Reflection on the first week

The first week provided me with much knowledge and valuable case studies about working in communities currently being used in museums both in Vietnam and the world. I can see that working with communities is a remarkably challenging but also exceptionally rewarding task. The story told by Dr. Van in Vietnamese Women’s Museum (VWM) about their exhibitions on woman street vendors, how it gave voices to a mostly neglected group, and the appreciation the Museum received back from this community, was really inspiring to me.

Throughout the week, we also took part in a variety of activities which highlighted the importance of multiple narratives. When used correctly, it can offer many benefits and experiences for the visitors and the institutions. The Vietnam Museums of Ethnology (VME) could be a good example of success in this aspect, as illustrated during Dr Thieu’s presentation. The food festive held by the VME created an impressive cuisine and cultural immersing experience for the visitors and helped the Museum build a good relation with different villages in the region.

Photo courtesy of VOV 

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Obviously, my biased favourite place of the week is the Vietnam National Museum of Nature. It was nice to catch up with my colleagues in the Vietnam National Museum of Nature (VMNM) who must have been working very hard trying to fit 4 billion years of evolution into a gallery only as big as a normal meeting room for 50 people! It was also great to receive much supportive comments from people participating the field school. Nevertheless, much work involving communities could be done and planned more thoroughly for the Museum in order to fulfil its goal of disseminating knowledge and appreciation about our amazing natural heritage, as well as promoting life-long learning. While VNMN is receiving quite a few visitors, our current offerings are limited to the gallery tour and a quality 3D theatre. With many exciting discoveries happening every day, how can this museum of natural history keep up with and bring them to the audience? As our expansion to a bigger space of immersion and discovery will not happen until 2025, it is crucial that we spend the efforts to build our core audience as well as reach out to other communities. This week field school have helped me bring about some ideas to realise this aim, such as travelling exhibitions which the Museum of Fine Arts (FAM), VME, and VWM all have organised with quite successful results

All in all, what an exhausting but productive week! I felt really lucky to be involved with the ‘community’ of museum professionals who are contributing and leading many exciting changes in the museum sphere in Hanoi and its diverse communities. It was really exciting to participate in the activities which require a more analytical and critical look at museum exhibitions, and observe the different ways people from diverse backgrounds approach the same topic of museums and communities. I am looking forward to learn more about strategies I can apply to my museums and the opportunity to collaborate with other institutes to adopt a sustainable relationship between the Museum and communities.