January 30, 2013

This morning, my supervisors were not in the office when I arrived so I checked my e-mail and browsed the server, looking at gallery guides in the education folder. Since I had no tasks to complete yet Sylvia, the Director and one of the founders of the museum, asked if I would like to sit in on a webinar with her. It was by the American Alliance of Museums and mostly centered around how to develop an effective collections management policy. Before the webinar began, she told me of some of the problems they had with their collection since, unlike most museums, they didn't have a separate collections department. It made the museum more cluttered and did not comply with the preservation that museums should upkeep.

After the webinar, I cleared out and organized some of our file cabinets to fit in new CYD folders that we're already prepared. The good thing about working with the same CYD folders, is that I feel more familiar and comfortable with the way they are set up.

More importantly, after hearing about how important collections are to a museum, I decided to seek a Collections Internship at the Williamson Museum here in Georgetown. To my surprise, they are actually looking for an intern. I think I am going to apply since I don't have class on Friday's. I would really like to see how collections departments function compared to the education department. 


HOURS WORKED: 10am-6pm (8 hrs.)

January 23, 2013

Hectic was the theme of today. The exhibit opening is this Friday. In two days! It's all very exciting at the museum, but you can also feel the stress in the air. Some of the things I've overheard is people worrying about paint having to dry, labels having to go up, gallery guides to be printed. It is very hectic for everyone, but mostly just exciting for me to witness how much hard work goes into opening a new show. 

I transferred the pictures that Delilah and I took of the masks so that they could go in a brochure to be handed out to the public. I also made pdf's of research about the masks that Claudia Z., the curator, used to build the gallery guide. A gallery guide is a packet of information, photos, activities, that are placed around the museum for the general public. They condense most of the labels and make the history behind the masks a bit more accessible. 

HOURS WORKED: 10am-6pm (8 hrs.)

January 25, 2013

Today, I came to the museum for the Masked: Changing Identities exhibition opening reception. I helped clean up the gallery and coordinated some of the volunteers that came to help out. Mexic-Arte has a very cool volunteer program specific for people who are on probation and have hours to complete. It's a nice alternative to the stigma that surrounds how probation hours are completed like picking up trash, etc. Anyway, we all handed out food to the guests for a while. Then I was able to walk around and enjoy the indigenous dancers and free drinks. Overall , it was a great experience since I had actually never been to an exhibit opening before.

HOURS WORKED: 5pm-9:30pm (5 hrs.)

January 16, 2013

Well, today was the first day of my internship and it was pretty much what I expected after the initial awkward greetings. I was really nervous about getting to the museum on time since I'm pretty serious about punctuality.

Being me, I arrived to the museum about 20 minutes early and the doors were still locked. Finally, the guy who works the front desk/store, Ian, unlocked the door for me and directed me to the back office. What he neglected to tell me was that the entire museum staff was having an important meeting. I walked through the gallery, heading to the back office, tried not to trip over the beautiful masks being prepared for display. 

After awkward introductions, I was given a tour of the museum and was given a computer and asked to peruse the museum drive in order to become familiar with the location of certain files. I did this for a few hours before Emily, the education director, presented me with a large stack of manila folders. She explained that these files tracked the children taking part in our CYD's and that every child needed a folder with their forms in a certain order. I spent the rest of the day creating these folders and familiarizing myself with the upstairs office.

I am a bit worried that I didn't do more hands-on work today, however I keep reminding myself that it was only the first day. The highlight of today was meeting the staff of the museum. Everyone was very friendly and it seems like they work together on their projects. I look forward to learning more about what they do on a day to day basis.

HOURS WORKED: 10am-6pm (8 hrs.)