Ruth Gidley
Ruth Gidley - Community Participation Officer
We work to make the museum welcoming to everyone. Most of my work revolves around projects with community groups, especially when it can boost people’s wellbeing.
How I ended up at RAMM
I grew up in Exeter and loved the museum as a child. I started volunteering here when I moved back to the city after living in Central America and London for a long time. I used to be a journalist, focussing on international issues. Now I’m thrilled to have my dream job, and there are a lot of parallels between museums and journalism in the way we bring a subject or an object to life through telling a story.
Before joining the Community Participation team, I was curator of the museum’s Moving Here project, which invited people who’d moved to Exeter from near and far to come behind the scenes and see objects up close. We recorded everyone’s responses so that we could display them in the museum’s online catalogue.
Best part of my job
I enjoy meeting people and hearing different life stories. I love watching the curators pass on their passion and knowledge to visitors, and it makes my day when I learn something I didn’t know before about our fascinating collections.
What I like most about RAMM
My favourite part of the museum is the World Cultures galleries. Seeing these objects from faraway places inspired me to travel and to think about the connections between my birthplace and people everywhere else on the planet.
