It’s been many weeks since the last episode. And I know that for American readers, its been particularly awful and I hope that this episode provides some distraction.
I got sick and had to head home early from the annual Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA) conference this year in Perth. Then I had to quarantine and wait for a PCR result meaning that I also missed the opening of the Light exhibition at work. But finally with a negative COVID result, I headed to Sydney to do the first Sub Bass Snarl gig in far too many years. Oh and G turned 18 too. But that’s all over now and I just have a lingering snotty nose and a fair amount of regret.
As a result of these delays, this is a reasonably long one. (And I’m pretty sure I’ve still left a whole lot out that I meant to include!)
The short time I was in Perth at AMaGA was good though. It was very good to catch up with many people most of whom I haven’t seen since the Before Times. I had also not expected the Perth conference to have such a large turnout, because Perth is very far away and travel is expensive and, well, most museum budgets have axed travel. And there was a decently priced all-you-can-eat digital option too. But there we were, nearly 500 museum and gallery people catching up with each other. Even though I had to depart early I watched a number of excellent sessions online and was very pleased to see that the emerging professionals session get picked up for press coverage (paywalled). Te Papa director Courtney Johnston is back blogging since AMaGA and she’s been on a roll! Her piece on mid-career-ism is well worth reading. I think the AMaGA recordings are all going up soon for those who want to recap and had a digital registration will be able to go back over everything you missed.