Beyond the Label

Beyond the Label is a series of talks by National Museums Liverpool that lets you meet the curators who look after the city's collections. The whole point is to go past the museum labels and hear the behind-the-scenes stories that never make it onto the placards, so you get a proper look at the art, history, science and community stories that usually stay tucked away in the archives. It's a chance to hear from the people who actually spend their days working with the objects.

That's the core of it: the curators themselves taking the lead. They're the ones who know these pieces inside out, and they're the ones telling the stories. The series has also run as gallery tours led by curators, like the Urban and Community History lead, who takes you through the galleries and pulls out the personal histories behind social history objects. It's less about the official record and more about the human side of things — the people and the lives that the objects actually point back to.

If you've spent any time in the city's museums, you know how much is kept out of sight. This is one of the few times you get to hear about what's happening behind the scenes from the people who do the work. It's a good way to see the collections from a different angle, with the curators filling in the gaps that the labels leave out.

This particular session is at the Museum of Liverpool, and tickets are £7.