What makes an object special?

What makes one object more special than another?

And what makes an object so special that we decide to keep it for future generations in a museum?

These were some of the questions that we discussed during a video conference with the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences called Special Objects. The session is facilitated by presenters from MAAS. Our session was presented by Amy, Julian and Curtis. With them, we explored ideas about significance, storytelling, conservation and the labelling process in a museum. If you can visit the museum you can attend the workshop at the Discovery Centre, but the museum also offers the session as a video conference for school groups who cannot travel to the museum.

For the Special Objects workshop, the junior curators brought something special from home and thought about it like it was a museum object. They then created a numbering system and wrote down the name, materials, ownership and where it was made. Just like on an object in a museum. The highlight for most of the class was when Julian pulled out his special object – a Nintendo 64! I’ve never seen so many kids sit bolt upright with excitement.

Working with outside presenters allows the junior curators to ask lots of questions from experts outside of Wagga Wagga. In fact, they asked so many great questions that we went over time! While everyone did not get to present their own story, they shared what made their object special with their friends.

For our project, Special Objects was important for introducing the idea of significance to the junior curatorial team. For museums, significance is at the heart of everything we do. Significance justifies why one object may be held in a collection, cared for, carefully packaged and placed carefully on a shelf while another is recommended for the op-shop - or the bin. It's a bit too complicated to explain here (but luckily the guide Significance 2.0 does a great job of explaining what it all means). For our junior curators, the most important thing they needed to learn was that:

• Everything in a museum needs to be documented.
• The stories behind an object are just as important as the object.

The objects the junior curators brought in were amazingly different. Some were gifts from lost grandparents, there were a few favourite cuddle toys, a sea-shell from holidays and a singing caterpillar. I can only imagine the selection process that went behind picking 'one' thing to work with.

Special objects provided us with an interactive introduction to the world of museum objects and the power of storytelling.