At the Start of an Adventure

Four months ago I found myself at the end of a grant and thus at the end of a job. I returned home and began working part-time while I searched and applied for full-time collections management positions. I managed to get some interviews and I made it tantalizing far in a number of them, but I have yet to hit the bulls-eye on the permanent job target. As the four months elapsed, and the interviews came and went, one part-time job was no longer cutting it. I was bored and I wasn’t even bringing home enough bacon to make a decent BLT much less pay back my student loan. So I went out and found a second part-time paying position as well as a part-time volunteer position. Now I am happily occupied six to seven days a week and performing a career juggling act that rivals any routine ever presented by a Cirque du Soleil entertainer.

So here’s the plan. I intend to work and blog and keep working and keep blogging until I have claimed my prize of the coveted permanent full-time museum job… and then I’ll work and blog some more. My goal with this project is to share my professional museum experiences and ideas and create a forum in which other professionals can share their stories and ideas. Now let me tell you a little bit about my jobs.

Job One: Gallery Assistant at The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. I have worked here on and off since I was in undergrad and I really do enjoy it. I engage with a gallery audience as they explore Tadao Ando’s space and view changing exhibitions meant to engage in a dialogue with the building. A self-proclaimed part-gallery, part-laboratory the Pulitzer has hosted a variety of shows featuring anything from modern and contemporary works to old masters. I safeguard the art and space, trying to ensure a pleasant, unique, and secure visitor experience. I also engage in additional projects and events whenever I can.

Job Two: Gallery Attendant at the Kemper Art Museum at Washington University St. Louis. This is my most recent part-time job and, though the function is technically the same, I find it very different from the Pulitzer. The Kemper is your more traditional art museum and is a university museum with active student engagement. Here I am to provide excellent visitor services while simultaneously providing invisible museum security. I also try to involve myself in other aspects of the museum’s day to day tasks.

Job Three: Exhibition Registrar Intern at the Missouri History Museum, and I must admit my favorite of the three. It is here that I get to participate in collections management activities at a very well established museum institution. Working with the museum’s exhibition registrar I help prepare and implement exhibitions. I also at times assist in the maintenance, such as environmental monitoring, of the exhibition spaces. And most importantly I get to work with the objects, or as I sometimes affectionately call them, the pretty, pretty old things. I get to hold them, write their condition reports, package them, move them, install them, de-install them, enter and explore their storage rooms, meet their loaners and private collectors… basically I’m in heaven.

I’ve acquired the approval of most of these institutions to write on this blog about my experiences. For the Missouri History Museum I’ve been invited to write for their blog instead, in which case a link will be provided the week my post is up on their website. My goal is to post at least once a week on my blog. Topics will generally be work-related, but will also occasionally include accounts of recreational visits to museums, galleries, and historic sites. I could also discuss an interesting museum topic I come across in the media or on other forums.

So here we are at the start of an adventure. I hope you all enjoy it with me!