t yet done, or need to do, or could do if I had the time – but we’re a cracking team that work really, really hard to get the most out of the resource we do have, across literally nine venues. And we do really well at it!
Across the board, I’ve noticed that museums and galleries are slowly realising that the structures they had in place five to six years ago need to change and grow alongside the appetite (and importance!) of digital content, and there have been much more digital roles advertised this year. So that’s nice.
A tweet/blog/book/practitioner that made you think or changed your professional views
My views are definitely shaped by chats with people in similar roles across the sector – I value my networks so, so much.
Every time I pop across to the University of Leeds to get a coffee with Laura Beare (Marketing and Galleries Assistant Manager at the Leeds University Library Galleries) I leave feeling a little bit lighter, and a WhatsApp message from Joe Vaughan (Digital Editor at Reading Museum and the Museum of English Rural Life) is always, always paired with a snot laugh. Mostly it’s just being reminded that no-one is going to die if you don’t tweet that meme today.
I saw a tweet a while ago, I forget who by, about how no-one outside of the museum sector actually cares that much about museums and galleries. That… is savage, for sure, but actually quite helpful to think about. Every time I craft some text for posting online, I think: what would make someone who doesn’t care, read this? I think every content manager should have that tattooed onto their brains.
What advice would you give to graduates starting out in the sector hoping to follow a similar career path?
Volunteering is an obvious one that everyone says, because it’s true. But mine is to get really, really good at making cups of tea, because the best museum chats I’ve had have been in the kitchen.
I’ve lost count of the number of times that a casual ‘how’s your day looking?’ has been answered with an ‘oh you know, just piecing together a dinosaur skeleton’ type response that I wouldn’t have found out otherwise.
Being personable, and genuinely interested in what people are doing, and present, and inquisitive – and actually, just someone people want to have around the office - is what’s going to build relationships with your colleagues. And that’s everything when it comes to sharing the work of your service, and making sure people feel comfortable coming to you if they’re feeling a bit digitally-nervous.