A great example of how curators can help their colleagues understand the value and impact of what they do!

1. Curators'team
Communication plan
Need to know something? You need a curator.
This is THE SCRIPT for present and future curators when
talking about their work, and will interest anyone else who
wants to know what curators do at Historic Royal Palaces.

2. What is a curator?
1. Someone who RESEARCHES and becomes knowledgeable
about the palaces and their history.
That someone is an EXPERT, and KEEPER OF THE FLAME, a
trained SPECIALIST, the guardian of the memory of the
palaces, an experienced HISTORICAL INVESTIGATOR.
- We know how to find things out, from 'what's the history of
the White Tower', to 'how old is that door'?
- We carry out research that's the engine driving forward
projects of the future.
- We can give access to the memory of Historic Royal
Palaces, through our records and files.
- We can read sixteenth-century documents, analyse the
information they contain, write guidebooks
- We can guide you in finding things out for yourself.
- We can tell you when Wikipedia is WRONG.

3. What is a curator?
2. Someone who COMMUNICATES about the palaces and
their history.
A curator is a STORY-TELLER, who acts as the IMAGINATION
of Historic Royal Palaces, someone CREATIVE, capable of
acting as the public face of HRP, a CHAMPION of history, who
BRINGS THE PAST TO LIFE, someone who produces and
presents exhibitions and collections, someone who can
EXPLAIN.
- We write the text for exhibitions, ego Fortress, Henry Heads
and Hearts
- We provide PR for HRP to the media and wider cultural
community
- We write briefing documents about new projects
- We show modern designers inspirational objects from the
past, contributing to the creative industries in Britain today
- We provide information on demand, e.g. architectural
drawings, for colleagues

4. What is a curator?
3. Someone who CARES about buildings and collections.
A SPECIALIST ADVISOR, who cares about the survival of
what's in our possession. A GUARDIAN of the spirit of, or a
CONSCIENCE for, the organisation. Someone who organises
the collection, MAINTAINS RECORDS of the palaces, and is
RESPONSIBLE for their presentation.
- We can tell you the best way to decorate a room from 1514,
or 1666, or 1804
- We can find and organise the artefacts in our care
- We help limited damage to valuable things: by
understanding and explaining the best way to treat them
- We commission archaeological recording and analysis.
- We can tell you what items of royal underwear we have in
our stores

5. What would happen if there
were no curators?
••• after a while, someone would reinvent us!
Because:
Our collection would be static or shrinking, rather than
growing and active.
Our labels and written interpretation would be less accurate,
and people would notice and complain.
Other museums and lenders wouldn't want to cooperate with
us by making loans: lack of trust.
There'd be no expert tours for development / education /
members.
The Press Office would have to do their own interviews.
Historic fabric would be less valued, and people would treat
old and modern fabric alike.
Mistakes in fact would creep into our content: books, audio,
whatever.

6. Historic Royal Palaces would lose its authority in the wider
cultural world.
Displays and exhibitions would have no objects: like the
London Dungeon, or The Oxford Story, or trade fairs
Priceless objects could be seen a liabilities, not objects, and
get lost, damaged, forgotten or sold.
The visitor experience we offer would begin to lack integrity
and authenticity. It would become stale, and lose quality.
This would leave to a loss of status and credibility, a loss of
perceived value-for-money among our visitors, and ultimately
it would hurt us financially.
Historic Royal Palaces without its curators would have lost its
heart and its intellectual integrity.

7. Where we've cOlDe from,
and where we're going...
Once, in about 1989, curators ruled the roost at Historic Royal Palaces. There was a
perception that their word was law.
Over the years this obviously had to change. The needs of visitors and audiences are
now rightly given much more prominence. There are now separate teams for
conservation, education and interpretation.
But we think that some people still use the word 'curator' to mean dictatorial, elitist,
fuddy-duddy, possibly mad and certainly eccentric. (We admit that sometimes we play
up to 'eccentric'.)
Instead we now see ourselves as explorers or navigators, investigating history in order
to bring the past and the cause to life for all types of audience.
We feel that Historic Royal Palaces as a whole sees us as stuck in the past, still wanting
to rule the roost, and resentful that we're not.
This is wrong, and makes it harder for us to do our job!
We ask our colleagues to please give us credit for having changed ... and also to listen
to what we've got to say about the heart and soul of what's in our care: stories, things
and places.
The backbone of research that we provide runs throughout the whole experience that
Historic Royal Palaces offers.
This research is hard work, but we do it to inspire, excite, engage ...
We're going to be more visible, confident and articulate about what value we can offer
visitors (and non-visitors).

8. Our initiatives
We need to get low-key conference type badges with our name and job title for use when
meeting or presenting to groups.
Curators at large: a regular programme, to be trialied at Hampton Court, of having a monthly
day of curators at large. In pairs we will walk the floor, take questions, spend the
afternoon getting back to people.
More info. on the intranet. We must make a point of putting stuff up regularly.
Report to trustees: LW to lead, presentation in September, all to contribute.
Targeted personal tours for Executive Board members.
Time in everyone's week needs to be allocated for this! We will have 'communication plan'
reports at every fortnightly team meeting for next 18 months, where everyone present
can say what they've done that fortnight.
See t he separate ACTION PLAN for dates.
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