About the British Museum

Kusuma Barnett and her MBE

Volunteering at the British Museum

Kusuma Barnett, head of volunteers

I did not have any connection with museums before I started volunteering at the British Museum. Before that, I had trained as a nurse, and then worked in marketing and recruitment industries.

Hoping to become a lady of leisure, I gave up my job, but then I visited the British Museum. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to join the British Museum Friends but couldn’t find anyone to help me. Finally I found the Head of Friends and said to her: ‘Why don’t you have a desk, possibly run by volunteers, where people can join?’ A few months later, she rang me and said: ‘Do you remember that membership desk you mentioned? We’re starting one. Come and join the small team of volunteers who will help to run it.’ That is where it all started for me in 1989.

Guiding, explaining, helping

Now I head a team of more than 300 volunteers. It’s a good way to get involved in the museum. Volunteers come from all walks of life, are young and old, work full- or part-time or are retired. Some live in London and some much further away.

Volunteering at the British Museum is interesting as well as fun – that's why I enjoy working there. Volunteers do lots of different things – give guided tours in various galleries, work at object-handling desks around the museum, help with events, school visits and behind the scenes, act as explainers on special projects and sometimes even help visitors play board games! Some volunteers like the fact that you can do different things or change from one kind of work to another.

The whole world in one museum

What I particularly like about the British Museum is that the whole world is there. I can go and look at contemporary hand-made pots from Africa, and a few minutes later look at jewellery made in England thousands of years ago. I always have a quick look at a small figure of the Buddhist goddess Tara from my own country Sri Lanka. People come to the museum from all over the world, too, and it is nice to think that they can see not only objects from their own countries and past but also from other places around the globe.

In June 2006, I was awarded an MBE, which came as a great surprise. It was the museum’s way of saying: ‘Well done and thank you to all of you who volunteer at the British Museum!’

To find out more about volunteering at the British Museum, e-mail volunteers@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk or ring 020 7323 8853.

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