Name
Carly Hearn

Job title
Lowewood Museum Development Officer

Describe a typical working day at Epping Forest District and Lowewood Museums.
The best part about working in a museum is that every day is very different. You really don’t know what will turn up next…literally!
A day in the museum can include setting up volunteering projects, which may include working with the collection or registering new items into the museum. We also help with public enquiries, ranging from family history research to identifying an object which someone may have found locally or even in their back yard- this is where it can get really interesting  A typical working day for me also includes planning and organising the museum’s yearly programme of events and exhibitions, as well as the day to day management of the Grade II listed building in which the museum is housed.

What is your favourite thing about working at the Museum?
My favourite part about working for a museum is the opportunity to curate new displays and workshops for the public to see. I especially enjoy hearing good feedback from visitors when a new display has been opened, or when we have showcased an object within an education workshop or adult study day session. I recently helped our Education Officer with a pre-history workshop for schools where children were able to handle a mammoths tooth. Their faces lit up with amazement (some with horror) when we explained what the object was. One pupil even dragged her Dad into the museum later that week to show him what she’d held. This for me is what a museum is all about… learning something new and providing enjoyment.

Share one piece of advice for those interested in working in the Museum field.
Volunteer! Helping out at your local museum can provide invaluable experience for a future museum career. Museums today would be lost without volunteer support so you’d really be helping them as much as they you.

Which historical figure would you like to meet and why. What would you ask them?
Yuri Gagarin. I find outer space fascinating , so it would be very interesting to hear what it felt like to be the first person to go into space. What was going through his mind at the launch? What did it feel like to look down on Earth? It must be an experience like no other.

Where would you choose to go/visit if you could go anywhere in the world for a day?
One of the biggest things to do on my bucket list is a safari. I would probably go to the Maasai Mara in Kenya to see the lions or to see the silverbacks in Rwanda.

What was the first music track or album you bought?
I am ashamed to say it was Chesney Hawkes!