A Reflection on ITP Week Three – My Thoughts and Feelings (Jacob Marley, ITP 2019, Ghana)
Written by Jacob Nii Marley, Technical Assistant, Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Ghana (ITP 2019, Ghana).
My name is Jacob Nii Marley and I come from Ghana. I am a Technical Assistant at the Leventis Digital Resource Centre and I work with the Museum of Archaeology which is located at the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies – University of Ghana. As part of my job, I do graphic design, photography, photogrammetry, digital data management and I also assist with curatorial work.
Being on the ITP for the third week, I have been exposed to a lot of brilliant ideas and perspectives and these have influenced the way I view and conceptualize museums and exhibitions. From my experience so far, the ITP is not only training us participants according to our primary areas of interest but then it is also equipping us with invaluable supplementary knowledge, skills and experience to learn from and share with our colleagues back at home.
Working with professionals of different backgrounds, it has been an interesting three weeks for me on the ITP. For week three, we had the opportunity of visiting various galleries and exhibitions currently open at the British Museum. Manga was my favourite and we had the chance to see some of the recently refurbished galleries, like the Albukhary Gallery of the Islamic World, and the Sutton Hoo Gallery. The week was packed with presentations, hands-on activities and a museum project day. Also, there was a good balance of work and fun and to mention, we were treated to a night at Her Majesty’s Theatre where we got to see Phantom of the Opera which was an amazing experience for me.
Reflecting more on the third week, my highlight activity was the museum project day where we visited other museums in groups of four and shared our experiences in a presentation. I found it very useful as we can easily adopt this practice in our home museums to do self-evaluations. Also, this gave me the chance to see collections of a local museum which is different from what I would usually see at the British Museum.
For my partner museum placement, I am spending some days at the Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums in Newcastle and it has been an intriguing experience so far. I cannot wait to talk about it.
Jacob