12 Maidstone Borough Council
Victoria Barlow
Victoria is the recently appointed Museums Director working across a number of the museums in Maidstone
What is the most difficult aspect of your everyday role?
What does your job involve? I’m responsible for the three museums run by MBC. They are Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery and the Queens Own West Kent Regimental Museum (both in our main site on Faith Street) and the Tyrwhitt-Drake Carriage Museum housed at the Archbishop’s Palace Stables.
I look after the museums, collections and staff. I am responsible for setting the future direction of travel for our museums and making the modern, fun and relevant to our customers and communities.
What do you most enjoy about your role? I’ve joined the service at a very exciting time for the museums. We’ve had a period of upheaval and are now ready to start the fun work of modernising and becoming more welcoming, adventurous and collaborative. As well as the displays and activities developing, I’m looking forward to seeing my team’s ideas become reality. No two days are ever the same and I’m surrounded by dinosaurs.
Being patient. I’ve got loads of ideas and things I want to do, and so have the team, but we have to go about them in a planned way making sure we are using our time and resources to the best effect.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? At the moment all my spare time seems to be filled with unpacking boxes as I moved from Berkshire to take this job!
What’s your favourite food? Chinese, or cake!
Which country have you always wanted to visit and why? I’d like to visit Russia. I spent a week in Moscow as a teenager but I’d really like to travel around the massively contrasting areas. I’m fascinated by the history of the country and its literature and they’ve got some amazing museums.
If you had to pick a character to be from a book, TV series or historical figure, who would it be and why? Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote. My heroine.
Pick one word to describe yourself. Serene – it’s not at all accurate but I can wish.
Borough Update
This is your council newsletter, produced up to four times a year in the Downs Mail newspaper. It is written, edited and designed by the council's communications team, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ. Email:
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