Have you ever wondered what to do with all the old family things that you have inherited from your childhood?

 

My book, ‘The Museum Makers’, began when I opened up the boxes of old family mementos under my bed. Inside were letters, photos, poems, knitting needles, a christening robe, even my favourite, childhood doll. Taken together they told the entire history of my bohemian family. Despite all the years that I had been running a museum-making company (called Metaphor), this was the first time I realised that just as museums are about making meaningful patterns out of the confusions of the world, so – in what we do with our pasts and how we try to make sense of them – we
are all museum-makers. And in this process of ‘making sense’ our childhood toys play a large part – which is why it is so hard to throw them away.
 

In my talk I am going to look at museums as memoirs, as places that give us a sense of Home and belonging, and as places where we go to remember our childhoods, and to make sense of them.

 

And I am also going to ask you to bring along to this workshop something that means a lot to you from your childhood (but only if you want to; there are no obligations here), and then to step up and introduce the object and thus be part of a discussion about how each of us can make the Museum of Ourselves. Because, if given a chance, we all of us have the ability to take our pasts and to do something creative with them.

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About Rachel Morris

My book, ‘The Museum Makers’ (published by September Books and out in
paperback in September 2021) is part history of museums, part memoir of a
wayward and bohemian family, part manual of how to make a museum out of your own life.
 

Prior to writing my book, I was a founding director of Metaphor, a company
specialising in museum master-planning and exhibition design. My job was
Interpretation – how to bring objects alive by the stories we tell about them. Prior to this I had two novels published – ‘The Fringe Orphan’ and ‘Ella and the Mothers’ – both of which were very well reviewed. I have always loved writing. The only thing that could have enticed me away from it for twenty years was my equal love for museums. And one of the things I will say in my talk is that storytelling and museum- making have many things in common.
 

‘The Museum Makers’ was published by September Books, in 2020 and 2021: The reviews said:

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‘A fascinating meditation on the life of objects and their power to trigger our memories’ . . .

 

‘The best book I have read this year ‘. . .

 

‘A wonderful and very personal exploration of family history’ . . .

 

‘Rachel Morris is the smartest storyteller I have ever met . . . ‘

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