Self-Care for Now and Thinking about What we Know Right Now

Written by: Seema Rao

All, for the end of the month, I asked you what you're learning. I thought I'd share first, a bit of how I'm learning about myself. I went back to my roots this week, mapping out how I felt and was reacting. I made a little free brochure of my exercises, Self-Care for Now, and I'd love to hear if you have any you've enjoyed.

Now, onto the question:

(Blog research) what’s one thing about living in this phase of museum work you need to share? RT

— Seema Rao (@artlust) March 26, 2020

Many of the tweets were about how we need to change, right now:

It may be that museums simply don't get so much work done in this period, just like other parts of society and economy won't. And that's really okay.

— Dan Hicks (@profdanhicks) March 26, 2020

Others reminded us of our strengths but also the really tough place our field is in:

The importance of changing the norm. Collaboration, sharing, respecting skills. Storytelling and creative ways to use collections. Why online collections matter.

The importance of community. (I wrote on https://t.co/AuoIZLyOsV about this and more :-) )

— Mar Dixon (@MarDixon) March 28, 2020

museum folk are magic. Amazing unicorn magic people who are ready to step up and do amazing things even when the world is bananas. We should celebrate how amazing the folks in this field are way more often.

— Jennifer Foley (@Jennifer_Foley) March 28, 2020

The field isn’t going to be the same after this. How do we heal and rebuild smarter, more resilient, and with the right priorities?

— Sara Devine (@SaraDevine) March 28, 2020

1) Our audiences can’t drink from a firehose. 2) As content providers we can’t boil the ocean. 3) I’ve always appreciated our educators and now, wearing their shoes, more than ever! 4) To all the other departments in our museums...[gif]...let’s figure out the new normal together. pic.twitter.com/Q1mInvgpEJ

— Jacques Haba (@jacqueyewokey) March 27, 2020

We need more empathy for each other

— Jacqueline WayneGuite (@hourglass) March 27, 2020

We need to reimagine the value proposition we're asking our communities to support; we need to redevelop funding and governance, staffing structures, and practice to bring into a being a new culture that values #museums as much as we value ourselves and what we share.

— Michelle Moon (@MichelleNMoon) March 28, 2020

But perhaps the most telling to me were the ones about the ways we're trying our best and finding ways to cope:

I am tired. And we need childcare. Impossible for the modern world to exist without childcare.

— susan edwards (@jolifanta) March 27, 2020

I haven't needed Friday to be Friday like I needed this Friday to be Friday in a whole lot of Fridays...

— Matt Tarr (@matthewtarr) March 27, 2020

I'm having incandescent moments of productivity that correspond with a depressive heaviness that just makes me want to turn on my OOO auto reply and watch #TigerKing for the rest of today. I expect this cycle to continue. pic.twitter.com/mXQoyMccmX

— Adrienne is #SocialDistancing (@prairietrawler) March 27, 2020

No comment struck me as important as this last one...it feels like the only path forward.

This all around. Everyone at all levels is scared and trying their best. Please remember we’re all human, make mistakes, and facing various other struggles that may not be apparent

— sobota (@sobota_j) March 27, 2020