HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE HIATUS

Letter from the Editors | Amy Intrator & Kathleen Lew

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It has been an unbelievably amazing term for Musings! Now it’s time for our brief holiday hiatus, but before we go, your Editors-in-Chief are excited to look back on all the accomplishments from the past four months and prepare for another great term at Musings. 

Editors-in-Chief, Amy [far left] and Kathleen [middle], strike a pose with Communications Officer, Jordan Fee [far right], at the MUSSA End-of-Year Celebration. Photo courtesy of Amy Intrator.

With our first ever professional development event, Musings provided a writing workshop on risk-taking and digital strategies led by Sarah Hill from Lord Cultural Resources. This event was in partnership with MMSt50, featuring delicious Almond Butterfly Cookies and a full room of MMSt students and Contributing Editors. Read Sam’s coverage of the workshop here. Musings is excited to continue this successful workshop series in the new year, so stay tuned for details!

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Guess what? Last night, #Musings hosted its FIRST EVER workshop! For this inaugural event, we invited Sarah Hill from Lord Cultural Resources to talk about digital engagement in museums. Keeping with the #MMSt50 theme of risk taking, the workshop explored how museums are using innovative approaches to engage digitally with their audiences both inside and outside of their institution. Cookies were supplied by the wonderful @almondbutterflybakeshop #Musings #MMSt50 #iSchool #workshop #digitalstrategies #consulting #museums #international

A post shared by Musings - MMSt Student Blog (@musingsmmst) on Nov 28, 2018 at 9:59am PST

Our instagram has also been busy with various event coverage featuring our Communication Officer Jordan Fee and Contributing Editors. Be sure to take a look back at our story highlights from the OMA conference and the MMSt Montreal field trip, in addition to some thoughtful posts about grad student life and Musings articles.

From exhibition reviews to articles about museum innovations, Musings’ Contributing Editors covered it all over the past few months! If you’re looking for some museum reading material over the holidays, we’ve provided some must-read articles from our Fall 2018 term:

If you’re looking for Toronto reading material, check out Rebecca’s article about Toronto’s quirky landmarks. For more Toronto heritage, Ally’s latest article explores the history of dining establishments in Toronto. Interested about how Toronto Muji is pushing the boundaries of art exhibitions through marketing strategies? Amy’s latest article is for you!

For those readers looking to step outside of the province, check out some of our Montreal reads! Laetitia covered the Museum Studies field trip to Montreal, which was full of visits to some amazing cultural institutions. Rachel explored an awe-inspiring exhibition at the McCord Museum focused on the complex relationship between clothing and the First Peoples of Canada. And if you’re still not ready to leave Montreal, Elizabeth’s latest article explores the McCord Giftshop.

WE CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S OVER! The MUSSA Montreal Field Trip was a massive success and we’re so thankful to have had such a big and enthusiastic group! Au revoir for now Montreal, we miss you already! #mussamtl

A post shared by Master of Museum Studies Asso. (@mussauoft) on Nov 9, 2018 at 5:10pm PST

To catch up on some of the amazing professional development that took place this term, check out Kathleen’s article about discomfort in the museum, spurred by a panel at the annual OMA conference. For more OMA content, read Evelyn’s article about GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) analogies that were explored during the conference. If you’re looking to explore the experience of Museum Studies students, check out Katlyn’s review of the second-year mandatory classes.

Current Museum Studies students pose with MMSt alum at the annual Ontario Museum Association Conference.
Photo courtesy of Selin Kahramanoglu.

To explore some fascinating museum innovations, take a look at Keelan’s analysis of a museum that displays taxidermy… with a twist. If you want to explore another out-of-the-ordinary exhibition, Maddy reviews an exhibit that is interspersed around the Gardiner Museum!

Looking for the inside scoop on fascinating museum programs? Samantha Summers provides highlights from the 10th Anniversary Celebration of ROMCAN, a program dedicated to inclusion at the Royal Ontario Museum. If you want to know what’s happening inside Toronto’s heritage sites, Samantha Kilpatrick looks at the diverse programming at Montgomery’s Inn. And if you want to explore the ethics of collecting, power, and possession, you have to check out Carly’s review of a recent program at the Gardiner Museum.

Lastly, for anyone looking for a read about museum collections, make sure to check out Selin’s exploration of preventive conservation. And if you want to muse further about the ethics of collecting after reading Carly’s article, check out Jordan’s most recent article about the connection between over-collecting at museums and sustainability.

Thank you to all Musings readers for such a rewarding term of blogging! The new year will bring more exciting events, alumni Editor-in-Chief features, and new columns. If you are an MMSt student and interested in joining the team, stay tuned for applications. We hope everyone has a happy holiday and we will be back in January with more engaging and insightful museum content!