In Conversation - Tony Butler and Joe Smith

In this latest ‘In Conversation’ audio interview, Derby Museums’ Executive Director Tony Butler talks with Professor Joe Smith, Director of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS). Joe has a long career in academia and has written extensively on environmental communication, history, policy and politics. He is also a ‘fifth generation’ Director of the family firm Smith of Derby, a 160-year-old public clock making company that continues to design and make new commissions all over the world, and looks after 4,500 sites across the UK.

Tony and Joe speak about the work of the RGS and how geography helps us understand our place in the world and contributes to addressing climate change scenarios. Joe has been a long term collaborator with Derby Museums and he describes the Stories of Change project upon which we collaborated a few years ago. This emphasises how, by telling compelling stories through heritage, art, music and poetry, society can more readily prepare itself for the challenges of climate change. Joe explains the work of Smith of Derby and how the company is applying the latest technology to keep advancing horology, as the company has always done. Finally, we discover how Smith’s apprentices have restored a significant Derby clock that will be a working exhibit in the new Museum of Making.

Click the arrow below to listen via the website, or click ‘download’ on the right side of the black rectangle to download to your device.

You can download a transcript of this conversation. Word document here. PDF document here.

Joe Smith - Director of the Royal Geographic Society