QRator and the Grant Museum of Zoology

Jack Ashby

Museum ManagerGrant Museum of ZoologyUniversity College London

@JackDAshby

The “old” Grant Museum

The Grant Museum today

Delivering public engagement and impact

• Acting as a broker between external communities and the university.

• Providing established

audiences for events• Co-curation – swapping

skills and knowledge• Research venue

The challenge:

• Bring the Museum into 21st century in museology

and technology• Add the visitor voice to the Museum• Collaborate with CASA and DH• Create something visitors

want• Innovate and experiment

The Solution: QRator

Qrator is

• Questions on iPads• For us – public engagement• For partners – research,

including a PhD• For visitors – fun and thought-

provoking

QRator does

Asks questions linked to

object-based displays on:•How museums operate•Science in society

In order to•Gather opinion•Raise new ideas•Invite thought

Potential pitfalls of community engagement

• Takes place behind closed doors• Short-term• Peripheral to key strategy• Are exclusive • Don’t necessarily

represent “the community”

QRator: Social interpretation

• Meaningful for three groups– Active contributors– Passive readers– The Museum

• 100% of visitors are invited• Entirely visible

Big challenge: Risks of partnership

• We do have different agendas

• We, the Museum, aren’t in control of it 

• We all have something different to say about it

• The visitor doesn’t know it’s an experiment.

Major successes

• Visitors like it• 4-5 years ahead of “adoption

horizon”• Social interpretation at IWM• Museums and Heritage Award• Museum of Brands

Jack Ashbyj.ashby@ucl.ac.ukwww.ucl.ac.uk/museums/zoology@JackDAshby

Acknowledgements• Claire Ross• UCL Digital Humanities• UCL CASA• UCL Public Engagement Unit