2009 News so far...

In late 2008 i completed my internship at the Marin History Museum, focusing on the move and re-housing of their Library and rare maps collection to a new location. 


So far, 2009 has been a year of learning about exhibitions for me, through working on four different ones in the first six months. The first was for the class with Brianna Cutts as described elsewhere in this blog. 


In February, I returned to the Legion of Honor with Discovery Audio and worked for 3 months from the opening to closing weekends of the Artistic Luxury show. Although only there in the capacity of a temporary staff member, some of the unexpected benefits included spending time with experienced curatorial staff; attending a one day conference of the 'Ancient Art Council'; and gaining further insights into the workings of an established museum. 


Alongside that, I also worked in the same capacity at the Warhol Live exhibition at the de Young. 


In May, I assisted Wendy Meluch of Visitor Studies Service on my first visitor evaluation project for the Exploratorium at Fort Mason. We interviewed a large sample of visitors about their experiences of the new outdoor exhibits there until early June. 


Currently I am taking some time off for the early part of the Summer but looking to return to the fray with some interesting collections management-related work or internships later in the year while doing background reading for my Masters project of 09-10.

Highlights of First Quarter (Fall 2007)

My first semester was one of the most challenging and fast-paced. It began with our orientation day in late-September when we all sat around in a large circle in one of the faculty's two class-rooms introducing ourselves to the other new students who would become our colleagues, friends and team-mates in Museum Studies for the next two + years. Somewhat nerve-wracking but also a relief to put faces and brief life-stories to the previously anonymous twenty or so other students.

(The picture on the left is of the main campus building in Pleasant Hill - our classes are in Berkeley)










Many of my class-mates were from the immediate Bay Area; some from other parts of California; and a few had relocated from as far afield as Arizona, Iowa and New York to take the course. Although quite ethnically diverse (Asian-American, African-American, Puerto-Rican etc.), as i'm learning is common in the field, the majority were women with only three men in the class including myself. Most are also in their twenties and still close to having just completed undergraduate studies but a few like myself were returning after ten or more years away from academia.

We all were required to begin with two of the core courses which gave us a chance to get to know each other better as a class. Museum Issues I: History and Theory was taught by Leslie Madsen-Brooks, who did her Doctorate at UC Davis followed by work at the Smithsonian Natural History Museums. She gave us a good overview to the history of museums, specifically in the US since their beginnings in the 1800s. We also learned about some of the key issues and past and present controversies in the field. The highlights of this class for me were a 'museum critique' paper i had to write about the Charles Schulz Museum and a 'museum controversy' essay where i chose to focus on the 2003 looting at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.


(One of our first site-visits to the Oakland Museum of California. Oct. 2007)











Initially i was driving over three hours each way to classes from Lake County in my old 1983 Ford LTD. I worked out an arrangement with some friends to stay in a room at their place in Napa for the early part of the week when my classes took place; and then i would return up the mountain to my room there for the rest of the week. I was able to sustain this routine until around Halloween when fate took a hand in moving me towards living in the Bay Area.

On the way home from our student-organized Halloween party, my car started smoking on the Richmond Bridge. It finally gave out a couple of days later as i attempted to head back north on the US 101 Freeway in a big cloud of head-gasket blown smoke. So i stayed in Marin with some other friends, rented a car and began looking for a place closer to Berkeley in earnest from early November onwards.

Our second class 'Museum Issues I: Finance and Administration' was taught by the head of the Faculty, Professor Marjorie Schwarzer who had just fittingly published a book called 100 Years of Museums in America for the AAM's (American Association of Museums) centennial (this was the required reading for Leslie's class above). We learned many of the fundamentals of museum management including about mission statements, fundraising, budgets, SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), marketing and staff/leadership roles. One of our early site-visits was to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park for a conference about new building programs or renovations (picture below).

Grades:
Museum Issues I: History and Theory (A)
Museum Issues I: Finance and Administration (B+)

(Sculpture Garden at the de Young, Oct. 2007)