QMM announces new maritime museum manager

THE Queenscliffe Maritime Museum (QMM) has announced its new curator and manager Valentina Bydanova, as part of an exciting next chapter for the museum.

Accredited with a master’s degree in museum curatorship and an Honours degree in maritime history, Ms Bydanova arrives to the museum ready to take over its operations.

Ms Bydanova is also now undertaking a PhD in experimental maritime curatorship and museology.

QMM president Sean Blackwood said Ms Bydanova had volunteered and worked across community engagement strategy, museum education programming, museum development and maritime curatorial projects for the past seven years.

“She is driven by a passion to explore and implement pioneering approaches to producing new cultural content, engaging local and global communities, and developing innovative ways of communicating, experiencing and learning in the arts,” Mr Blackwood said.

“The two driving passions that have informed Valentina’s work and creative practice to date are her love of history and her deep connection to marine environments.”

Ms Bydanova has volunteered at the Hellenic Museum in Melbourne, where she created the institution’s education program and connected visitors to the museum’s collections, spanning more than 8,000 years of Greek history.

Ms Bydanova has also delivered projects to position waterways as creative theatres in which to generate art and engage diverse audiences through her independent curatorial practice and current practice-based curatorial PhD research.

She has also collaborated with artists, academia, the public and diverse maritime and marine stakeholders and organisations such as the MV Steve Irwin (former flagship of the Australian Sea Shepherd Fleet), Seaworks Maritime Museum, the Enterprize Tall Ship.

“I’m delighted to join the QMM and work with everyone who has already made it an important Victorian centre for understanding the significance of living with marine environments,” Ms Bydanova said.

“I hope to work towards engaging new audiences for the museum, realising the institutions’ identified strategic goals, and securing recognition for the local, national and international significance of Queenscliff and Southern Port Phillip’s marine past, present and future.”

The QMM is open seven days a week from 11am to 4pm. For more information, head to maritimequeenscliffe.org.au