The RAF Museum, Hendon
The museum had identified that it wanted to update its approach to museum text for the “First World War in the Air” gallery (opened December 2014). This was part of a significant shift in approach for the Museum. They appointed Susan and Scripting Mentor to support this change.
Susan worked closely with the large curatorial team for six months. She delivered two workshops looking at museum text and current good practice and then wrote a set of guidelines and drafted a Style Guide setting out the conventions that would be used.
We had hoped for a team of four writers, but when, after the workshops, 24 people volunteered to have a go at putting the training into practice we accepted them all and Susan mentored three teams. For more information about this project see our blog. To view a video introducing the ‘First World War in the Air’ exhibition click here.
American Battle Monuments Commission
Susan gave planning, theming and editorial advice for some panels that will soon be installed in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery between Paris and Reims.
We usually insist on a face to meeting to kick start a mentoring contract, but in this case distance and timetable prevented it. Nevertheless it was highly successful – maybe because Susan had met the mentee previously.
This was fascinating exercise in cross-cultural communication. Telling the American story of their involvement in the First World War was fascinating for an English mentor. We had to pay considerable attention to working out what knowledge we could reasonably assume from American and European visitors and found they were very different.
The National Army Museum
Susan mentored two relatively inexperienced members of staff who were developing and writing a challenging and potentially controversial temporary exhibition called ‘The Unseen Enemy’.
This hard-hitting story about the use of Improvised Explosive Devices, particularly in Afghanistan, aimed to include a range of perspectives so needed careful and sensitive handling.
