Why Ask a Curator Became Ask a Museum in 2022

Ask a Curator Day 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.

Museums around the world took part by fielding questions from their audiences.

By the time of this August 2022 announcement, the event had grown from being something that just takes place on Twitter to also encompass Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Why the name changed

The event planned for 14 September 2022 adopted the name Ask a Museum to better reflect the multitude of museum workers responsible for our treasured cultural institutions. The invitation encouraged museums around the globe to involve staff in answering questions from the public.

The 2022 invitation was open to museums, galleries and heritage sites, as well as people working in zoos, aquariums, libraries and other organisations. The wider name encouraged contributions from museum workers in different roles.

Participants could choose the channels that suited them, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Questions might be sent directly or shared with the #AskaMuseum hashtag.

Building an online museum community depends on responding to people as well as publishing prompts.

Questions museum staff could answer

Questions from previous years give a sense of the range. They are examples rather than requirements: staff can decline questions about collection security, private information or anything they cannot responsibly answer.

• 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 diversify 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 curator’s playlist?
• How can I get my art in a museum?
• What’s in a curator’s 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?

These examples show the broad range of conversations the campaign invited.

Preparing for the 2022 event

For the 2022 edition, museums were invited to plan who would answer questions, reserve staff time and prepare a few responses in advance. The same planning principle is useful for any public Q&A: make the scope clear, let staff decline questions they cannot responsibly answer and tell audiences when replies will be available.

Safe and responsible museum social media includes agreeing how staff should handle hostile or inappropriate questions.

The graphics above belong to the historical campaign notice. Check the organiser’s current announcements before planning participation in any later edition.

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