In case of fire…?!

If you love museums and you love social media, then you will have loved this year’s Ask-a-Curator – the biggest Q&A session with museums worldwide, via Twitter (if you’re hearing about it for the first time, I wrote a bit more about what Ask-a-Curator actually is in my last post). After busily tweeting for my museum at work for ten hours, you’d think I’d be sick of it all come evening, but I couldn’t wait to get started asking my own questions:

Follower Alert! I am about to tweet a LOT of #askacurator questions. You have been warned :)

— Jenni Fuchs (@jennifuchs) September 18, 2013

Instead of asking lots of different questions, I had the idea of asking just 3 questions, but asking several different museums the same ones, as I thought it would be interesting to compare the answers. And it was! I directed my questions at 24 museums in the USA, Canada, South America and the Netherlands (since it was already evening in Europe at that time, I was mainly restricted to the Americas, but the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was still going strong!). I also invited any other museums that wanted to, to answer, and several more responses came in that way.

Question 1: What is the most unusual object in your collection?

A total of 28 museums answered this question. Here are my three favourite responses:

@jennifuchs A model airplane that is controlled by different pitches of sound -the concept failed bc cow moos in the same field #askacurator

— AMA (@modelaircraft) September 18, 2013

@jennifuchs @CivilWarMed @TCMIndy @BuildingMuseum There are a number of them. Water jug, radium lined to drink radium water for yr health!

— NatlAtomicTestingMsm (@AtomicTstMuseum) September 18, 2013

Most unusual thing in our collection? LiTraCon…light transmitting concrete! #AskACurator @jennifuchs

— NtlBuildingMuseum (@BuildingMuseum) September 18, 2013

You can find a short summary of all answers to question 1 on Storify.

Question 2: If there was a fire & you could save just one object, what would it be?

A total of 22 museums answered this question. Here are my three favourite responses:

@jennifuchs #askacurator Our curator says: "If there were a fire & you could save only one child, which would it be?"

— Postal Museum (@PostalMuseum) September 18, 2013

@jennifuchs @artebolivariano @MUNALmx In our case, we have advantage. The collection is composed for minerals and rocks that resist at fire!

— MMM (@museuminasmetal) September 18, 2013

@jennifuchs It sounds awful, but I'd rather run. Our whole building is full of dry balsa wood & if it catches… #askacurator

— AMA (@modelaircraft) September 18, 2013

You can find a short summary of all answers to question 2 on Storify.

Question 3: What exhibition have you always wanted to curate but never had the chance?

A total of 18 museums answered this question. Here are my three favourite responses:

@jennifuchs #askacurator Exhibit our curator wants to do: Popular culture of the postal service – "I WILL do it one day!"

— Postal Museum (@PostalMuseum) September 18, 2013

.@jennifuchs GW in Pop Culture: logos, songs, Pez dispensers, the presidents’ race at @Nationals games. He’s everywhere! #AskACurator

— Washington's Library (@GWBooks) September 18, 2013

@jennifuchs We've always wanted to curate an exhibit on the use of #canoes in advertising #AskACurator pic.twitter.com/m6LjzMo1H7

— Canoe Head (@CndnCanoeMuseum) September 18, 2013

You can find a short summary of all answers to question 3 on Storify.

In total, I received answers from 35 different museums, including 17 who responded to my open questions. Of the 24 museums I asked directly, 6 did not respond at all, which sadly also included @secretsofradar, for whom I had a bonus question :)

@secretsofradar Bonus Question: What's your biggest secret? :) #AskACurator

— Jenni Fuchs (@jennifuchs) September 18, 2013

Edit: This afternoon, two days after Ask-a-Curator, I had a lovely surprise when some more answers to my questions popped up in my Twitter feed. And from @secretsofrader, no less! (bringing the total up to 36 different museums, and only 5 that didn’t respond). It turns out their curator was in the Quebec bush without network access. I take everything back :) Of course, you’re now all asking yourselves, “So, what IS @secretofradar’s biggest secret?” Well…

@jennifuchs I tell people that the 1st secret is finding us. The real secret we share is the story of our WW2 vets who were sworn to secrecy

— The Secrets of Radar (@secretsofradar) September 20, 2013

You can find a full transcript of all answers to my questions, including follow up questions and discussions, on Storify.

Have a great weekend everyone, and happy museum-ing!