Gillian Duncan MacNee, 31, is curator of learning and access for the University of Aberdeen’s museums.
As well as looking after the collections, she coordinates public events; including An Ancient Egyptian Adventure, a family event taking place on Saturday, May 16, as part of Scotland’s Festival of Museums.
Gillian started her career in museum design, which she studied at university. As a graduate she took a job at the Glasgow Science Centre putting on science shows for the public and discovered her real talent was in the education side of the job.
To pursue this passion Gillian studied a Master’s degree in Museum Studies at the University of Newcastle. She then held posts in the learning teams at some of Scotland’s most prestigious visitor attractions, including the National Museum of Scotland and Glasgow’s Riverside Museum.
Two years ago she relocated to Aberdeen and started her post at the university where she shares passion for learning with students, academics and members of the public.
Gillian said: “I love the variety of being a curator – there’s no such thing as an average day for me. Sometimes I’ll spend a whole day buried in the stores searching for objects for an event; and other days I’ll be working with students and academics or teaching on courses here at the university.
“What first drew me to the job were the university’s amazing collections. They’re big and diverse; I’m always coming across new and surprising artefacts from different historical eras.
“We have some incredible objects in the collections. The oldest is a Stony Iron meteorite, from our geology department, which is literally billions of years’ old. It was discovered in Kansas in 1882 and is one of the rarest meteorites in existence and would have come from the centre of an asteroid or planet.
“Once I was showing the meteorite to a young visitor. He didn’t have much concept of time, so he asked “Is it as old as my gran?” Possibly one of the funniest questions I’ve been asked in my career.”
The university is lucky to have been bequeathed fascinating objects, which have been sourced from all over the world. However, Gillian’s personal favourite is from much closer to home.
She said: “Of all the artefacts my personal favourite is a whisky flask from the 18th century created at a time when distilling whisky illegally in Scotland was commonplace, so smuggling was rife. The owner would wear it around the waist hidden under their shirt and could fill it with over two litres of whisky.
“Another favourite is a wicker mask of a Hawaiian War God. The mask itself is said to act as a portal for the god itself, so I handle that one particularly carefully.”
This weekend, the university’s museums will be open to the public as part of Festival of Museums. The nationwide festival, organised by Museums Galleries Scotland, features over 100 day and night events, each specially curated to help visitors experience Scotland’s museums in unique and hands-on ways.
Many events are taking place in the evening as part of museums at night, including An Ancient Egyptian Adventure, taking place at Aberdeen University’s Zoology Museum. The event is the perfect opportunity for Gillian and her team to showcase Aberdeen’s rare and diverse collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts and create a fun evening for all the family.
Gillian said: “The university is lucky to have an amazing collection of Ancient Egyptian objects. This weekend is an opportunity for us to put as much as we can out on display and let visitors handle some of these ancient treasures for themselves. This includes our selection of 4,000 year old Shabtis and scarab beetles – charms that the Ancient Egyptians were mummified with to give them powers in the afterlife.
“It’s not only the ancient treasures that visitors can get hands-on with, we’ll have lots of animals that would have roamed Ancient Egypt, including snakes, scorpions and a family of meerkats.
“The Festival of Museums is a great way to have fun with history and access objects that are not normally on display to the public. Come along.”
An Ancient Egyptian Adventure takes place on Saturday, May 16 from 5 – 9pm at the University of Aberdeen’s Zoology Museum. Entry is free. For further information on the Festival of Museums and a full events
programme visit www.festivalofmuseums.com
