I recently noted to our 20-something Volunteer Coordinator that she might have to explain what she meant by “cassette tape” after she sent out an email to some of our student volunteers. The Volunteer Coordinator remarked at how quickly the world was changing.
Music festivals have changed dramatically in the 50 years since Woodstock, that seminal, outdoor musical event in the United States that arguably started the much slicker concept we are familiar with today. Although music festivals in the wet UK often involve standing in pouring rain and sliding about in muddy fields, they are still for many people an essential cultural element of summer. Festivals attract all generations and ages from many social backgrounds and they cater to a wide range of tastes. The ever-growing number of new festivals suggests that demand for them will not be declining any time soon.
Primarily about entertainment, music festivals are big businesses and require complex logistical organization. And it is perhaps surprising at first to discover that so many music festivals involve volunteers. Who volunteers? Why do people volunteer at festivals? What are they attracted to and how are volunteers recruited? What tasks do they carry out? How are they supported and their achievements acknowledged?
In this edition of Along the Web, writer Arnie Wickens looks at some major music festivals around the world to see whether websites can shed light on this unusual combination that mixes volunteering with money-making entertainment. He explores how and why the need for volunteers is identified where the ‘community’ being served only comes together for a few days or a weekend.
When it opened in July 2002, the Imperial War Museum North (IWM North) in Manchester, England, unveiled an ambitious community volunteering project: the museum had recruited over 100 local residents, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, to work towards vocational qualifications in the museum prior to its opening, building confidence, gaining experience, and increasing employability. This ‘Shape Your Future’ Programme, first described by Lynn Blackadder in an October 2002 feature article for e-Volunteerism, was considered groundbreaking for the museum, while empowering and even life-changing for many volunteers.
Fourteen years later, e-Volunteerism revisits IWM North and brings readers up to date on the museum's many positive and innovative approaches to volunteer involvement since the original project began. Author Danielle Garcia reveals that IWM North continues to build a reputation as a major cultural institution, a community collaborator, and a leader in engaging what many would consider ‘nontraditional’ volunteers in service that blends self-help with accomplishing important work.
There has been considerable development since the April 2004 Along the Web article on “Volunteers in Arts and Culture." In this 2015 issue, Along the Web returns to the topic and explores a range of recently created resources that have been developed either by or on behalf of museum volunteer programs.
This article focuses specifically on museums around the world, rather than looking at the broader cultural sector in general, because there are such interesting and current materials easily available online from museums. The Web sites of the worlds’ major museums are well worth browsing in their own right. As a start, take a look at the British Museum’s site, including its volunteer page.
Even if you don’t work in a museum or heritage setting, author Arnie Wickens notes that there is still plenty for you to enjoy and learn from in this Along the Web. Many of the research studies, training designs, or technical and practitioner resources that Wickens features can be applied widely to any setting engaging volunteers.
When it comes to describing volunteers and the volunteer community, attention tends to be focused on social or human services. In fact, case studies, examples of volunteering, and vocabulary choices disproportionately assume that the volunteers are "solving problems" or "meeting community needs." So we hear a lot about mentors, friendly visitors, tutors, care givers, and other similar roles − all of which makes people who work in the cultural arts feel like stepchildren. This Keyboard Roundtable presents an international panel of volunteer program managers in the arts, who share their views on what it’s like to lead volunteers in the cultural arts and how they cope with feelings of being ignored by their social service colleagues.
The Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada has a dedicated volunteer corps that until recently was comprised mainly of adults who had been serving the Museum for 20 to 30 years. Little thought had been given to succession planning, although the volunteers were clearly aging and not very diverse, yet some of these older volunteers are eager to train and teach others to take over.
The Glenbow made a conscious decision to focus recruitment efforts on youth, especially students from junior high to university. These young people have brought new enthusiasm to the volunteer program and offer hope for maintaining volunteer commitment into the future. This article examines what was learned about the special needs of young volunteers, particularly in how to communicate our recruitment appeals and how to support their efforts.
In this issue of “Along the Web” we’ll look at Internet resources for volunteers in arts, culture, museums, and heritage programs. This is all part of an effort to lend a bit of class to our otherwise pedestrian existence. Items are grouped into sections:
Readers in settings other than cultural arts will find the Sample Forms and Materials section universally applicable.