Student Abi worked with us 2nd - 5th July 2024.
For my year 12 work experience I spent the week working at the Panacea Museum in Bedford.
During my time there I got to experience almost every aspect of working museum life. On Tuesday, I was given a full tour and detailed explanation of the site’s fascinating history. I then began working on a short film about one of the properties. As a film student this was exceptionally fun and interesting. By filming in one of the houses I got to further explore the history of the building and the curation of the rooms.
On Wednesday, Emma, one of the employees gave me a tour of the storage rooms where she explained the painstaking process of sorting through the items and listing them as well as explaining how important this is. I got to see fascinating objects from the society’s members and their beautiful belongings. I spent the majority of the afternoon editing the film for the museum to use.
Then on Thursday I worked in the tearoom in the morning. This allowed me to interact with the visitors and talk to them about their visit. It highlighted to me how curious people were and how valuable places like this still are. I continued to work on my film, making the most of the good weather in the beautiful garden. Then to finish up for the day I was in the reception area and small gift shop. Again, this was an opportunity to speak to visitors and make sure their visit was fulfilling and welcoming. As a waitress it was not difficult but certainly different to my usual job.
Friday was my last day and I used it to finish up on my film and I worked briefly downstairs in the house as well. Whilst making the film I really got to understand how they lived and who they were in a more personal way. All of my questions were enthusiastically answered, and I’ve come away from this with a new appreciation for how difficult it is to keep museums afloat and how even little pockets of history can be filled with incredible stories and fascinating beliefs and people. Places like this really demonstrate how important small, local museums are and how even quite recent history can be forgotten if not preserved.
