The Fitzwilliam Museum - University of Cambridge

32 know what we’re doing and why it works, and we can
adapt to the needs of all sorts of writing.’ With these
two Hub projects, there is a real sense amongst the
education team that something special and lasting
has begun. ‘That sort of developmental work is very
rich and can’t take place unless the process really
changes something inside people, and these Hub
projects have done that,’ Sword continues. ‘The
funding has enabled growth of a sort which I’ve never
experienced in a department before. You don’t usually
have that sort of time, and you don’t have people
saying what we want you to do is dare.’
Education & Public Programmes
Developments that seem as rapid and significant as
those that have taken place in the Fitzwilliam’s
education services in the last two years are often the
result of years of patient and gradual change, of
inching forward while never losing sight of a core
purpose. ‘What’s remarkable about the Fitz is that it
has held onto its integrity, and God bless it for doing
that,’ Sword says. ‘It hasn’t tried to become something
it’s not and that’s why it’s still wonderful. But what it’s
achieving – because it’s not finished yet – is a real
warmth: it’s still got the scholarship and the edge as a
museum dedicated to research and knowledge, but
now it’s also dedicated to inviting people to take part
in that in very real ways. And it’s not a twice yearly
thing: lots of people just drop in all the time. If that
happens, it gradually becomes yours, part of your life.’
There are more changes ahead, and some within the
department: Sword retired in June 2006, handing
over to a new Head of Education, Julia Tozer, who,
alongside Rachel Sinfield and Sarah Burles, will build
on the work that Sword has done in twenty years at
the Museum. Much of the progress she has overseen
in that time is, she insists, to do with changes in
government policy or different expectations amongst
the public, but it would be hard to overestimate the
personal contribution that Sword has made to the
character of the organisation, or to quantify the
number of lives that her work has enriched, even
transformed - an achievement which was recognised
in the 2006 Honours List with an OBE for Services
to Museum Education. ‘If I’ve left a legacy, perhaps
it’s that an education department isn’t a threat to the
ethos of a museum,’ she says. ‘The changes have
worked because I love the place as it was and as it is,
and because I’ve had incredible people to work with.
It’s important that teams build gradually and
everybody’s stayed here, so we’ve been able to
explore ideas properly. If people stay in a place for a
long time, special things can happen.’
Nicola Upson is a freelance writer and critic
The Museum is largely dependent on the generosity
of individual and corporate benefactors, trusts and
foundations to support its education work. During
2004-06, the Fitzwilliam Museum was, and
continues to be, a partner in the East of England
Museums Hub funded by the Museums, Libraries
and Archives Council (MLA) under Renaissance in
the Regions. Hub partners are Norfolk Museums
and Archaeology Service, Colchester Museums and
Luton Museums Service.