Hello Pals, back again for another Internship Check-In. I’m super stoked to share what some of my colleagues are up to in the diverse roles they’re tackling for their internships. Read on to grab a small taste of the kinds of work an MMSt internship can lead to!
In this edition we'll be hearing from:
Amelia Smith: Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, Toronto, ON
Defne Inceoglu: Lambton House (Heritage York), Toronto, ON
Revital Weiss: Koffler Gallery, Toronto, ON
Selin Kahramanoglu: Colegio Oficial de Doctores y Licenciados en Filosofia y Letras y Ciencias de Valiencia y Castellon, Naples, Italy
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| This photo featuring Lambton House juxtaposes the historic and modern found all around Toronto. Source. |
Please introduce yourself and tell us about your internship role.
Amelia: I'm Amelia and I have been interning at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre as a research assistant. The JCCC has begun redesigning their permanent exhibition on Japanese diaspora, and I've been taken on to research Japanese migration into Imperial Manchuria.
Defne: Defne Inceoglu here, I’m the archives and records intern at Lambton House, which is a historic house run by the charity Heritage York. While my title says archives and records, I’m ALSO a collections manager, library cataloger, website designer, photographer, policy writer, exhibition designer, provenance researcher, cleaner, resident neighbourhood expert, admin worker… I wear a lot of fun, fun hats.
Revital: My name is Revital and I’m an urban-planner-turned-Museum-Studies-student. This summer, I’m working as a Gallery Education Assistant at the Koffler Gallery, a contemporary art gallery. Together with a devoted education team, I am responsible for making our summer show accessible to our diverse visitors through engaging tours and conversation. I also help create and facilitate workshops that highlight some major themes in the exhibition, and research for the development of education packages.
Selin: I am entering my third year in the CDP (Combined Degree) program this September, with a concentration in Archives and Records Management. I had the great fortune of joining a dig in Naples this summer. My internship role is to clean, label, store, and inventory all of the artifacts recovered from our excavation site in Pompeii, for the local museum's use.
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| Defne in the Blue Room at Lambton House, surrounded by the library to be catalogued. Photo courtesy of Defne Inceoglu. |
Amelia: My average day is not very exciting to write about. Most days consist of endless reading and making as many notes as I think necessary. I usually get in at 8:30 AM and the reading doesn't stop until around 4:30 PM (excluding a break for lunch around 12/12:30 PM).
If feel I need a break from reading, I will usually go on a search for artefacts that could make it into my section of the exhibition. As I cannot read Japanese, the places I can search are limited. Nevertheless, I have been able to find a load of excellent items through The Library of Congress and Harvard Libraries.
Defne: My day starts early in the morning, as I throw my thermos of coffee into my backpack and take my bike ride through High Park/the Humber River trails and the surrounding neighbourhood. The Humber River and the former City of York is incredibly important to us at Heritage York, our mandate is centered around the history of this area. Plus, the exhibition I am designing is about the City of York. I like to spend time every morning getting to know the neighbourhood better. Once I get to work, I start up on one of my projects. I type-type away at my desk. We open to the public around 12:30-1 PM until around 3:30 or 4. At this time myself or the other intern (CDP student Devin Benczik!) will greet people, chat and give tours. However, much of my day is spent at my desk, cataloging books or objects, writing copy for my exhibition, researching provenance or designing the website.
Revital: Each day is slightly different and there have been phases of work throughout the internship. Ahead of the exhibition opening, my typical day was spent on various activities related to the summer show, like helping complete the education package used for tours, building the summer workshops, and reaching out to cultural and academic organizations to offer a tour and workshop.
Selin: Typically, we leave our residence by 7:00 AM and head to the dig site. I gather all the materials excavated the day before, and take the boxes to another on site lab. There, the materials undergo general conservation treatment and are recorded. In the evenings, our team has a debriefing, or we tour another local site, before having dinner by 9:00 PM!
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| Amelia looking beautiful in yukata at the JCCC's Natsu Matsuri. Photo courtesy of Amelia Smith. |
Amelia: I was surprised by how quickly I started locating artefacts that could make it into the exhibition. Within my first couple of weeks, I had found a book at Downsview library that I felt would be perfect. Granted, about a week later I realized that books from the first half of the 20th century might not be the best choice for a permanent exhibition at the JCCC, but you win some, you lose some.
Defne: I am surprised at how trusting and supportive my supervisors are. As a volunteer Board, they care very much about their work and in return they care very much about us interns. They let me run around with my ambitions and guide my ideas without restricting the limitations. It has been a fun process getting to create my own projects and implement them. Their expertise and kindness has been very valuable.
Revital: I am surprised about the level of autonomy I have been given and the amount of responsibility with which I have been entrusted. My supervisor is always available to answer questions and checks in occasionally, but I am mostly self-monitoring to complete my tasks. I am especially surprised and appreciate that my supervisor has faith in the work I produce and accepts ideas that I bring to the table.
Selin: I was surprised to learn that my supervisor was willing to take my advice in regards to improving some workplace practices. Mostly, the project is well-organized and progressing smoothly, but I was able to make some suggestions about better practices. For example, I've been helping with improving the code of the photographs in the hard drive so that they're easier to find, using archival standards.
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| Selin hard at work cleaning artifacts excavated from the dig in Naples. Photo courtesy of Selin Kahramanoglu. |
Amelia: I'm excited to write the essay that will be the basis for my portion of the exhibition. With the amount of time I have put into the research and the multiple dimensions I have imagined for it, I am confident this will be an essay unlike any other I've written in the past. And that is exciting to me.
Defne: I am excited to lock down the accession and storage frameworks that I am currently helping to develop and/or improve. It has been a fun, challenging process. We are currently getting ready to start accessioning more of the objects in the collection. The best part about this is the provenance research. I have been doing a big research project on a William Notman/John Arthur Fraser painting that we have. It's like playing detective and I am excited for what else is left to be turned up.
Revital: The Koffler maintains ideals of social justice, equality and inclusivity. I am most excited about fulfilling this mandated practice and have already done so through giving tours that highlight the need for social change, providing arts programming to children in underserved communities, and contributing to a lecture about erased art history that centres on marginalized and oppressed communities. I very much look forward to continuing this social practice both at the Koffler and future workplaces.
Selin: I'm most excited about seeing the full lifecycle of these artifacts. So far, these very interesting objects have been recovered after thousands of years, cleaned like new, catalogued, and shipped to the museum. I'd like to know more about how the museum displays these objects, and how they hope to tell the story of Pompeii, using our archaeological data and modern exhibition techniques.
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| Revital leading some young visitors through a guided meditation. Photo courtesy of Revital Weiss. |
Amelia: Don't be afraid to see where a position will take you. I knew nothing about the Japanese occupation of Manchuria before I started this position, and now I've got Manchurian postcards indelibly burned into my mind's eye for all eternity.
Defne: Pacing your work is important. It can get a bit hectic with lots of projects on the go, so remember to take your time and plan accordingly.
Also, when you work in a food desert, don’t forget to pack your lunch!
Revital: The best tours are those that feel like a conversation, so ask your audience questions and listen when they have something on their mind; you will not only learn new pieces of information that you can incorporate into the show, but your day will go by much faster when you treat visitors like friends!
Selin: Don't be afraid to speak up. You are more qualified than you realize, and you've got some great ideas to offer. Keep an open mind when it comes to learning something new, but don't forget that you might end up being a teacher too!
The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Edit: A previous version of this article linked Selin's internship to Archaeological Institute of America. This has since been updated to accurately reflect the organization she is working with.
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