WRITE:MUSE
page 3

The result

20 teachers, 20 people working in adult/youth/community education, 10 museum/library staff and 6 working in community arts settings attended the four-week courses. 30 people attended the one-off taster sessions. These were particularly targeted at managers, head teachers and governors who might act as advocates to other staff. Participants assessed their own skills, knowledge and perceptions at the start and end of each course. These self-assessments broadly showed:

• Enhanced motivation for participants to write creatively themselves
• Increased creative writing skills
• Greater confidence in supporting the writing of others
• Changed perceptions about the relevance of museum resources to participants’ working environments, and how these resources could be used.

‘Reminded me how important praise is. Inspiring – I didn't know I could write stories. Amazed I'd written poems.’

Pigeon and Lion
[uncredited]

The reasons for its success

The factors that helped Write:Muse to be successful included:

• The commitment of the Library and Open Museum services, specifically the two lead officers, but also their managers and support staff
• Costing freelance project co-ordinators into the project budget meant that the project was manageable within existing workloads
• Skill-sharing days enabled the project writers to share and discuss ideas and approaches before the project started
• The use of museum resources provided a captivating and distinctive approach and offered participants a shared experience
• Participants valued the contact with and feedback from professional writers in an informal small group setting.

Further information