I first met Roman at the Imperial War Museum, where his personal story is told in The Holocaust Exhibition. After I left the Museum, we continued to write to each other and occasionally meet up for coffee to chat about a variety of subjects, notably museums, architecture and where to get good food in north London.

When working with people in a museum context who have survived something as disturbing and life-changing as the Holocaust, it is sometimes easy to pigeon-hole them. They can perhaps be seen as Holocaust survivors and nothing else. Roman was one of the first survivors I met who really helped me to understand that although people may have lived through and witnessed terrible events as young people, they also have gone on to lead rich, diverse and fulfilling lives afterwards. The Holocuast is only part of a survivor’s life. And it happened 60 years ago – so much more has happened since then.

Roman is remebered today as a survivor of the Holocaust, yes, but also as an architect, a designer and an artist. And as a father and grandfather. It is perhaps fitting that the legacy he leaves behind is a physical one – there are countless Halter stained-glass windows around the world today and I am very proud to have one of his paintings hanging in my study as I write – and an historical one in terms of his personal story during the Second World War. I hope that his story is not forgotten, and that his art continues to inspire people to create beautiful things as well.

Indeed, it is at sad times like these that I am reminded of the power that museums and collecting institutions have in preserving the experiences and memories of people who have lived through periods which have shaped our world. Oral histories, personal possessions and documentary evidence all ensure that we won’t forget stories like this and we won’t forget people like Roman.

On the subject of collecting stories, Roman was kind enough to take part in my ongoing research project into the nature of happiness – a world away from museums, but still a project based around collecting stories. I visited him at his home in 2008 and we chatted for a few hours about his life and experiences in relation to happiness. You can read the interview on this website here. In April 2009 he also sent me a hand-written note with some further thoughts on happiness.

The interview was picked up by The Telegraph, who quoted my conversation with Roman in his obituary, which you can also read here to get a fuller picture of his life.

One minute you’re nervously awaiting a decision – the next you have your arms thrust in the air, screaming with excitement. And at the end of the process, while proud of your achievements, you wonder what all the fuss was about.

Nowhere is this analogy more relevant right now than in the Kent town of Margate, where plans are presently in progress to redevelop the site of an old theme park and turn it into a museum and heritage site.

Dreamland Margate will be the home of the nation’s first roller coaster and theme park museum, if you like. A with a roller coaster almost 100 years-old and a long and respected tradition of entertaining families by the seaside.

The town is on a high after the success of Turner Contemporary, which opened there last year.

But, alas, they are in a spot of bother at the moment as the people who own the land on which the site sits are contesting a compulsory purchase order. It’s going through a local inquiry now and they’ll know more in the summer, but in the meantime there’s a piece all about it on Museum [Insider], of course. For the moment though, this ride isn’t going anywhere.

I’m due to make a visit to Margate later this year, so see the Turner Contemporary again and to check out more of the towns, er, delights. I’ll report back on what I’ve found!

I’m not sure I agree with that entirely, and this little video on the BBC website seems to indicate that people also derive a sense of well being from many other factors in life, such as family, friends, the weather and even happiness itself. And the usual things as well – holiday, money, winning lottery etc.

What makes you happy?
Take a look at my ongoing reserach project in the nature of modern happiness for more inspiration.

The English Heritage site – consisting of a Grade 1 listed stately home and outstanding historic gardens – is a recent acquisition for the charity and needs plenty of attention.

There’s detail about what they’re planning in an article live on Museum [Insider].

It’s now under the care of a young couple who have been brought in to turn its fortunes around. After a lick of paint and some fresh ideas, the place is looking great once again. They explained their ideas for the place to me the other day over a drink, and an article about them and their pub has gone live on Dulwich OnView this morning.

They’re a great couple – a real breath of fresh air – and they’ve got some great ideas, so good luck to them!

On Saturday I went back to my old stomping ground of the Imperial War Museum to see the Ministry of Food exhibition. I was pretty excited about going, not least because of the excellent blog which had been putting out great messages about the show in the run up to the opening.

The show is, as always at the IWM, perfectly put together with excellent attention to detail. The design of exhibitions always seems to ‘work’ at the IWM, with beautifully constructed sets and amazing props. But I wasn’t really a fan of the interpretive hierarchy this time. Someone has clearly decided to do away with traditional long panels introducing each section of the show – which is an admirable and a brave step – but the complete absence of narrative left me a bit lost. I came out having seen many of the usual suspects I expected and having learned a few facts, but I didn’t get a sense of what the IWM wanted to tell me about food during the Second World War.

I must say I’m getting a bit tired of the visitor route in the upstairs exhibition gallery with its angular architecture and glimpses of what’s to come through the walls. It worked for a while, but I’m sure someone can come up with something new now.

Sunday was Tate Britain for the Henry Moore exhibition. It only opened last week, so it was pretty busy, but I must say I was utterly delighted with the show. I love Moore anyway, but I had gone into the space with a sense of dread. TB have in the past managed to completely ruin some artists for me with their preachy and unintelligble language and their snooty attitude to art, but this was a pure delight. Aside from the sensitive and well-paced design of the space and settings of the art works, someone has managed to get hold of the panel text and make it actually make sense this time. I came out knowing and appreciating much more about Henry Moore and even bought the catalogue – a rare measure of success for me!

Have you seen either of these exhibitions? Do let me know if you agree/disagree.

Back in November I ran some focus groups for the library with members of the public, looking at their future temporary exhibition programme. We got four groups of people together – from different walks of life – and asked them to feedback on a range of potential future exhibition ideas and to rate them in order. That was all written up and presented back to the library, who are now refining their plans in light of it. So thanks to everyone who took part.

I’m now in the process of putting together some more focus groups for them, on a slightly different topic. They’re on Monday 1st and Tuesday 2nd March at the British Library building near St Pancras. If you’re interested in taking part (and earning £30 for an hour of your time), either leave me a comment on this page or drop me an email britishlibrary@steveslack.co.uk and I’ll let you know the details.

The first is an advert for Alexander McCall Smith’s new book Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, the latest in his No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. (I quite liked the first of these books, but I must say that I prefer the 44 Scotland Street series.) Anyway, it struck me as another example of people using happiness as a marketing tool. Advertisers do it again and again – it’s a clever idea to associate your brand with making people happy. Another recent example of this is the current BMW campaign Expressions of Joy.

The other advert to catch my eye is for Hot Chip’s new album One Life Stand. The album art features a giant head of the Roman emperor Hadrian, found at  Sargalassos in south-west Turkey. It was discovered in 2007 while we were working on the content development for an exhibition about Hadrian at the British Museum. We managed to secure a loan of the head to the BM for the display, less than a year from when it came out of the ground. It was pretty big news and I remember seeing this image over and over at the time, so it was a real bolt for me to see it again on a tube poster.

It’s funny what triggers the mind, eh?

What’s different about this guide is that it’s been produced in-house, by the BM itself – usually, museums outsource the creative writing, production, hardware, data uploading and even staffing to an outside company. But the BM has done this all – with some outside help here and there. And full credit to them to getting it done on time.

It means that not only have they saved a small fortune in outsourcing costs, since the guide was launched they have been able to tweak elements of the design and alter content as and when they please.

There’s two bits of news about the guide for now. Firstly, there’s a usability study going on at the moment, to see how user-friendly the guides are. Interestingly, the usability review is being conducted by the same person who worked on the review for Dulwich OnView – it’s a small world, eh?

And secondly, the BM’s multimedia guide is going to be a case study at a Museums Association conference, taking place on 14 July 2010 at the Royal College of Surgeons. All in hand: working with hand held devices will look at the latest developments in hand held technology and provide case studies for museums thinking of altering how they deliver hand held content to their visitors.

Matthew Cock, the BM’s Head of Web is hoping to share some of the results from the current evaluation at the conference. He recently said, “our new multimedia guides are going to make a big difference to the visitor experience at the British Museum and make the collection even more accessible.”

Here’s hoping that’s the case. We’ll see what they come up with.

It’s a really inrersting topic. He spent some time discussing the nature of ‘discipleship’ – i.e. following in the footsteps of the disciples of Jesus Christ. He then wrote to 150 evangelical pastors in the UK and asked them to fill out a questionnaire about how they see discipleship in terms of their ministry in their churches. The results are actually quite surprising. The author was showing that there’s a tension within evangelicalist movements at the moment. Should the main aim of such ‘seeker’ churches be getting as many people as possible to convert to Christianity, or is it more about getting ‘good’ Christians who really understand what they’re believing? Is it a numbers game or a project of spiritual enrichment and development? Which is more important – quantity or quality?

The author of the paper suggests that there need to be some changes in the way such churches operate and, while he’s fully committed to the principles of evangelism, recommends some pretty major reforms for the church.

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