First off, I must apologize. It was my intention to maintain this blog and to post about the experience that is the graduate program at Cooperstown. One of the good and bad things about it is how busy it keeps you, which I will use as an excuse in this instance.
My classmates and I recently celebrated the conclusion of our first semester. Unfortunately for me, this also comes with some tough decisions. A few posts ago, I explained a bit about the shoulder issues I have been facing for almost two years ago. This summer I was seeing a physical therapist in Iowa and was actually improving. The light seemed to have appeared at the end of the tunnel, and I was so excited to go out to graduate school and do my best. Upon moving out to school, it took over a month before I was able to see a physical therapist in the area, and when I did get in to see her she was unfamiliar with my condition. Although she is very nice, she and her colleagues are not properly equipped to help me at this point. As a result, my shoulder continued to decline over the course of the semester, and began interfering with my school performance more and more often.
Then, shortly before Thanksgiving, I caught the buckle of my shoe on my computer cord and fell onto my arm again. The remainder of the semester was one of the most difficult things I have faced. I am very fortunate that the professors are compassionate and understanding, though I know that their patience has to have been tried. I know without a doubt that my classmates are frustrated, especially due to my inability to contribute to the project to which I had been elected as the head. I was unable to participate in opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom that I was looking forward to, and as the semester grew to a close my frustration peaked. The unfortunate Catch-22 is that, the more frustrated I got, the more pain I was in, and the more pain I was in, the higher my frustration.
The week that classes ended, my boyfriend and I sat down (via webcam) and talked about the possibility of me trying to take some time off. He, more than anyone, has seen the true nature of my shoulder and understands better than anyone else. I know it is often difficult for others to understand, especially because looking at me, you can't tell that anything is wrong. I look fine. But, by the end of the semester, I was averaging 2-3 hours of sleep a night, most of it in the early hours of the morning. I would fluctuate between days of pushing too hard and days of being unable to get out of bed. As someone who was extremely active in what seems like an entirely different life, this is worse than Sartre's No Exit.
The last day of classes the program director called me into her office. She and her colleagues have gone out of their way to show their support and to encourage me, for which I am eternally grateful. She, most of all, seemed to know what I was dealing with. She and I discussed the past semester, as well as the possibility of taking a semester off. She assured me that it was my own decision to make, and that whatever I chose they would help me. They have had students in the past who have taken time off for medical reasons, including one who took off time because of breast cancer. There is still a part of me that feels...I'm not sure what the word is, but I feel like my problems are nothing compared to breast cancer and they aren't. My issue is merely an inconvenience, not a threat to my life. But I also know that without some sort of major change, I will be to get through another semester like the one I just went through.
At this point, I have not made a decision one way or the other. I am seeing my regular Iowa pt as often as I can, and have an appointment back at Mayo to see what options we have as far as pain management. I haven't seen them since my last diagnosis, so hopefully they will have some new information for me. The absolute last thing that I want is to miss a semester. I absolutely love the program, the professors, and the museum network that it has already allowed me to begin to form. Taking medical leave would mean still paying rent on the house where I'm living, figuring out student loans and financing, getting behind in classwork and becoming more distant from my classmates. It would also push back Nate and my plan to actually live in the same place, as unfortunately the Cooperstown area doesn't offer a whole lot of job opportunities. So at this point, the hope is that I can get significantly better between now and when I fly back out, and have Mayo help me find a better way to manage the situation.
I'm sorry, as I meant to keep this blog more impersonal. My vision was to in a way review books and articles we'd read, talk about trips we took and use this as a sounding board for ideas about class discussions. Perhaps I'll get back to that, so in the meantime, please excuse the excess of personal humdrum.
Here's to a happy, healthy 2010!
30 December, 2009
13 November, 2009
Boston
My classmates and I, along with our professors Cindy (Material Culture) and Doreen (Exhbition Design) spent the last week of October touring around Boston and New England. It was my first time to Massachusetts, and the only north-eastern state I've been to now besides New York. Here's a brief summary of the trip and what I thought about it.
Monday we woke up quite early and drove from Cooperstown to the Wallace Center, which would be our home base in Boston for the week. After a quick sack lunch, we hopped on the T. I reminisced about my French Metro and Tram experiences, and before too long we were off the train and walking across Boston Commons. Our destination was the Robert Gould Shaw memorial, where we met with Ryan McNabb, a ranger and head of the NPS African American National Historic Site. He then led us, as well as a few general visitors, along the Black Heritage Trail, which primarily focuses on the abolition movement in Boston. It was absolutely fascinating, and one of the highlights of the trip for me. We walked all over Beacon Hill, as he told stories, passed around copies of documents, and helped us understand what it would have been like to have lived in Boston. I learned that Boston was, for a long time, an end point of the Underground Railroad. Our tour ended at the front door of the Museum of African American History. Their current exhibit, Let Your Motto Be Resistance, is a collection of photographs of famous African Americans, from athletes to musicians to politicians on loan from the Smithsonian. There are some absolutely gorgeous photographs, and some very moving ones. I was especially struck by the photograph of the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr., which shows his children looking over the open casket for the first time.
Tuesday we started the morning by speaking with Katherine Armstrong, the PR Director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She told us about some of the very interesting programs they are enacting, which are all really trying to help people see beyond the art museum. It was really neat hearing about how hard they are trying to separate themselves from the "mausoleum." Unfortunately, when you actually walk through the museum, that is exactly what it is. Isabella Gardner took her checkbook to Europe, and bought whatever caught her fancy. There is the entire interior of a French chapel, which is bad enough, but the worst part were the illuminated illustrations cut from books. Those always make me sad. The museum itself is not to blame, it is simply this woman and her own idiosyncrasies.
From the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, we went to the Museum of Fine Art. We got to talk with two of their textile curators, which made my textile-loving roommate very very happy. They showed us a number of samplers, talked about an upcoming exhibit they're using the samplers for. It was very interesting, especially because of our sewing project, where we get to make our own samplers within a quilt square. After we spoke with the textile folks, we had the chance to speak with their educator. It was really neat hearing about some of the programming they are doing. On Wednesdays, they host drawing sessions in their galleries where general visitors are allowed to come in and draw what they see, while professional artists give tips. After speaking with her, we got the chance to wander through the museum. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had three of my favorite Monet paintings. I sat and drooled over those for awhile, and enjoyed watching how other visitors observed them. From there, I moved to their Egyptian exhibit. The neat thing was that all of the pieces of their exhibition have been together since they were entombed. It sounded like it was actually something that was the fault of the economy, originally the collection was supposed to include loaned pieces but the economy made the museum reconsider their decision and simply pull from their own collection.
Thursday was probably the best day of the trip. We started out at the Boston Children's Museum. It was great fun. They turned us loose on the museum an hour before they opened, and the group of twenty-somethings that we are all reverted to a bunch of five-year olds. There was climbing, playing with bubbles, jumping, singing and lots and lots of laughter. One of the things that intrigued me the most was that a large part of their exhibits are in both English and Spanish. It was fun for me, my Spanish is awful (only a semester) but lots of French, so I can read some. It was a challenge trying to read it. We played until moms and their kids started showing up, but then I felt kind of awkward staring at them. I did have some interesting observations. It was mostly moms standing back and talking to each other, watching their kids playing. I would have loved to have seen more of the moms (sorry, there weren't dads) engaged. We got to talk to a number of the educators and an exhibit designers. It was neat getting their perspective on working with kids, and trying to engage parents. We also asked about their policy on lone adults that come in. They have a really interesting system in place to keep the kids there safe.
From the Children's Museum, we trekked over to the Science Museum. It was HUGE. A number of my classmates had purchased tickets to see their blockbuster Harry Potter exhibit. Sadly, as fanatical as I can be about Harry Potter, I'm also poor, so I just went through the rest of the museum. It was a TON to take in. I was very, very frustrated with their listening devices. On a number of stations they had "ear trumpets", for lack of a better word, that I was extremly uncomfortable having to use. Then, to add insult to injury, they only repeated the instructions for the exhibit, not the audio presented. They also had a whole exhibit on music and patterns, but the headphones were hearing aid incompatible. It frustrates me, a lot. For the most part, I can still hear most of a normal oral presentation. But a lot of the latter exhibit only put out sound through its headphones, which I couldn't use. All in all the rest of the museum was neat. I was especially impressed with a tiny, tucked away exhibit about mammograms. Its something I think all women hear about and fear a little bit, but it was really neat getting to actually learn about what is involved. They even had gel packs to feel to see if you could find the lumps. We then talked with a really neat guy who played a pretty cool magic trick, trying to show us how hard it is, but how hard they work, to take boring, dry science facts and turn them into something interesting and engaging. He's involved with some really great things, and it was neat to see how the science museum has grown over the years.
Friday we got out of dodge (or Boston) and spent a day with the Historic New England. They own a number of house museums all over New England and New York. We visited two; the Gropius House and the Codman Estate. They were two diametrically different places. The Gropious house is a Modernist 1930's house, it was the home of one of the fathers of the modernist movement. The curators are really struggling with balancing the museum habit of preserving the old versus the modernist philosophy of replacing anything that begins to wear down. Things are helped yet complicated by the fact that Mr. Gropius's daughter is still alive, and has very strong opinions about how the house should be. They do, however, have a wonderful opportunity to learn things from her.
The Codman Estate was...interesting. It is a mish-mash of artifacts from a variety of time-periods, and is full to the brim with stuff. They have changed their interpretation four different times, and still have had very little success bringing people into the house. They do, however, have a number of people who use their grounds or who rent out the carriage house. It is a challenge, to see how they can bring people inside. I personally wonder if focusing more on the interior designer son that grew up in the house would help them, but it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years. After we toured the house, the staff of Historic New England hosted us for a really fun lunch and talked to us about their stewardship program. It focuses on helping the public that lives in historic homes to preserve them. It was absolutely fascinating, and something I knew nothing about. Especially since Nate and I have a daydream about someday living in a historic home, it was fun to hear about what they've done with the properties they hold and those they've deaccesioned.
Alright, I apologize for having taken so long to have posted this, but better late then never, right?
Monday we woke up quite early and drove from Cooperstown to the Wallace Center, which would be our home base in Boston for the week. After a quick sack lunch, we hopped on the T. I reminisced about my French Metro and Tram experiences, and before too long we were off the train and walking across Boston Commons. Our destination was the Robert Gould Shaw memorial, where we met with Ryan McNabb, a ranger and head of the NPS African American National Historic Site. He then led us, as well as a few general visitors, along the Black Heritage Trail, which primarily focuses on the abolition movement in Boston. It was absolutely fascinating, and one of the highlights of the trip for me. We walked all over Beacon Hill, as he told stories, passed around copies of documents, and helped us understand what it would have been like to have lived in Boston. I learned that Boston was, for a long time, an end point of the Underground Railroad. Our tour ended at the front door of the Museum of African American History. Their current exhibit, Let Your Motto Be Resistance, is a collection of photographs of famous African Americans, from athletes to musicians to politicians on loan from the Smithsonian. There are some absolutely gorgeous photographs, and some very moving ones. I was especially struck by the photograph of the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr., which shows his children looking over the open casket for the first time.
Tuesday we started the morning by speaking with Katherine Armstrong, the PR Director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. She told us about some of the very interesting programs they are enacting, which are all really trying to help people see beyond the art museum. It was really neat hearing about how hard they are trying to separate themselves from the "mausoleum." Unfortunately, when you actually walk through the museum, that is exactly what it is. Isabella Gardner took her checkbook to Europe, and bought whatever caught her fancy. There is the entire interior of a French chapel, which is bad enough, but the worst part were the illuminated illustrations cut from books. Those always make me sad. The museum itself is not to blame, it is simply this woman and her own idiosyncrasies.
From the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, we went to the Museum of Fine Art. We got to talk with two of their textile curators, which made my textile-loving roommate very very happy. They showed us a number of samplers, talked about an upcoming exhibit they're using the samplers for. It was very interesting, especially because of our sewing project, where we get to make our own samplers within a quilt square. After we spoke with the textile folks, we had the chance to speak with their educator. It was really neat hearing about some of the programming they are doing. On Wednesdays, they host drawing sessions in their galleries where general visitors are allowed to come in and draw what they see, while professional artists give tips. After speaking with her, we got the chance to wander through the museum. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had three of my favorite Monet paintings. I sat and drooled over those for awhile, and enjoyed watching how other visitors observed them. From there, I moved to their Egyptian exhibit. The neat thing was that all of the pieces of their exhibition have been together since they were entombed. It sounded like it was actually something that was the fault of the economy, originally the collection was supposed to include loaned pieces but the economy made the museum reconsider their decision and simply pull from their own collection.
Thursday was probably the best day of the trip. We started out at the Boston Children's Museum. It was great fun. They turned us loose on the museum an hour before they opened, and the group of twenty-somethings that we are all reverted to a bunch of five-year olds. There was climbing, playing with bubbles, jumping, singing and lots and lots of laughter. One of the things that intrigued me the most was that a large part of their exhibits are in both English and Spanish. It was fun for me, my Spanish is awful (only a semester) but lots of French, so I can read some. It was a challenge trying to read it. We played until moms and their kids started showing up, but then I felt kind of awkward staring at them. I did have some interesting observations. It was mostly moms standing back and talking to each other, watching their kids playing. I would have loved to have seen more of the moms (sorry, there weren't dads) engaged. We got to talk to a number of the educators and an exhibit designers. It was neat getting their perspective on working with kids, and trying to engage parents. We also asked about their policy on lone adults that come in. They have a really interesting system in place to keep the kids there safe.
From the Children's Museum, we trekked over to the Science Museum. It was HUGE. A number of my classmates had purchased tickets to see their blockbuster Harry Potter exhibit. Sadly, as fanatical as I can be about Harry Potter, I'm also poor, so I just went through the rest of the museum. It was a TON to take in. I was very, very frustrated with their listening devices. On a number of stations they had "ear trumpets", for lack of a better word, that I was extremly uncomfortable having to use. Then, to add insult to injury, they only repeated the instructions for the exhibit, not the audio presented. They also had a whole exhibit on music and patterns, but the headphones were hearing aid incompatible. It frustrates me, a lot. For the most part, I can still hear most of a normal oral presentation. But a lot of the latter exhibit only put out sound through its headphones, which I couldn't use. All in all the rest of the museum was neat. I was especially impressed with a tiny, tucked away exhibit about mammograms. Its something I think all women hear about and fear a little bit, but it was really neat getting to actually learn about what is involved. They even had gel packs to feel to see if you could find the lumps. We then talked with a really neat guy who played a pretty cool magic trick, trying to show us how hard it is, but how hard they work, to take boring, dry science facts and turn them into something interesting and engaging. He's involved with some really great things, and it was neat to see how the science museum has grown over the years.
Friday we got out of dodge (or Boston) and spent a day with the Historic New England. They own a number of house museums all over New England and New York. We visited two; the Gropius House and the Codman Estate. They were two diametrically different places. The Gropious house is a Modernist 1930's house, it was the home of one of the fathers of the modernist movement. The curators are really struggling with balancing the museum habit of preserving the old versus the modernist philosophy of replacing anything that begins to wear down. Things are helped yet complicated by the fact that Mr. Gropius's daughter is still alive, and has very strong opinions about how the house should be. They do, however, have a wonderful opportunity to learn things from her.
The Codman Estate was...interesting. It is a mish-mash of artifacts from a variety of time-periods, and is full to the brim with stuff. They have changed their interpretation four different times, and still have had very little success bringing people into the house. They do, however, have a number of people who use their grounds or who rent out the carriage house. It is a challenge, to see how they can bring people inside. I personally wonder if focusing more on the interior designer son that grew up in the house would help them, but it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years. After we toured the house, the staff of Historic New England hosted us for a really fun lunch and talked to us about their stewardship program. It focuses on helping the public that lives in historic homes to preserve them. It was absolutely fascinating, and something I knew nothing about. Especially since Nate and I have a daydream about someday living in a historic home, it was fun to hear about what they've done with the properties they hold and those they've deaccesioned.
Alright, I apologize for having taken so long to have posted this, but better late then never, right?
12 November, 2009
Sometimes Life Gets In The Way
Sometimes life just gets in the way. . I know I promised a blog about our field trip to Boston. I promise I will get to it at some point. Unfortunately I've had some life issues interfere with not only my blogging abilities but school as well, to the point where I a man leaving Cooperstown early for Thanksgiving break. On Monday, as I was walking around my room I caught my shoe on the cord of my computer. I fell forward into the push-up position cursing all the way down. Shortly after impact, which was mostly on my palms, I blacked out from the pain in my shoulder. Now, to ER tips, three visits to my PT, and two trigger point injections into my shoulder later, I am still in a pretty decent amount of pain. I'm using my wonderful voice recognition software to type, but it's difficult to do really much of anything when you're on Valium. at this point, the main goal is to get means stable enough that I can stay conscious for a car ride to Albany airport, and the flight back to Des Moines. Hopefully, now that I'm on the proper cocktail of medications, on top of those injections, I should be able to manage it on Tuesday, when my flight has been booked. In the meantime, my life is really dependent on my wonderful and amazing roommates, we've gone far beyond the call of duty to take care of me. For the most part, I'm just staying in bed trying to keep up with my reading and not aggravate anything any further. I've spoken with Gretchen, our program director, whose assured me that will do everything possible to make sure I can finish the semester on time. I won't vent my frustrations here, but I'm sure you can imagine what they are. thank you for the support I've gotten from everyone over the last few days, it really means a lot and has helped me keep pushing through.
04 November, 2009
MAAM - Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums
A few weeks ago, nearly the entire Cooperstown Graduate program loaded up onto a charter bus and drove to Saratoga Springs for the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums conference. It was a really fascinating to speak with professionals already out in the field, and to get some very different perspectives on how museums do and should run. Here are some brief explinations of the sessions I attended and what I took from them:
1. Connect, Create, Collaborate: Program Development Responsive To The New Technology And The Culture of Youth
2. Climbing The Mountain, And Getting To The Other Side: Lessons Learned While Planning For The "New"
3. Fifth Annual Stephen E. Weil Memorial Lecture
4. Museum School Partnerships: Building Holistic Relationships For Growth And Learning
5. CGP Reception
1. Translating A New Building Project Into An Opportunity For Community Engagement
2. Invigorating Museums Through Creative Dramatics And Video Productions
3. Connecting With Community: Best Practices Outside The Museum Field
The entire conference was an amazing experience. It was wonderful getting the chance to speak with a number of people actually out in the industry. The memorial lecture was wonderful, and really stressed the importance of looking to non-traditional sources for inspiration within our museums. As a side note, the flash-mob theory discussed there was mentioned on the most recent episode of the tv show Greek, which my roommates and I had fun discussing. I also really had fun hearing about the creative dramatics and video productions. Having interpreted in two different third person open air/living history museums, it was a great chance to hear about some similar but very unique variations in other museums. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the sketches at the Baseball Hall of Fame, and am very excited to now get a chance to try my own, as some of my classmates and I will be portraying characters from paintings at the Fenimore Arts Museum this weekend.
Looking back at the list of what I attended, I realized a lot of it focused on programs within museums or specifically with kids. It has really led me to wonder about the possibility of a future in museum education or museum programming. My biggest worry right now is that, unlike some of my classmates, I have no background in the theories or ideas behind education. But I know that I can make that moment happen, when someone puts two pieces of knowledge together and finally sees something in a new light. I love trying to find new ways to engage people, and I am excited about the possibility of museums serving a function beyond simply the preservation of artifacts. Having this potential direction is scary but exciting. We will see what happens!
1. Connect, Create, Collaborate: Program Development Responsive To The New Technology And The Culture of Youth
2. Climbing The Mountain, And Getting To The Other Side: Lessons Learned While Planning For The "New"
3. Fifth Annual Stephen E. Weil Memorial Lecture
4. Museum School Partnerships: Building Holistic Relationships For Growth And Learning
5. CGP Reception
1. Translating A New Building Project Into An Opportunity For Community Engagement
2. Invigorating Museums Through Creative Dramatics And Video Productions
3. Connecting With Community: Best Practices Outside The Museum Field
The entire conference was an amazing experience. It was wonderful getting the chance to speak with a number of people actually out in the industry. The memorial lecture was wonderful, and really stressed the importance of looking to non-traditional sources for inspiration within our museums. As a side note, the flash-mob theory discussed there was mentioned on the most recent episode of the tv show Greek, which my roommates and I had fun discussing. I also really had fun hearing about the creative dramatics and video productions. Having interpreted in two different third person open air/living history museums, it was a great chance to hear about some similar but very unique variations in other museums. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the sketches at the Baseball Hall of Fame, and am very excited to now get a chance to try my own, as some of my classmates and I will be portraying characters from paintings at the Fenimore Arts Museum this weekend.
Looking back at the list of what I attended, I realized a lot of it focused on programs within museums or specifically with kids. It has really led me to wonder about the possibility of a future in museum education or museum programming. My biggest worry right now is that, unlike some of my classmates, I have no background in the theories or ideas behind education. But I know that I can make that moment happen, when someone puts two pieces of knowledge together and finally sees something in a new light. I love trying to find new ways to engage people, and I am excited about the possibility of museums serving a function beyond simply the preservation of artifacts. Having this potential direction is scary but exciting. We will see what happens!
28 September, 2009
Wordle = Amazing
If you have not yet tried out Wordle, it is a great way to kill some time. Here is the Wordle I created for my blog. It is neat to see some of the words I use the most, they are the biggest!
26 September, 2009
Living it up, 1845 style
Today began my adventure as a historic interpreter at The Farmer's Museum. It was absolutely wonderful to be back "in the field", working at a museum and getting the chance to speak with visitors again. To top everything off, this 1845 New York museum makes their brooms very, very differently than my old 1875 Iowa museum does. I'm not sure if its a time period thing, a regional thing or if it is just that the first particular broommakers at each museum did things a little differently. I am absolutely fascinated as to why these differences have occured, and if there is a reason behind them. Never fear though, I am in the process of conducting research on the side in an attempt to find out any logic behind this.
Also, this week I was elected as the leader for our semester class project. We will be providing the Oneonta World of Learning with a feasibility study, as they are hoping to open a bricks and mortar museum. I think this will be a great chance to step away from the public side of museums to see what it actually takes to put one together, and I am very excited to help all of the voices of my classmates channel their ideas into one coherant message. Updates will follow!
Also, this week I was elected as the leader for our semester class project. We will be providing the Oneonta World of Learning with a feasibility study, as they are hoping to open a bricks and mortar museum. I think this will be a great chance to step away from the public side of museums to see what it actually takes to put one together, and I am very excited to help all of the voices of my classmates channel their ideas into one coherant message. Updates will follow!
22 September, 2009
Adelphi Custom and Historic Wallpaper Hangings
Today for our Material Cultures class, we visited Adelphi, a reproduction block-printing wallpaper company. It was really interesting seeing how they can take scraps of wallpaper found from the inside of some old walls and turn it into a fully reproduced, vibrantly colored pattern. It is actually quite a small, labor intensive process but it was fascinating to see. We also got the chance to talk to The Anonymous Bookbinder, a man whose office is up one floor from Adelphi who restores the bindings on books. It wasn't a process I had every really thought about, and was absolutely fascinating. I'm really interested to continue my journal for Material Cultures, in which we're examining different printed materials. Tomorrow I'm going to the storage facility to examine some wallpaper remnants. Its really wonderful, and is very interesting to compare to the wallpapers at the Farmer's Museum and back at Living History Farms.
In other news, I have been hired as an Interpreter at the Broom Shop for The Farmer's Museum. Ginny, one of my roommates, and I went in to talk to them about volunteering. Ginny is very interested in textiles, and wants to learn how to spin and weave. They set her up as a volunteer, but they were really in need of a broommaker so they hired me. I spent Monday going through the paperwork and research left from their old broommaker, which was pretty messy. While I was in office, they received unfortunate news that one of their textile interpreters will be unable to come back for the rest of the season due to an injury. While that is horrible news for the poor woman, it is good news for Ginny, who will now join me as a staff member at the Farmer's Museum.
The biggest challenge for me is going to be learning how to make this particular style of brooms. Both museums form the interior of their brooms differently, and the Farmer's Museum brings the top of the broomcorn down to the handle, whereas Living History Farms cuts the top of the broomcorn flat across. I'm really interested to do more research and find out why it is these differences exist. The Farmers Museum is 1840-1860 New York, LHF is 1875 Iowa. Is it time period, is it region? I've got a giant stack of research I'm only a little way through, but maybe the answer is there somewhere!
In other news, I have been hired as an Interpreter at the Broom Shop for The Farmer's Museum. Ginny, one of my roommates, and I went in to talk to them about volunteering. Ginny is very interested in textiles, and wants to learn how to spin and weave. They set her up as a volunteer, but they were really in need of a broommaker so they hired me. I spent Monday going through the paperwork and research left from their old broommaker, which was pretty messy. While I was in office, they received unfortunate news that one of their textile interpreters will be unable to come back for the rest of the season due to an injury. While that is horrible news for the poor woman, it is good news for Ginny, who will now join me as a staff member at the Farmer's Museum.
The biggest challenge for me is going to be learning how to make this particular style of brooms. Both museums form the interior of their brooms differently, and the Farmer's Museum brings the top of the broomcorn down to the handle, whereas Living History Farms cuts the top of the broomcorn flat across. I'm really interested to do more research and find out why it is these differences exist. The Farmers Museum is 1840-1860 New York, LHF is 1875 Iowa. Is it time period, is it region? I've got a giant stack of research I'm only a little way through, but maybe the answer is there somewhere!
20 September, 2009
MacGyver
Part of being a graduate student is being able to take ideas and present them in new, unique ways. If you've read past posts, you'll remember the project we were assigned during orientation week. We were given clues on notecards and told to figure out what the clue was talking about, then to take those people and place and include them in a video that also advertised Cooperstown and the Graduate Program. This is what we came up with, I hope you like it! Click here, or watch it below!
15 September, 2009
Are We Disconnected?
Tonight my roommate Ginny and I were sitting having dinner, and we got into a really great discussions about the current situation of museums in the world. She told me about a video she had run across on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFbmuEUdwI, which is a very slow moving but interesting commentary on one opinion about the museum world. While satirical, it gives a good jolt to those of us being educated as the next group of museum professionals. Though I would argue strongly against the need to put a museum into a box, it is true that we guide visitors by choosing certain objects to display, writing and desiging exhibits and plaques for individual objects. I am curious as to what others feel about this. Is it the job of a museum curator or educator to guide a visitor? Should exhibits be set up with only the most basic framework, allowing visitors to travel through and interpret without guidance? And are museum professionals, as college educated and beyond, unable to identify with the general public, most of whom do not have masters degrees?
Ginny and I were also discussing the difficulties of living history museums and the application of this question. In living history, there is a very strong interpretation of the history being presented. That is why those people who wear period clothing and talk to visitors are called "interpreters". Is this the right way of presenting history to the public? Or are we cutting ourselves off to other possibilities by giving interpreters or docents a set script to work off of?
I don't have a good answer to this one. If anyone does, I'd love to hear it. Our first year class is getting geared up to help the Oneonta World of Learning discuss their plans for a building for their museum, and this is one of the issues we as a class are trying to tackle. What do you think?
Ginny and I were also discussing the difficulties of living history museums and the application of this question. In living history, there is a very strong interpretation of the history being presented. That is why those people who wear period clothing and talk to visitors are called "interpreters". Is this the right way of presenting history to the public? Or are we cutting ourselves off to other possibilities by giving interpreters or docents a set script to work off of?
I don't have a good answer to this one. If anyone does, I'd love to hear it. Our first year class is getting geared up to help the Oneonta World of Learning discuss their plans for a building for their museum, and this is one of the issues we as a class are trying to tackle. What do you think?
11 September, 2009
Visitor Services
It is always nice to have your ideas confirmed. I've always been a very strong advocate for living history style museums, or outdoor/open air museums. Although I was originally not going to be able to take the class because it was scheduled at the same time as our Research and Fieldwork course, but because I wanted to take it as well as a number of other first years, they rescheduled the class so we can take it now! The book that was our first reading is called Life Stages of the Museum Visitor, by Wilkening and Chung. We read the first three chapters for class last week, and they talked about the different age groups that visit museums, including a breakdown of the different generations and what experiences have shaped their lives. One of my favorite parts was a breakdown of what exactly visitors want in outdoor museums. The top responses were for interactive, engaging interpretations and demonstrations from workers in period clothing...exactly the way I have worked for the last three seasons, and what I believe to be one of the most effective ways of connecting with visitors of all ages. Yay!
09 September, 2009
Things Always Happen For a Reason
In February 2008 I was home from Wartburg for our break. I was on my way to Michigan to see three of the friends who I had studied in France with. On my way out to my car, I hit the remaining tiny patch of ice on my driveway, slipped, and fell backwards onto my back. I threw my left arm back to catch myself, and landed pretty squarely onto my left shoulder, hard enough that I went back inside to have my veterinarian mother take a look. True, dogs and people are built differently, but a broken bone is a broken bone and I was worried. She didn't see anything wrong, so I grabbed an ice pack and drove to Michigan. That was the start of what has been over a year and a half of doctors visits, tests, injections and frustration. I started experiencing pain in my shoulder and arm in March, a month after my fall, and began visiting doctors. Unfortunately, my diagnosis remained elusive until June of this year, which meant a frustrating and less than involved senior year at Wartburg and many long, painful nights. In June, after being told my only option was to implant electrodes into my spinal column as a pain management technique and still without an official and correct diagnosis, my mother and I flew to Colorado to see a doctor out there. Three doctors and an expensive change of flights later, I finally had a diagnosis; subscapular bursitis and scapular dyskinesia with nerve damage down my left arm. Throughout the summer, I saw a physical therapist near my hometown and have seen a 60% improvement in a very short time.
Unfortunately, having just moved across the country, I have not yet had the opportunity to meet with a new physcial therapist. The earliest available appointment for the pt clinic in town is the 23rd. In the meantime I have a number of stretches and exercises I can do, but within the last three days I have seen a marked downturn. That all culminated this morning with me getting sick from the pain in my neck while we were being introduced to the Milne Library in Oneonta.
This is an aspect of my graduate education that I would much prefer to do without. During the late spring and early summer, before going to Colorado, I was very uncertain as to whether I would be able to attend the program this fall. Having seen such an improvement this summer was reassuring, and I had hoped that it would not be an issue once classes started. Unfortunately that is not the case, but rest assured I will do all I can to prevent any other flare-ups and to remain ahead with my classwork.
On a different note, there has been some good that has come out of this. Throughout my life I have been blessed enough to be fairly healthy. This last year and a half, though, has exposed me to aspects of the museum world that I had not thought about before. Simple things, like ensuring that doors can easily be opened. Sometimes, if I'm carrying things in my right arm and am faced with a turn knob door, I have to wait for help or set down my load and figure out how to get through it before it closes again.
This has sparked an interest in issues of accesibilty in museums, especially in living history museums. How do museums accomedate handicap visitors? Is there a "favor" to a certain type of handicap, i.e. wheelchair bound, visually impaired, etc? What services are museums providing for mentally handicapped and learning impaired visitors? This topic is one that I am considering strongly for a thesis idea. If I decide on another topic, at the very least it is something I would like to explore and to ensure that whatever museum I work at aims to improve.
Unfortunately, having just moved across the country, I have not yet had the opportunity to meet with a new physcial therapist. The earliest available appointment for the pt clinic in town is the 23rd. In the meantime I have a number of stretches and exercises I can do, but within the last three days I have seen a marked downturn. That all culminated this morning with me getting sick from the pain in my neck while we were being introduced to the Milne Library in Oneonta.
This is an aspect of my graduate education that I would much prefer to do without. During the late spring and early summer, before going to Colorado, I was very uncertain as to whether I would be able to attend the program this fall. Having seen such an improvement this summer was reassuring, and I had hoped that it would not be an issue once classes started. Unfortunately that is not the case, but rest assured I will do all I can to prevent any other flare-ups and to remain ahead with my classwork.
On a different note, there has been some good that has come out of this. Throughout my life I have been blessed enough to be fairly healthy. This last year and a half, though, has exposed me to aspects of the museum world that I had not thought about before. Simple things, like ensuring that doors can easily be opened. Sometimes, if I'm carrying things in my right arm and am faced with a turn knob door, I have to wait for help or set down my load and figure out how to get through it before it closes again.
This has sparked an interest in issues of accesibilty in museums, especially in living history museums. How do museums accomedate handicap visitors? Is there a "favor" to a certain type of handicap, i.e. wheelchair bound, visually impaired, etc? What services are museums providing for mentally handicapped and learning impaired visitors? This topic is one that I am considering strongly for a thesis idea. If I decide on another topic, at the very least it is something I would like to explore and to ensure that whatever museum I work at aims to improve.
08 September, 2009
First Day
Although for the last two weeks we have met as a group, today is our first official day of classes with the first seesion of our material cultures course. Our reading for the day was "What is Print", a brief but thorough intoduction to several different processess through which prints are made.
During my time at Living History Farms, I worked in the 1875 Print Shop for a short time. I hope that, going into today's class, I have a good working knowledge of at least the basics of print making, though job and newspaper printing is quite different from art printing I am sure.
This afternoon we will continue our task of editing our class video project. If you read earlier, you saw that during Orientation Week we were all given cards containing phrases or names. Our task was to identify the person, place or thing referenced on the card, then to put together a video advertising the Cooperstown Graduate Program and the town of Cooperstown as well. Our project is coming together quite nicely. I am on the editing crew, and we're getting into our second big round of editing. Sunday afternoon we met as well and spent a solid five and half hours working on the introduction and importing the film. It has been a really interesting experience, and something I have never done with quite as much depth. In high school, I made commercials for the French and Drama clubs, but that was quite awhile ago. The process seems to have become much more technical over the years, but I am very glad to have the opportunity to learn how it works. Mandy, who is one of my roommates, has worked extensively with the History Day project in Minnesota, and comes to us with a great deal of experience in all things film. Once our project is complete, we will present it to the NYSHA staff as well as post it to youtube. I will include a link to the clip here!
During my time at Living History Farms, I worked in the 1875 Print Shop for a short time. I hope that, going into today's class, I have a good working knowledge of at least the basics of print making, though job and newspaper printing is quite different from art printing I am sure.
This afternoon we will continue our task of editing our class video project. If you read earlier, you saw that during Orientation Week we were all given cards containing phrases or names. Our task was to identify the person, place or thing referenced on the card, then to put together a video advertising the Cooperstown Graduate Program and the town of Cooperstown as well. Our project is coming together quite nicely. I am on the editing crew, and we're getting into our second big round of editing. Sunday afternoon we met as well and spent a solid five and half hours working on the introduction and importing the film. It has been a really interesting experience, and something I have never done with quite as much depth. In high school, I made commercials for the French and Drama clubs, but that was quite awhile ago. The process seems to have become much more technical over the years, but I am very glad to have the opportunity to learn how it works. Mandy, who is one of my roommates, has worked extensively with the History Day project in Minnesota, and comes to us with a great deal of experience in all things film. Once our project is complete, we will present it to the NYSHA staff as well as post it to youtube. I will include a link to the clip here!
05 September, 2009
Research Week
This last week we spent almost entirely with Will Walker, the history professor on our staff. He teaches Research and Fieldwork to all of the first years, and we also have the option of taking his American Cultures course. We spent the majority of our time getting acquainted with those resources that will be available to us. Because our building is under construction, we are currently being housed in the New York State Historical Association (or, NYSHA), specifically in their library. We are also in close proximity to the Feminore Art Museum (http://fenimoreartmuseum.blogspot.com/) and the Farmer's Museum (http://thefarmersmuseum.blogspot.com/), both of which are right next door.We are are also affiliated with the Oneonta campus, and have an in with another nearby university. This means that we have access to a tremendous amount of resources. We were introduced to the variety of collections stored in the Library, which includes letters written and signed between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. I actually got to touch them!! We also have an extensive photography and Native American collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, as well as an amazingly diverse collection between Fenimore and the Farmers museum stored off site in a converted stable. There they have a collection of everything from quilts and clothing to presidential life masks. I'm so excited to get the chance to explore the material culture side of things; that starts next week with my material cultures class.
Though we did set aside our research on Wednesday to get a quick introduciton to the subject with our prof, but the primary purpose was, in fact, research. To check that we were absorbing the information we were being given, we were issued "Research Challenges". Our first task, the prison assignment I described in an earlier post, went pretty well. We also were given an assigment, as I briefly described earlier, in which we were supposed to choose a historic marker and research the event which it describes. The marker that Mandy and I had was about the Cherry Valley "Masacre", an attack by the British and Native American troops.
Well, I'll try to write more later, but we're having a "Last Chance to Wear White" party, and there's still work to do before people come over!
Though we did set aside our research on Wednesday to get a quick introduciton to the subject with our prof, but the primary purpose was, in fact, research. To check that we were absorbing the information we were being given, we were issued "Research Challenges". Our first task, the prison assignment I described in an earlier post, went pretty well. We also were given an assigment, as I briefly described earlier, in which we were supposed to choose a historic marker and research the event which it describes. The marker that Mandy and I had was about the Cherry Valley "Masacre", an attack by the British and Native American troops.
Well, I'll try to write more later, but we're having a "Last Chance to Wear White" party, and there's still work to do before people come over!
04 September, 2009
A Quick Assignment
Think about whatver historical markers you have in your area. Who are they about? What do they actually say? Do they give the full story of what really happened? We had a research assignment where we examined New York historic markers and found most of them lacking. I'll add more about this later!
02 September, 2009
Waltz with Bashir
If you have never seen the documentary film Waltz with Bashir, I highly, highly recommend you see it. It is an animated documentary detailing an Israeli man's attempt to remember his involvement in the massacres at Sabra and Shatila in September of 1982. The overall Palestinian-Israeli conflict is something I have had the chance to study on multiple occasions during my career, including touching on it in multiple history and international relations courses at Wartburg and spending an entire semester on the topic during my time in Nantes, France.
The goal of having us watch the film was not necessarily to educate us more about the subject itself, but to show us how fickle memory can be. The main character has no memory of the incident himself, and so attempts to learn details from those he believed may have been there with him. The whole idea of the changing nature of a memory makes for some frustration for those attempting to conduct interviews in oral history, which we will be doing later this semester.
Overall though, it is a darkly moving film that I recommend watching on a day when it is okay to be sad and more than a little shaken up after the viewing. As to how tricky my own research in oral history will prove, only time will tell.
The goal of having us watch the film was not necessarily to educate us more about the subject itself, but to show us how fickle memory can be. The main character has no memory of the incident himself, and so attempts to learn details from those he believed may have been there with him. The whole idea of the changing nature of a memory makes for some frustration for those attempting to conduct interviews in oral history, which we will be doing later this semester.
Overall though, it is a darkly moving film that I recommend watching on a day when it is okay to be sad and more than a little shaken up after the viewing. As to how tricky my own research in oral history will prove, only time will tell.
31 August, 2009
Titles
Today we started our Research Week. Our professor is making sure we're all up to speed on our research skills. We had a quick project where each team was given a historic question. My group was asked to track the problems of prison systems and the changes that were enacted in the 19th Century. Our job was to find a primary source for each member of the group, six of us, to develop a thesis that would lead to further research, and to present our findings to the class. My particular source was the second annual report of the New York Prison Association, which was formed in 1845 to help bring about needed reforms in the state's prison systems. Our group's winning source went to Maria, who found an Ohio tour book put together by a prison warden to advertise how well kept his particular prison was.
Our other excercise, and one which was extremely interesting, was wandering through the stacks to pick out remarkable titles. There were some pretty awesome ones; mine was something like Zohlan on Sculpture, by William Zohlan. The last name is probably incorrect there, but you get the point. Our professors goal with this exercise was to talk about the importance of picking a good title. For someone just browsing the stacks, that's all they'll see, and if it isn't interesting enough there is no reason for them to pick up your book. I highly recommend the idea of browsing through the sections of your library now to check out some of the horribly wonderful titles. You'll know what I mean if you do.
The biggest shocks today were that, first, the library already has space on its shelves for our theses. How terrifying is that? Secondly, we are both encourage and almost expected to submit some of the papers we will write over the next two years for publication. They kept telling us today that we are professionals now, something which it seems I had never processed before. I promise though that I will do my best to place my work here for you to read it, and to help me critique it first! Soon to come, a list of ideas for my thesis.
Our other excercise, and one which was extremely interesting, was wandering through the stacks to pick out remarkable titles. There were some pretty awesome ones; mine was something like Zohlan on Sculpture, by William Zohlan. The last name is probably incorrect there, but you get the point. Our professors goal with this exercise was to talk about the importance of picking a good title. For someone just browsing the stacks, that's all they'll see, and if it isn't interesting enough there is no reason for them to pick up your book. I highly recommend the idea of browsing through the sections of your library now to check out some of the horribly wonderful titles. You'll know what I mean if you do.
The biggest shocks today were that, first, the library already has space on its shelves for our theses. How terrifying is that? Secondly, we are both encourage and almost expected to submit some of the papers we will write over the next two years for publication. They kept telling us today that we are professionals now, something which it seems I had never processed before. I promise though that I will do my best to place my work here for you to read it, and to help me critique it first! Soon to come, a list of ideas for my thesis.
30 August, 2009
Craft of Resarch, 1-4
Starting tomorrow, we will begin our first Research Week. We will be conducting research projects, and I believe making sure our research skills are up to graduate level speed. We also have times scheduled as Research Challenges; it will be interesting to see what those turn out to be.
In preparation, we were asked to read the first four chapters of "The Craft of Research" by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams. The main point of the first chapters is trying to teach writers how to frame their writing in a way that actually interests readers. It is very, very similar to what I read at Wartburg in the Turabian manual. It always fascinates me, and I know that I am as guilty of this as any, how unreadable we make ourselves. Both Turabian and the Craft of Research stress the importance of finding the answer to the questions "so what?" Without that answer, readers won't care, and readers who don't care won't waste their time on what you have written.
That being said, here is my "so what." I'm writing this blog to tell you, my reader, about my life as a student here at CGP? To that, we'll put the question. So what? So, my classmates and I are the future of museums. We will go on, like those before us, to become directors of national associations, to run museums around the world from the ground up, and to educate the public about the importance of the past. This is to show you how all of that starts. I hope that is a good enough so what for you.
In preparation, we were asked to read the first four chapters of "The Craft of Research" by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams. The main point of the first chapters is trying to teach writers how to frame their writing in a way that actually interests readers. It is very, very similar to what I read at Wartburg in the Turabian manual. It always fascinates me, and I know that I am as guilty of this as any, how unreadable we make ourselves. Both Turabian and the Craft of Research stress the importance of finding the answer to the questions "so what?" Without that answer, readers won't care, and readers who don't care won't waste their time on what you have written.
That being said, here is my "so what." I'm writing this blog to tell you, my reader, about my life as a student here at CGP? To that, we'll put the question. So what? So, my classmates and I are the future of museums. We will go on, like those before us, to become directors of national associations, to run museums around the world from the ground up, and to educate the public about the importance of the past. This is to show you how all of that starts. I hope that is a good enough so what for you.
Orientation Week
The Cooperstown Graduate program in Cooperstown, New York, began training "creative, entrepreneurial museum professionals committed to programs for the public good" in 1964. (http://www.oneonta.edu/academics/cgp/about/history.html) My class, to graduate in 2011, consists of fourteen women and three men all working to become those entrepreneurial professionals. Interests of the group range from Dutch immigrant history to solving the problems caused by No Child Left Behind for museum education programs. We will spend the next two years challenging ourselves to learn everything there is to know about museums, about ourselves, and about this place we're calling home until graduation.
We spent the last week going through the process of orientation and getting settled into our homes. After unfortunately having our fourth roommate put off coming to the program due to illness, my house is composed of two other girls. Mandy, from Minnesota and Ginny from Virginia. Mandy is very interested in bringing history and museums to the Web. Ginny's interests lie in textiles, especially clothing from the Civil War era. For myself, I love living history, and am hoping to find out how to do it well. We were in temporary housing until Thursday, displaced by the Glimmerglass Opera Company. We finally got moved in, and have spent what free time we've had sorting our spices into alphabetical order, organizing the junk drawers and moving ourselves into our rooms. We're finally settled, and are now able to turn our attentions to the reason we're here.
Last week we did a tremendous amount of work learning about the program, expectations, team building, conflict resolution and many other things. A lot of what we did was learning how we, as a group of seventeen, will work together. We're just a smidge too small to have representatives attend council meetings on behalf of their classmates, but too big to have everyone have all of their opinions be heard in an orderly manner. We worked very hard over the course of several days to record class bylaws to help us maintain order throughout the course of our next two years.
Of all the sessions we attended, the most interesting one discussed the changing role of technology in museums. We were introduced to Google Reader, as well as the currents uses of blogs and Twitter in museums. As a result of that session, I have decided to keep a blog for my time here. My primary goal will be to record my thoughts on our readings, our professional seminars and the impact that the program is having on my goals as a museum professional.
We spent the last week going through the process of orientation and getting settled into our homes. After unfortunately having our fourth roommate put off coming to the program due to illness, my house is composed of two other girls. Mandy, from Minnesota and Ginny from Virginia. Mandy is very interested in bringing history and museums to the Web. Ginny's interests lie in textiles, especially clothing from the Civil War era. For myself, I love living history, and am hoping to find out how to do it well. We were in temporary housing until Thursday, displaced by the Glimmerglass Opera Company. We finally got moved in, and have spent what free time we've had sorting our spices into alphabetical order, organizing the junk drawers and moving ourselves into our rooms. We're finally settled, and are now able to turn our attentions to the reason we're here.
Last week we did a tremendous amount of work learning about the program, expectations, team building, conflict resolution and many other things. A lot of what we did was learning how we, as a group of seventeen, will work together. We're just a smidge too small to have representatives attend council meetings on behalf of their classmates, but too big to have everyone have all of their opinions be heard in an orderly manner. We worked very hard over the course of several days to record class bylaws to help us maintain order throughout the course of our next two years.
Of all the sessions we attended, the most interesting one discussed the changing role of technology in museums. We were introduced to Google Reader, as well as the currents uses of blogs and Twitter in museums. As a result of that session, I have decided to keep a blog for my time here. My primary goal will be to record my thoughts on our readings, our professional seminars and the impact that the program is having on my goals as a museum professional.
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