Visitor Advisors continued professional development with Museums Galleries Scotland
Museums and Galleries are delighted that three of their Visitor Advisors; Abbie, Tamara and Shaun have recently started a Museums Galleries Scotland Modern Apprenticeship programme as part of their continued professional development with ANGUSalive.
We caught up with Tamara and Shaun and asked them how they’re finding their journey in the heritage sector.
Tamara Hutcheon
With fond memories of the museum in childhood, it has always been important for me to give back to the community that supported much of my early development. The Visitor Advisors of past were always so lovely, answering all my questions, even if they saw me every weekend.
Since starting last year, the most interesting thing I’ve learned is of the rumoured underground tunnels in Montrose, the very same ones supposedly used by the Old Pretender to escape in the Jacobite rebellion.
My favourite object is the statue of Meramuniotes, displayed at Montrose Museum. She was an Egyptian musician who performed in the temple of Amun-Ra alongside her family. The statue itself dates to around 332-30 BC, but is still so intricately detailed and well-preserved.
Shaun Wilson
I have had a long fascination with history, it was my favorite subject at school, and I went on to earn my master’s degree in Cultural Heritage as I wanted to work to preserve history and heritage. Museums have an important role in education and preserving history and heritage and that is why I chose to pursue a career within the museum sector. I love my job at the Meffan Museum.
The collection is incredible and tells the story of my local town and the environment our ancestors grew up in. It brings me immense joy to be able to look at incredible relics of the past, such as the Pictish stones, and to share little facets of history with visitors and continue to enhance knowledge with each new academic study that comes our way. Working with ANGUSalive at both The Signal Tower Museum and The Meffan Museum has solidified my love of learning and being a museum Visitor Advisor lets me also work towards preserving and interpreting our local history.
As some folk may know, I am one of Forfar’s Witch Trial historians, alongside my research partner Judith Langlands-Scott, with the two of us working closely with The Meffan to host talks on the Forfar Witch Trials. Working in the Museums has given me the opportunity to explore other aspects of history that fall out with my area of expertise, but also to discover new things about my main field of study. Working at the Signal Tower Museum I learned about the amazing feats of engineering that it took to build the Bell Rock Lighthouse and how the work of Stevenson and the crew impacted the history and people of Arbroath. I love learning and will never stop undertaking a new project to enhance my knowledge and working within the museum allows me to learn so much, whether it be Lighthouses, Picts, Roman pottery, Fishing & Maritime history and of course The Witch Trials.
I have too many favourite objects from the Angus collection! If I had to narrow it down I have to say that one of the most fascinating objects is the Dunnichen Pictish Stone. I live a stone’s throw away from Dunnichen Hill and have long been fascinated with the history of the pictish fort that resided on the hill. It is a symbol stone that is thousands of years old, it is in phenomenal condition and the mystery around the symbols is intriguing. New research indicates that the Pictish symbols are in fact a language of sorts and I love to ponder what stories the Picts were trying to tell, and if they even considered that many decades later, we would still be looking at these stones that have inspired many romantic ideas of Scotland and our shared heritage.