Speaker 2 (00:00.12)
Hello everyone and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast. I'm Maria and today I'm speaking with Brendan Carr, Community Engagement Curator at Reading Museum. Brendan, hello and welcome to the podcast. How are you?

I'm very well, thank you for having me.

My pleasure. Well, thank you for inviting me to Reading Museum today. I've not been in this room before. We're in that, what, third floor, aren't we? This is an engagement room, it?

This room is the outer study area, which we use a lot for meetings, but it's also an area where members of the public or sort of people that are researching items in the collection can come and work privately.

And we get a great view of the Roman mosaic. I love that mosaic, so this is an extra angle I've not seen it from before.

Speaker 1 (00:45.344)
Yeah, I mean, the Roman collection, the Silchester collection really is a jewel in the crown of the museum's offer to the public.

We'll get to the collection shortly, but I think first of all, for those people who aren't very familiar with Reading Museum, could you please give a bit of background to what the museum is and the size of its collection, because it's huge, isn't it?

Yeah, sure. The museum itself is located in Reading Town Hall, which is a beautiful red brick building that people may walk past and not realize what it contains. It's at the east end of Friar Street, just behind Marks and Spencer's. You'll know the Queen Victoria statue. Well, that beautiful red brick waterhouse building contains Reading Museum. There's nine galleries in the museum.

the ground floor gallery covers the story of Reading. So a sort of social history of Reading. Going back to the early evidences of early man with the archaeology, it traces the story through the time of Reading Abbey, through the era of Reading as a market town. Then Reading is a sort of red brick town throughout the industrial revolution. And then it takes a look at Reading's history in the post-war era.

up to the present day and slightly beyond looking forward to the year 2050. And then on the second floor, we have our facsimile of the Bayer Tapestry, which is an incredible artefact. Upstairs, there's the Windows Gallery, which is a beautiful space, which contains examples of the museum's sculptures. Then we've got a gallery that's dedicated to the famous Huntley and Palmer biscuit factory here in Reddy. So we've got a

Speaker 1 (02:32.962)
beautiful arrangement of all of the biscuit tins that tells the lovely social history story of Huntley and Palmer's in Reading, one of the free bees industries, the beer, the bulbs and the biscuits that people should be familiar with. And then we've got the Sir John Madeski Art Gallery, which hosts a rolling program of temporary exhibitions, mainly featuring our

art collection, but from time to time will also introduce popular culture or social history stories within the exhibition. And then, of course, we have the Roman Silchester Gallery with the mosaics and all of the artifacts that were discovered at nearby Silchester, which is really an incredible collection in itself. So a large variety of

galleries, not least also to mention the green space, which is our natural history collection, which is dedicated to the local environment here in Reading. So the collections feature the natural world from the Reading area itself. And then there's the atrium, which contains a wonderful collection of artifacts from Roman Silchester, set off with a really beautiful collection of pottery that

was made by a gentleman called Alan Cajer-Smith. He was a renowned potter based at Oldham Arston. Alan used to actually come to the museum as a child, passed away now, but Alan was a lovely fellow. He would recount how his visits to the museum as a child really inspired him later in terms of his pottery, which was based upon sort of Roman techniques, including sort of wood-fired kiln. He was very, very well known for

his glazes. Really beautiful, creative artist and we showcased his work here at Redding Museum. So yeah, there's a whole variety of different collections on show.

Speaker 2 (04:40.28)
how much of the collection is actually on display to how much you have in the store and how large is the store that you have.

Yeah, I'd have to do a little bit of research to give you a precise percentage. Our collections are vast. They've been assembled over, you know, the best part of 140 years. So the town and its museum has accumulated a lot of material culture. And the way that I see it, really, and the way that I like to explain it to people is if you imagine the museum has been something like a brain. So what you see in

in front of you in the museum gallery is at the forefront, you might say. And people do assume, therefore, that these are the best things. They're the most important things. They're the ones that the curator has decided the public is able to see. But in fact, the way the museum operates is that it's got a big, memory bank as well. And that's what I see the reserve collection is being. And there's a very good example.

of that in terms of some of those social history exhibitions that we do. a few years ago, we were looking to mark the centenary of the beginning of the First World War. There were some items from that period that were on the permanent gallery display, but I was able to go into the museum's reserve collection and literally reach into Reading's memory bank in order to extract objects that told that story that were donated.

over the years since the First World War and I was then able to assemble and bring those to the forefront of memory and display those to the public for a particular purpose. The collections are also very, important for researchers. So we do get interest from all over the world in our collections. We've got very important archaeological collections. People are very interested in the Huntley and Palm biscuit tins as well. So we're regularly

Speaker 1 (06:41.108)
On a weekly basis, we have store visits where people will come along and conduct research. So although there is a proportion of the collection that's on public display, that reserve collection, that memory bank is there and cared for and given the same equal status as the collections that find themselves on display. We've also got a program of loans. So we're

very regularly contacted by other museums who want to tell a particular story or have an art exhibition that we've got examples of works that would fit into. So we negotiate with other museums to then and make sure that those collections come back to us safely. So it's a very vibrant, alive collection. We have a store in South Reading where these items are safely preserved, securely maintained.

and they are there for the public to make use of if they're going to research. It's a little bit like the Royal Berkshire Archive has got a small gallery where they display archives, but most of it is actually behind the scenes and catalogued and you can review it. And our collections, of course, are very catalogued in detail and to extend access to those, you can visit our website where there is an online collection.

which has much, much more than is on display. So you can conduct research and if you feel it's important, actually come and physically encounter the objects.

Glad you mentioned the 140 years plus for the collection. That is a long time to collect objects, items and stories over. And I suppose you've got to be selective. You can't collect anything and everything because there's only limited space and time to do that. So how do you decide what stories and items to collect over time? Is it a specific collection's got to be part of? How do you make the decision?

Speaker 1 (08:44.088)
Yeah, I mean, that's another important part of our work because the collecting process is ongoing in order to continue to reflect the story of Reading, to continue to collect worthwhile pieces of art. And we're supported in that program with a collections management policy, which has been devised and has been approved by Reading Borough Council, who are our governing body. And that's

policy is devised so that decisions are made through a sort of selective committee of museum curators. So we've got a little acquisitions group that meets on a monthly basis that considers offers against a set of criteria. So that that prevents us acquiring things to the personal taste of an individual. And it's designed to ensure that our collections

and what we add to the museum collection are relevant to the story of Reading. One of the ways that that can and has been developed more recently is the partnership and collaborations we have with a variety of groups and communities. So downstairs in the ground floor gallery, there's a little community display area that we set aside to work in partnership with community groups where they will display

their story with artifacts. And from time to time, people will say, we'd like to offer that to the museum collection. And they're always going to be very relevant to the museum's collecting policy because it reflects the story of Reading. So that's another route that we have for collecting on a contemporary basis. Often people are at home, they might be clearing out their...

auntie's attic and they find an archive from the Palace Theatre or something like that and will bring it to us and we will look at that and make a decision about how closely it relates to the museum's collecting policy. So that's all of a formalised process that we go through to make sure that we're collecting carefully and relevantly.

Speaker 1 (11:01.954)
We're supported in terms of collecting art because it's a wonderful organisation that recently celebrated, I think it was its 50th anniversary, the Reading Foundation for Art, which is a group of individuals, experts and philanthropists who collect very fine works of art on behalf of Reading Museum. And that really embellishes our collections because we do operate on a completely neutral budget.

So in terms of acquisitions, we rely upon the generosity of the public who will donate material to the collections. So we'd be laughing if we had a fantastic, huge acquisition budget, because there's so many things that sometimes you see will appear in auction and you go, you know, that would be a good thing to add to the story. But I think that those things end up in private hands. They're cherished and they're cared for.

And one day it may be that they eventually find their way to the museum. Things survive what you call the shipwreck of time that eventually might find a home here at Reading Museum.

Well, the museum's been here 140 years plus longer than any individual, so I think you're right on that. One of things I love about museums, Reading Museum is no different, is they're very good at engaging and communicating with audiences. So we've spoken about how we collect the objects. We've spoken about the length of time the museum's been open for. So for over that 140 years, things change, the society changes, priorities change.

How do you make the collection relevant as it's gone along?

Speaker 1 (12:49.464)
We're resident in Reading as museum staff. So we see the town like any other resident does, we experience life here. So we're able to, I suppose, seek out particular themes that we believe are relevant. And often that's been responsive to the community that we have a dialogue with. That's an important thing.

museums is to have an ongoing relationship and a dialogue with the various communities that exist within the town. We're part of Reading Borough Council. But just on a very simple level, my successes in the role of social history curator will be scratching their heads thinking, where's the objects? Where's the evidence? What's the story? So we have to have a mind towards contemporary collecting and it's relevant to the story of Reading today.

migration to the country that has occurred. There's been migration from across Europe, across the Commonwealth, so projects that we've done with local communities, including people that are members of the Windrush generation, has been quite important because again, sort of capturing some of the material culture attached to that, understanding the stories and experiences of migrant groups.

is a really big part of Reading's post-war evolution. And it does continue to influence because of the contributions that migrant groups have made. And again, even in very recent times, we've seen refugees that have fled from overseas conflict being based in Reading. So we need to understand those patterns of historical development and find ways in which the museum can

either collect things or at least reflect those populations. Because I think it was the sociologist Stuart Hall that said, if you walk into a museum, it's like a mirror. And if you can't see your reflection of yourself in that, that's a broken mirror, as it were. So the work is quite important in terms of establishing identity, making people feel that they absolutely belong and they're part of an evolving story.

Speaker 1 (15:12.47)
You need to be able to see and have that, but you can't do that unless you've got the photographs or the objects or the archives that can tell that story. So that's our ongoing challenge, the work that we have to do. Another simple example, I suppose, is we're famous now reading for the Reading Festival, the Pop Festival. So, you know, we've done some work on that recently. Melvin Ben, who's the director of the Reading Festival.

has been a really tremendous support for our work over the years. He's understood that his festival is part of our cultural history. So he's always supportive of the museum. And a couple of years ago, was the 50th anniversary of the very first Reading Festival. So Melvin came to the museum for the opening of an exhibition that told the story of the first Reading Festival. And I smoothed up to Melvin and said, hey, Melvin,

Would you be able to provide me with a production pass so that I can go to the Reading Festival and do some collecting? I'm not ligging, I'm there working and I won't get in the way, I promise. And he said, don't worry about that. We'll get that organized. So I went down to the ticket office and was issued with a production pass, which meant that I could get to some of the areas that you wouldn't do as a ticket holder. So I saw a little bit behind the scenes.

But my job was really down there to try and collect material culture with the 50th Reading Festival to match some of the stuff that we'd had from the first festival. And Richard, who was the stage manager at the main stage of the festival, I managed to get to him and he said, yeah, sure, no problem. And he agreed to look out for things that some of the stars had left on the stage, like stage sets and plectrums and drumsticks and things like that. And we...

went around the arena and picked up things that the young people at the festival would have had, just to sample it. And then we also worked with the people that retrieve the things that left behind at the festival, because that's a real problem. And they provided us with a sort of suite of a typical festival goers kit. So we even collected a little tent and some clothing.

Speaker 1 (17:32.526)
just the debris that's left behind. And that gave us an opportunity to work on a project called Reading Festival is Rubbish, which is a of a controversial title, but it was looking at the environmental impact. And we worked with young people who created a little display called Reading Festival is Rubbish. And it just looked at things that were left behind. And it was the young people's voices that shared a concern about that sort of environmental impact, which I know that Melvin is very concerned with too, and a lot of work goes on there.

in partnership with Reading Borough Council. So that's a story, that's a relevant story to Reading's life today that we have this world famous festival and we have to collect around that for years to come as part of our cultural heritage.

It's a fascinating insight into how you actively collect something relevant to a contemporary event. That leads nicely into your role. Could you give a bit of outlines to what your role is? I think that was a nice snippet just there. But what your role is at the museum and how you do it.

Yeah, well, my job title is community engagement curator. So you might say a fairly loaded job title. Community is a big word. Curator is a big word. Engagement can be interpreted in different ways. But the way that I've understood it and what my job description sets out is that my role is to old school curate collections.

So that's about the everyday management of the, in my case, the social history collections and a collection of historic world objects that came from all over the globe during the late Victorian and Edwardian period. That's a closed collection and one that we're still developing further and deeper understanding of. And there's lots of opportunities to use that collection and plans to more and more in the future. But it is a closed collection, whereas the

Speaker 1 (19:30.456)
The social history collection is that collection that's more alive and we're still building. So I look after those collections on an everyday basis, look for opportunities to use it and work with partners to develop different exhibitions that we hope people will enjoy and come to. And then I suppose also when we talk about community, we're part of Reading Borough Council. We've got a real concern for what

are identified as protected communities under the Equalities Act. So that's how I define my work, which is around trying to deepen dialogue with a range of different communities in Reading and oversee and encourage the team at large to have a community focus in the work that we do with our huge variety of different audiences.

So in a nutshell, I get to work at about 8.30 and I work till 5.30 and it's a full and consuming role. Every day is different. I sort of came from a background of studying the history of art at university. I'm from Reading. I went to Presentation College and then I went to Maiden Early School and then I went to Reading College and then I went to De Montfort University and then I studied at Leicester University.

So got a whole pile of academic qualifications that gave me a bit of a background. And then I did some voluntary work when I was living up in London. I worked at the British Museum Development Trust. And then I worked at a place called the Salvador Dali Gallery on the South Bank in London. And that gave me a little bit of experience that was relevant when I applied for a job here nearly 25 years ago. It was a temporary gallery assistant's job in the front of house.

really important role, directly working with members of the public in communities that come here. So that gave me a good background. Then I did a little bit of work in the education team, and then I got a role working with documenting the art collection. And then I was elected as Reddenborough Council's Trade Union branch secretary. So I was involved in working with

Speaker 1 (21:58.38)
a whole variety of different departments across the council. So I understood the wider breadth of the council's interests and work from sort of social services and education through to the environment and other sort of services like cultural services. And I think that gave me a of winning argument when it came to the interview when the job came up here 15 years ago as the community engagement curator.

That's my background. That's my story. And 15 years into the job, I'm still really enjoying every single day that I come into work. And, know, I still learn in a tremendous amount and very, very conscious that there's a great deal more to be achieved in the job.

Two points I really want to pick up on there. The first is, as I said before, I love museums because they are very good at nailing down their audience and communicating with them and helping to educate them in a way that think businesses can really learn from. Businesses have an audience. If they connected with the audience and understood them in the same way that museum understands their audience, I think they could do really well. So that's the first one. And secondly, the breadth of experience you have had to get.

which I think has made you very good at your role, I think is something to point out because I think nowadays you need a wide variety of skills in order to do what you do, to go out and connect with different groups, to have positions in boards and meetings where you know what the strategy is, how to connect the two. So I think that's really important. Now, going into the engagement a bit more in museums, what have you found that really engages audiences? What's working at the moment?

of the things that I would say is that there's a lot of benefit, I think, in keeping things quite simple in terms of interactives. Me personally, I love old school. There's one interactive downstairs that I really love. It's for Cox's Reading Source, which is a really famous source that was created in Reading in 1780s, 1790s, became really world famous. It's mentioned in

Speaker 1 (24:09.966)
80 days around the world, like Phileas Fogg is depicted being in the reform club, eating broiled fish with some redding sauce, because that was real personification of an English gentleman. It's long gone as a product of redding, but it's really interesting because to create the sauce, James Cox had to import ingredients because it had anchovies from the Caspian Sea.

spices from the West Indies, chillies from India, lemon from Italy, salt from France. All of these ingredients come into reading during the canal age. I just thought that is fascinating that we think of ourselves as international jet setters today, we can fly anywhere, you know, but back in those days, he had to create relationships with China, with suppliers in far flung

places to create this beautiful concoction of this famous reading source. So I thought, how are we going to create something that brings that to life a bit more than just having one of the bottles on display? Because luckily, a member of the public in the past has donated a bottle to the museum so we can display the bottle. So we took a poster of the Cox's reading source and blew it up large and we split down into

little sections so you could peel it off a magnetic board. And underneath the magnetic board are pictures of the different ingredients. And I often walk in and see people having fun just playing with a magnet saying, yeah, that's sort of revealing that story in a way that I think is quite engaging and tactile. Children love playing with bricks. And of course, Redding has got a fantastic red brick heritage. So there's a place in the gallery where you can just take some magnetic brick

see the pictures of the beautiful brickwork that we have in Reading, you know, make your own pattern brickwork. So those simple things is another lovely thing where Jackson's, famous department store in Reading, when they were closing down, they agreed that I could go in and do some authorized shoplifting. And one of the things that the director of the company let me have was the measuring stick that they use to measure children when you went to get your school uniform.

Speaker 1 (26:38.39)
I think they'd changed the measure up. So we got the very last of the measuring sticks because generations had been through there. So you can go into the gallery, stand next to the Jackson's measuring stick and measure your child. So that's just a little memory that I think is sort of old school. It's not bells and whistles and sophisticated touchscreens and immersive, but I think it just touches.

you somehow really been able to do that. of course, ultimately, museums unique selling point is their collections and it's the actual encounter with a work of art or an object that is the sort of wow thing really. There is obviously a great deal of benefit to be derived from the digital age that we're in. All sorts of ways of unlocking collections and expanding

the knowledge that can be derived and shared from them. So increasingly, and we found this in the pandemic, that our digital audience, our virtual audience, the people that connect via our websites and our social media are really important and vast in fact, worldwide. You'd be surprised how many different international connections that we've made that were not possible at all in the era that predecessors to me worked in.

So taking advantage of those opportunities is very, important too. And we're seeing more and more Reading Museum is following suit, much more use of sort of social media as a way of connecting with people. But also researchers can now come online and see our catalogs that they weren't able to do because processes of digitization have taken place.

And I do again think people do like to see themselves reflected in museums and see their stories told. So I think the community spaces and exhibitions that we have are an important way of deepening the dialogue, establishing relationships with people of ready and including it in permanent galleries downstairs and throughout the exhibitions are quite important part of the work as well.

Speaker 2 (28:57.772)
love that balance of traditional with digital. think you're absolutely right. I think there's a place in the world for both of them. Go on to data. You must get so much data. You're speaking with people around the world. You're seeing the stats online, having people come to the galleries. You can see what they're engaging with. What data do you collect? What do you focus on? And how does that help you to develop?

I think we need to be responsive to what people are telling us. An important signal, I suppose, in the forefront one is numbers. The museum sector at large has recovered largely from the pandemic in terms of visitor figures. Ours revived quite quickly and we're receiving over, I think it's about 115,000 physical visits to the museum every year annually. That is increasing.

So it is a popular pastime for the people of Reading. The number of school visits are really important as well. So those sort of straightforward figures are always going to be an important measure because they, as you say, tell us something. What does that tell us? That it is popular. But we also need to understand what motivates people to come, why people don't come as well. So we do conduct from time to time.

research with non-visitors. And that actually reflects some of the information that's coming through lately from the DCMS, which shows that people might not necessarily visit a museum, but goodness me, they understand its value and want them to be available to visit. So when we do have visits here, there's all sorts of soft information. One important piece of research that was conducted by an organization called the Happy Museum,

project that Reading Museum was funded by on a few occasions. Their research, which was pursued through the School of Economics in London, they were able to translate value into a sort of monetary figure because free museums, how do you translate the actual value of that? If you do an algorithm and work it into pounds, people did value the

Speaker 1 (31:09.898)
experience of visiting a few museums at an equal level to other parts of their life, like having a walk in the park, going for a run, doing things that are healthy and adding to your feeling of wellbeing and happiness. So that measure was quite important because another thing that that research discovered was that you're actually

60 % more likely to visit a museum in your adulthood if you've been brought to a museum as a child. And so that is a very important piece of data because basically it's signaling to parents who want the best for their children in the long term that actually taking the time to bring your child to the museum or your family to the museum or those that you care for to the museum is actually quite

a good long-term investment into their chances of long-term wellbeing. We have got a museum space here that is family friendly. There's loads of activities for people from little ankle biters through to elderly pensioners can come along here, find a quiet contemplative space, discover things, hear stories, look at beautiful things. And it's actually good for you. I think there's a recent article, a recent evidence that's been

published by the Arts Council that show that encounter with art can actually have a positive bearing on your health. So getting empirical evidence around that value and the changes that occur in people's wellbeing as a result of visiting museums is a growing area of research and data and understanding. And even part of the sort of social prescribing that is happening in health services where prevention is better than cure. So those sorts of things are

quite important, a growing area of interest and data collection. And you see it in some of the data, the narrative data that we compile through simple things, old school again, visitor feedback forms, give us what you thought. And invariably we're getting some really positive comments. And there was one that I saw recently that I felt really important. I thought, oh yeah, we're doing well there. We had an exhibition that we did in partnership with Carl of the Arts.

Speaker 1 (33:29.218)
who are the dance company that are responsible for the annual Diwali festival that runs through Reading Town Centre. So a great organisation and they worked with us and went behind the scenes and looked at our reserve historic world object collection and we produced an exhibition called The Art of Dance. And there was a little feedback form written by a child who said, it was lovely to see my culture in the museum.

It meant a lot to me. I just thought, yeah, well, that's actually doing something good because that mirror was there. You know, they felt that it was actually their culture, their life, their background is showcased in a public space, the museum and presented really beautifully. So those are the sorts of things that you just think in terms of collecting data. I come from a front of house background working in

galleries and you'll never be able to capture the little interactions where members of the public share some memories. If you go into the Huntley and Palmer gallery, you'll always hear mums and dads saying, your nana used to work at Huntley and Palmer's, so that sort of living history is really important as well. But how do you capture all of that? It's difficult.

Yeah, I definitely agree. A balance of quantitative with qualitative, you definitely need both of them in order to gain a picture because some things you can't convey them as a number. So yeah, brilliant insight there. I was going to ask about the challenges. One of the challenges I'd expect is a challenge which I don't think you actually have because you've been in reading pretty much all your life. You have the relationships because I think for your role, you need to have them over the long term, which you have. So what challenges do you face?

Well, I think the important thing is that the job that I have, the community engagement curator, we're seeing that type of role appear more and more in museums. And I think Reading was ahead of the game when they created the role as a permanent role, because I do see community engagement roles being fixed term year long contract and things like that. And you just think, well, how can you really develop a relationship without actually having

Speaker 1 (35:47.06)
a chance to put your roots down, even if you're not from the place, you need a chance to put the roots down and get to know people and build relationships. And that does take time. And I've had the pleasure and the privilege of being involved in this work as the community engagement curator for a longer period of time. So I've been able to develop those roots really. But of course, the biggest challenge around that, I suppose, is that beyond the core funding that Reading Borough Council

fines for the museum service, which it values, but it also has a straight and financial position, which I've always known. I've always worked in that sort straight and financial position over the years. 2008, there was a huge big credit crunch and crashes and all of this sort of stuff. So all of those sort of economic forces in government, because we're publicly funded.

filter down to the local authority because the majority of the budget that Reading Borough Council has to distribute comes from its central government grant and that's dwindling. And of course that then puts political pressure around council taxes, which also forms part of the cake. And so those are all things that are well beyond me, but they sort of affect me or have always been part of the role that I've understood.

is that I work on a sort of neutral budget. I don't have a budget. So I think, how are we going to do this? Because you do need to pay people and pay contractors and materials to make presentations of good quality that Reading people and council taxpayers deserve. we augment our core budget as a discretionary service by raising funds.

And those funds are sought after by an increasing number of local authority museums across the country. So it's a very, very competitive arena fundraising. So you have to take a punt. You have to take a bit of a risk where you put time into writing an application form that meets the criteria of funding agencies. But so far I've managed to navigate my way around that and the museum as a whole.

Speaker 1 (38:09.846)
has been able to operate under those circumstances for decades now, but it doesn't get any easier. And those challenges do exist in terms of the quality that we aspire to next to the human and budgetary resources available. Another very important strategic development is a partnership called the Museum's Partnership Reading, which is

funded by the Arts Council, which helps us to work with the Museum of English Royal Life. So we've got shared staff resources and collaborative approach to different aspects of our work together. And that has provided a bit of economy of scale and good, clever, strategic work by my higher-ups to establish that partnership, which is continuing to develop and reap rewards for us.

Then of course, we've been really well supported over the years with small, medium-sized and large grants by the National Heritage Lottery Fund, which actually, when the museum reopened in 1998, 1999, that was a really big investment match funded by the Reading Borough Council, which restored this building and restored the museum to what it is today. There's a lot of work involved in raising.

money to do what you want to do. Overall, that's always going to be my biggest challenge. and again, I don't lose sleep over it either. I don't worry about it because if you work with communities and you can develop worthwhile activities and projects, then there's a natural fit with what funders want to release funding for. So I think crafting, compelling, and I don't want to speak too soon because I'm still developing some.

projects in the future, but I think crafting partnership arrangements with communities that fulfill the needs of the funding agencies has been sort of a way to go. It's a mutually beneficial relationship because the purpose of my role is allied to Reading Borough Council as our core funder and also has synergy with a lot of the

Speaker 1 (40:36.376)
funders like the Arts Council that want to see equity, that want to see relevance and want to see opportunities for everybody to be creative and to get involved and exhibitions and displays that are relevant and reflective of the communities at large.

As long as you add value, make yourself relevant, then the opportunities will hopefully just come to you. But yeah, that's the main thing. We have covered a lot of stuff. I'm impressed with how much you've covered. What would you like to leave our listeners with?

I'd just say that I bumped into a friend of mine the other day. It was walking past the museum. I was on my way to lunch and I stopped to chat and he's like me from an ordinary background. And I said, how's it going? You got to pop into the museum just there. You see the latest exhibition. I was involved in producing that. So go on, mate, have a pop in there and tell me what you think. He hadn't been to museum since he was a child. I actually

had my lunch, came back and he was on his way out. He said, I didn't have long, but it was brilliant. And I think he'll be back, but it's just something that it sort of perhaps forgotten about. Wasn't something he thought. And look, we're here as a place for everybody. And there's always something for everybody in here. You'll be surprised by what you might discover in Reading Museum. It's a place.

of discovery. And I would just say we're free, always happy and we'll receive donations. That's a really important point to make, but we are free to enter. And if you come along, then that wellbeing that I was talking about, it's as good as going for a job or doing anything else like that that's good for you to do. So what can I say? I recommend it.

Speaker 2 (42:32.75)
Brendan, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. And yet, everyone, if you've not been, if you have been recently, come down to Reddy Museum. There's a huge collection for you to explore.