#ITP2019

[alsuinwonderland]

Beginning

Let’s start with the reason why I started blogging.  My name is Alsu, I am a project manager of education development department in a very young, but very promising organization - Arts and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan. After a year of working there, at the age of 25 I was selected as a participant of the International Training Program at the British Museum. I was excited, but at the same time, I could not believe that it was happening to me. But here I am in London, in my cozy room “typing” my emotions... 

[alsuinwonderland]

Never too late to study or why food is not tasty

As most of my friends know I am a lifelong student. Even if I am not a student I try to find different online courses to gain more knowledge and be relevant. Recently I have graduated from Sunderland University and got my MBA. Right after I started a course and Yale and at edx.com. A person can work a lot, have a family, kids and random life stuff, but he or she should never stop learning and discovering new things in their life. I am not talking about reading a book, this should be in your daily routine. No matter where I am, how tired or busy I should always read at least 10 pages a day. The type of book is up to you, I personally prefer self-development books which can teach me something or inspire me to conquer the world (what I am doing right now).  Today was the first day of the program at the BM. I finally met all the people I talked to via email. All of them are very friendly and experienced. What I really like about British people is that they mostly have positive emotions, you do not feel any pressure or negativity during conversations.  Claire Messenger (ITP Manager) and the director of the museum Hartwig Fisher had the welcoming speech and gave lots of information about the program. Also, we had a lecture about networking. Claire taught us that we have to introduce ourselves and our job right at the moment we meet. People should remember us and who we are. The practical exercises we did were very useful for me and my career. The lunchtime was spent with the curatorial departments, mine is the Middle East. I had a very interesting conversation with Vesta and Zeyna who happen to visit my home country so we had lots to discuss.  Talking about the food, I still have not eaten anything to be impressed. I had “English breakfast” for breakfast which was disgusting (sorry, it is my personal taste and opinion), tasteless sandwiches and fruit for lunch, and Actimel for dinner (my dad said to me that I got fat)

[alsuinwonderland]

My new ITP family

I was invited to join the group of approximately 10 people who were going to the National Gallery. The gallery is not far away from the Schafer House, just 2 km, but on the way to it, you will constantly be stopping to stare at various theatres, parks, monuments, and just architecture of the city. By the time we reached Trafalgar Square, we were exhausted by the long walk.  The heart of London is breathtaking, you cannot believe that these huge buildings demonstrating perfection and power, were constructed centuries ago.  During the lunchtime, we ate at a very lovely Italian restaurant. I ordered a lemon Sicilian lemonade and spicy pizza with smoky meat. It was big and tasty (still eating the last piece a day after).  Talking about the ITP participants, the majority of them are very friendly though some of them are introverts (I thought that I was a sociopath). So I got acquainted with African and Arab speaking countries. And yeah, eventually we did not go to the National Gallery but managed to visit different parks and monument

[alsuinwonderland]

My flight to London

The British Museum covers all the expenses of my training including the flights. It happened to be that I had a flight through Istanbul. When I got onto the airplane I was very surprised: the plane was big (3 lines of seats), each passenger could use a personal screen where he or she can watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, play games and even see live of the view of the plane. During 2 flights I have watched 5 movies, which I would not watch during a month due to the lack of time. According to the schedule, I had only 2 hours between the flights in Istanbul, but my first flight was delayed, and that is why I was forced to run to my second flight. Plus, a new Istanbul airport is huge and astonishing, I tried to enjoy the beauty while running towards the gate B2. Most of the Turkish do not speak English, but they were friendly to use their phones to understand me and to help me.   My second flight was full of joy, Lady Gaga music and sinking in the clouds, which looked like whipped cream. I could not sleep because I did not want to skip a moment of the wonder presented by life. I spent another 2 hours at Gatwick airport. First of all, at both airports, all the exits were occupied so the passengers should wait on the plane. Secondly, non-EU people should go to a different “snake” line in passport control. Thirdly, I am always unlucky with my baggage. I was waiting for it for 30-60 minutes, I even thought that they could not a manager to transfer it to another flight, and I have to fill the form about the lost and patiently wait. It came, I was so happy to see this huge red bag coming to me from nowhere.  Finally, I got out and saw Rebecca who is the manager in the International department of BM. She was the first person I talked to in London, a very nice lady who was caring enough to meet me at Gatwick. All other participants of the program came to Heathrow airport which is not that far unlike Gatwick.  When we came to Schafer House I was given different instructions by the senior fellow of ITP, and finally, I was at home, at my new home 🏡 

[alsuinwonderland]

Big cheese

In the morning, we were lucky enough to get into the annual review conference. The director was talking about all the work done during a year, and this work was truly tremendous. The day was spent in the department I was appointed in-Middle East. Firstly, we had a round table with the Head of the Department or Keeper-Jonathan Tubb. The man is very knowledgeable in the sphere of his specialty. After, Gareth made a quick tour in the storages of the department where we could see different exhibits from different time periods and from different materials. 

Also, we visited the tablets room which is located on the ground floor of the Victorian library. We saw amazing pieces there which are dated hundreds and hundreds of years. Some of them are like little puzzles which have to be attached to each other. Then we went upstairs to see an actual library. Finally, I saw a good selection of books about Central Asia, mostly in Russian. 

The most amazing part of the day was ahead! After a long tour of the new Islamic hall by Venetia Porter, I was invited to meet a delegation from Uzbekistan. The delegation consisted of the minister of foreign affairs and the ambassador of Uzbekistan in the UK. It was truly a great honor and coincidental luck to meet such influential people of our country in the walls of the BM.  

[alsuinwonderland]

Behind the scenes

The BM is a huge labyrinth, there are lots of stairs all around, doors which are not available for the mass, rooms for elite and many other secret spaces about which an ordinary visitor cannot even think.  In the first part of the day, we have covered the topic of collection management. While discussing the standards of storage I could not forget the memorial house-museum of Aybek. The BM has perfect conditions for storing their enormous collections, and they still try to find ways to update the rooms. 

I was lucky enough to visit the actual storage of Egypt and Sudan. Every material has its own way of preservation. For example, some of the papyruses are stored vertically, some of them horizontally, but all between two glasses molded from pests. At the moment, the museum has a huge work of standardizing the coding of all the exhibits (since the system is different at different departments, and it is different at different periods of time). Same is happening in Uzbekistan right now, all the museums are struggling with transferring all the data to the electronic system.  I was very surprised to see that some of the items like jewelry have the number right on the surface, which looks unesthetic. In the room of pottery, I was about to puke because of a very specific smell. When I asked about it, the collection manager said that before it was a room for mummies and the smell of dead bodies is still here. 

I just cannot imagine how passionate a person should be about the work he or she does in order to work in the basement with a lack of air surrounded by old or dead objects. 

The second part of the day was even more impressive. We had a lecture about the libraries and archives, which were followed by the tour to these places. The library of the BM is scattered around the museum and is divided into different sections. We were taken to the archeology and anthropology department where we saw the books which are invaluable, some of them are even older than my great grandparents. Afterward, we were given a task to find a book related to our home country...I could not find anything. I was very sad and confused, I could not understand the reason: is our history poor or we just do not present the books to other countries or nobody is interested in Central Asia. After walking between aisles for half an hour I finally decided to talk to the senior librarian -Antony Loveland (cool surname). He explained to me that most of the exhibits and books the BM has are from the countries which were their colonies before. And he kind of reminded me about the Russian Empire. 

I was also surprised that the BM does not have its own publishing, and most of the books are published in Thames and Hudson. At some point in history, the BM closed its publishing, but most of the people working there right now think that it was a mistake. The board of trustees is seriously thinking to have it in the future plans, we will see how it will work. 

What do you think about when you hear the word archives? I think about some dusty basement with piles of paper all around. But it turned to be that the BM archives are located in the former public British library which looks freaking amazing. The library was established in 1753, and it looks exactly the same today. There are many archive documents stuffed on the shelves such as property plans, political documents, and even the books of the library visitors. It was terrific to see the registration of such people like Karl Marx and Oscar Wilde. 

The end of the day was full of adventure with my new friends. We went to the London Eye, saw homeless musicians, used London underground, and ate Indian food.

I am grateful...

[alsuinwonderland]

At the British Museum which is not really British

Today the morning was full of emotions and new discoveries. Kusama Barnett who was the head of volunteers at BM (currently there are 200 volunteers working in the museum conducting different exhibitions), gave a tour of the highlights of the museum. During the exhibition, we saw such iconic pieces as Rosetta Stone, Easter Island moai, Egyptian mummies and sculptures, Parthenon sculptures and many others.  When we were in the Egyptian department, Kusama saw my reaction towards the display of a dead body. I expressed my opinion about such kind of display. I am absolutely against such preservation of the dead body. A person who is laying right now at the BM did not give any permission to be shown as a monkey in a zoo. Well, maybe there are some people who are curious about such kind of stuff, but I personally think that it is better to be buried, though nobody came back after the death to tell us what is right and what is wrong. Also, we have seen a Warren Cup dated back to the Roman Empire. The cup depicted a scene of two males having sex. It was a very controversial issue in our group since most of the members seem to be Muslims. However, Kusama made it clear that this (same gender relationship) has been existing from the very beginning of the human kind existence, and the BM is even going to have a new exhibition dedicated to this topic. I have noticed that this is a very common topic in the UK, and all the people support the LGBTQ community.

The British Museum has lots of department which are rich with exhibits from around the world. Some of the countries are willing to get back their art pieces like Egypt, Greece, China, and many others. Talking about the title of today’s blog, the BM has a very small collection of British heritage, and this is the reason why some people are misguided by its name.