SECOND YEAR KNOWLEDGE PART 1

Museum Mondays | Katlyn Wooder

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Hello and greetings.

While this column is called Museum Mondays it will neither be about Museums or Mondays... although it will be posted on Mondays... what a happy coincidence ;). Now it will be known as Museum (Studies) Mondays.

This column will be a monthly explanation of what the University of Toronto is teaching us the Museum Studies’ Students.

This year this I'm going to conduct a Musings’ experiment. My premise is that part of Musings audience is current or future students who would find it helpful to be given an outline of what to expect in the second year mandatory classes. The two mandatory second year classes for Fall 2018 are MSL4000 Exhibitions Project and MSL2350 Museum Planning and Fundraising and Human Resources.

Of course, that excludes those interested in the thesis option rather than the exhibitions option. I don’t have a lot of useful personal information on that stream, except if you want to do a thesis these are the things you should do to prepare for the first week of school: look at what topic you would like to explore, and then find someone you want to learn from at the University of Toronto, and contact them to see if they would be willing to be your supervisor (don’t be too scared, most of the professors are human, and quite supportive if you come prepared).

If you are not a student, don’t exit the page. This is a great way of learning what our faculty found so vitally important that they argued and worked, and submitted and reviewed, and worked some more to get the courses up and running. They felt strongly that museum professionals needed to know these lessons.

If this article is successful people will be as happy and prepared for a successful experience, if not…

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I hope a first-year student next year will share their experience in the mandatory first-year courses.

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Exhibition class, taught by Prof. Matthew Brower, to manage and execute a successful museum project. Before the course even started, he did some heavy-lifting and found 20+ institutions with the desire to partner with UofT students to work on an exhibition project.

Those sponsors then propose the exhibit projects in class on week two. The presentations share the BIG idea: what the exhibit topic is about, who you are working with, what your resources are, or if you have resources.

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Some students create their own projects. These enterprising souls started their own project by using their work, connections, mentors, internships, took opportunity by the (censored) and ran. One student is reorganizing a Gallery’s Map collection and updating their catalogue system.

There are students who choose their project because it’s fully funded. Some people will choose the project based on the museum’s topic. The historic heritage crowd would rather chew off their arm than work with art... for the most part. There is a myriad of different priorities to manage, and it will help you to have a list of priorities you think are important, or knowledge of what skills you want to have after this.

There really isn’t a wrong choice. There are just different things you are going to learn.

By the end of this course, you are going to have a basic understanding of how to complete a museum project. The course is designed to teach you the different steps week-by-week. Last week, we learnt about budgeting and the different knowledge that is needed to create a budget. The major tip I learnt is never underestimate the amount of money you need; we are creating a professional exhibit and the budget should match.

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Museum Planning and Management: Projects and Fundraising, commonly called the Project Management course by the students.

This year the course is taught by Judith Koke. “The objective of this course is to offer students applied knowledge of core concepts for planning and managing projects in museums, as well as of revenues, grant making and fundraising in the museum environment” (excerpt from the course syllabus). This course is the backbone of the Master program. It will give you knowledge on how to manage the business aspects of your career in the cultural heritage sector.

Some of the practical tools I have learnt of the last month include:
1) RACI Chart
2) GANTT Chart
3) Project Charter

This course will ground you. It will make a template for your professional career.

One of the projects it will force you to complete is a journal. You will document the readings (which will force you to do the readings), you will write the course notes, and you will document your thoughts. The professor understands the only way to get an overworked graduate student to spend the time necessary to read around a hundred pages a week, and to reflect on them, is too make it part of the grade.

But it will be worth it. Other courses will teach you the theory. This course will give you the practical tools to complete a project.

Such as a Project Charter. The charter is the backbone of your project. It should be the document that you look to, to mire your thinking in. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed when you’re working on a project. To think everything is important. All the knowledge, all those resources, all your opinions will be important. The charter should be the thing that helps you cut. It will help you question if that thing you just need to include is important or necessary.

This course gives you the foundations to be successful.

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A piece of advice from a second year: Whenever you are given a project think: How many hours am I dedicating to the project? How important is this project? Should I be ultra-controlling or go with the flow? Is stress  acne worth it?

All the best,

Katlyn Wooder

Write to you in a month

GRAFFITI ALLEY, A PUBLIC COLLECTION

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY KATLYN WOODER

Graffiti Alley, found behind Queens Street, between Spadina and Portland Street, is as the name suggests an alley filled with a collection of graffiti. On these sunny days in July, it is a perfect day trip to look at one of Toronto's large collections of public art. A collection that is always evolving, and reacting to every day, city life.

If you are familiar with Toronto, then you know that graffiti isn’t isolated to this alleyway. These are some of the images I captured walking to Graffiti Alley from the UofT Campus (sniff it's just so beautiful to see art be so prolific sniff/anime tears).

Photos of Graffiti seen while walking to Graffiti Alley:

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

(You'll see a lot of these birds in the Alley as well. Its fun to look around Toronto and spot an artists motif even if you can't spot the actual artist in the crowd.)

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

End of Graffiti photos before Graffiti Alley

What makes the alley way interesting to look at as a collection, is that it is an extended space, with layers of artwork built up over a long period of time, and the artwork found in there is understood to be artwork by a large portion of the people who live in and visit Toronto.

A friend was kind enough to come with me on this trip, and we had an interesting conversation about graffiti art, and whether it is considered rebellious or mainstream. Graffiti used to be seen as an act of aggression to the social norm, a way of breaking with the expected social regulations, and showing alternative narratives in areas where people felt marginalized or ignored. Do you think Graffiti is vandalism or art? or does it depend on how good the artwork is? (write a comment to share your opinion ;))

I think most graffiti is artwork, whether it is good artwork is another matter entirely. I find that graffiti often livens up the streets of Toronto, especially in the grey month of February. However, it wasn't long ago that all graffiti was considered alternative culture. To have a space dedicated to this type of culture is a sign of shifting cultural norms.

There are now areas in Toronto where graffiti is expected and accepted... a tourist destination. So if graffiti isn't an act of rebellion what is it? and what areas is graffiti expected to appear? Does graffiti act as a public museum where artists can converse directly with the public? An expression of Toronto's culture painted right onto the walls of our city? or just an unremarkable byproduct of humans nature wanting to impact our living environment?

Either way, graffiti is one of the few types of art that is accessible to everyone, all you need to do is be physically present to look at it. Hmmm... let’s circumvent that, and I’ll show you some highlights of my visit.

Graffiti Alley Photo's starting at Spadina

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder (this is a favorite of mine)

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder (we've all had these days)

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

End of Graffiti Alley Photos

I tend to have a preference for character work, my love a cartoons shines in my image section. There is a lot of tagging, with great font selection and crisp edges, that I didn't think to memorialize (personal fail). One of the great things of this alley way, is that there isn't an explanation, just a bunch of artists doing their best to visually convey their talent.

Graffiti alley is an collection that changes and grows. What's there now might not be there tomorrow. So, if you want to see some beautiful art in Toronto, and emerge into a vibrant area full of good restaurants, I would encourage you to go down to see this corner of Toronto for yourself.

JOB TITLES: TO BE OR NOT TO BE ELITIST

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY KATLYN WOODER

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In today's article of Collections Corner, I'm going to explore the responsibility of the people in charge of presenting collections to the public. Let's make a little room in the corner for their role to be explored in contemporary society.

Recently I’ve been thinking about the definition of "curator" because the weather has been great and I've been escaping the heat by touring galleries and museums. Blessed are the museums, which due to condition management practices, are air conditioned. I can’t get the first class of Curatorial Practice, taught by Matthew Brower, out of my head. Prof. Brower raised an interesting question of what it means to be a curator in a society where everyone is donning their curating hats, arranging their stuff in an artsy and intent filled way, and calling themselves curators.

Which is okay, they can do that. Most job titles are made up, and are just a way of communicating your purpose in life to strangers.

But in our program, and in the larger museum field, being a curator is a serious job. One that means you research, interpret, and develop an exhibit. A curator, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is “a keeper or custodian of a museum or other collection.” It’s a lot of work, and work that tends to be reliant on people not only getting what you are doing, but finding it interesting enough to be worth it. It is a cross your fingers and pray to your deity be it a god or analytical data scenario.

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Last Friday, as I was waiting in line, I couldn’t help but think about how coffee shops are curated. The products are selected to fit certain criteria, are researched (we all know or are someone who will pose questions to their local barista), and are presented to attract customers. If I was a braver person, I would take pictures of the coffee shops I go in the mornings. They are purists places that I adore, where coffee/tea/pastry specialists expose us, the uneducated masses, to the wonders of organic, sourced products. However, I usually end up in those places early in the morning, impersonating a zombie amongst a horde of other zombies. I decide to just get my hot beverage, and maybe a croissant.

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The collection manager may be a more accurate representation of the coffee shop job than a curator. They are in charge of the collection, cataloging, keeping conditions optimum, dealing with bureaucracy, and much more. How many times in a coffee shop do you hear someone call themselves a collection manager? I haven't yet.

We now have this weird role in society where people are calling themselves curators, but are really a hybridization of the roles and responsibilities of curators and collection managers. I'm not upset about it because it all boils down to a bunch of people who have a passion about one thing, and want people to take them and their collections seriously. However, I don't think the existing terminology really applies to how people are using it because being a curator or a collection manager is steeped ( ;) ) in a rich/diverse history of the cultural heritage sector.

The difference between a coffee shop and a museum is standards. If a coffee shop turned out to be fraudulently misrepresenting their products I would be mad, and I wouldn’t go back. If a museum, gallery, or/and hall of fame failed their ethics test I would be outraged. Perhaps this is a result of over a hundred years of higher expectations, but I don’t think so. A museum's responsibility is to its collection or cultural product. I would hold curators to a higher standard if they worked in a museum, gallery or hall of fame. I worry about the responsibility of a curator or other museum professional diminishing when that responsibility isn’t understood by people outside of the museum world.

Maybe what we need is a new name… how about "supreme overlord of particular tastes" for curators and "supreme overlord of keeping their feet on the ground" for collection managers. Those would be fun business cards.

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I'm not sure if I'm being elitist and devoutly bowing to the hierarchical structure of museums, where certain roles mean certain things done by certain people, most likely highly educated, specialists. Please let me know your opinions in the comments section.

STUFF + STUFF + MORE STUFF

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: KATLYN WOODER

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Despite 20th century trends towards a minimalist modernism, most people develop their own collections of stuff. But to be fair, modernism was probably a stress reaction to the Baroque. Each home is a tiny little museum that worships the sense of self (or for those living with somebody else… the interaction of competing value systems seen through object).

The last ten years have seen the wall unit expand into most homes. An open display unit, where pretty things are proudly displayed because they “complete” the room. As an undergrad, I quickly came to understand that those wall units needed to be filled with unpractical, decorative pieces. Otherwise I would pick something up, use it, and never put it back. I wonder if anyone else notices that display units look great in a home until you have a big exam, long hours at work, or … other things.

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I’m prone to piles of stuff accumulating, and recently I’ve sat down, and started to go through my own collection. It's spring cleaning, and time for the ritual acquisition and deacquisition that most people do unconsciously in spring. It's like we wake up after our winter hibernation, look around, and say “this won’t do.”

Getting ahead of a messy, hectic collections is hard, but it is worth it in the resources saved and headaches prevented. Plan for them, and what we are going to collect going forward? There’s a deep gluttonous accumulation of things that I want, but shouldn’t have. One way is to look at space. If you don’t have room for it, you can’t have it. Next is to organize your collection into categories, and see where things overlap. If you have ten pairs of black pants, in the same fabric, you can let some of them go (maybe the ones with the holes) or stop buying black pants.

Personal collections are hard to manage because you use the stuff you collect, and you often don’t think of your belongings as museum quality. I would argue most museums include material culture that either had the audacity to survive a couple of thousand years, or someone in power decided that it was worth something. Personal collections are the beginnings of social collections. The material collection that survives will inform people of who we were. Those objects that you are hoarding can define us for people who will live in 2200. That thought makes you look at your memorabilia in a whole new light, doesn’t it?

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Museums have the same problems as spring cleaners. They just have mandates, boards, and policies to help sort through the avalanche of stuff+stuff+more stuff that comes through the door, or in deciding what doesn’t come through the door, some of which might be eventually yours. If we treat our own collections like a museum collection then we can practice for when we have to apply routine structure in the museum field.

FUN MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: KATLYN WOODER

Here is a list of museums from around the world that host fun collections. Places that all call themselves museums, but are vastly different from each other, and whose collection are the centre of their identity. I am tickled pink about Gopher's Fishing.

MUSA Underwater Museum of Art
Located at Blvd. Kukulcan, Zona Hotelera, 77500 Cancún, Q.R., Mexico

Founded in 2009, this a museum where you have to dive underwater (or go on a glass bottom boat) to visit monumental sculptures, and see how the sea life slowly consumes them back into the underwater landscape. It is a museum dedicated to conservation, the website is HERE.

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Warrior Toy Museum
Located at St George’s Street (next to the Town Hall) | Simon’s Town | +27 (0)21 786 1395

In Cape Town you can go see a museum dedicated to showing off historic toys, it also functions as a shop where toy enthusiasts can purchase those missing pieces from their collections. A place where adults return to childhood. One of the reason why this museum drew my eye is because a caption from HERE, “Two impressive displays include a battalion of toy soldiers warding off Zulus attacking with spears in ox-formation and also a full Nazi parade with marching Hitler Youth and a small Adolf Hitler saluting his army…” I have to wonder how this museum is dealing with political correctness and racial tension in South Africa?


Romanian Kitsch Museum
Located at Strada Covaci 6, București 030094, Romania

A museum that remembers the 80s and celebrates it. Full of sarcasm, traditions, and local cultural knowledge that manifests through humor.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology
Located at 9341 Venice Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232, USA

A place that challenges what a museum should be, because all the objects reference real things but aren't always believable. It is a place full of curiosity and wonder, where exhibits are put on to intrigue and test boundaries of what you think you know and what is a curiosity. The website is located HERE.


Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station
Located at 115 Centre St E, Vulcan, AB T0L 2B0, Canada

Okay, so this one isn't so much about the collection, but really I couldn't resist it. I mean, who can turn down Spock? Not me. It is the Home of Spock. Seriously, it's in a place called Vulcan in Alberta. A town of 2000 have decided to present a Star Trek dreamland, where the information centre is designed to look like a space ship. The website is HERE.

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Alberta also has the Gopher Hole Museum
Located at 208 1 Street South, Torrington, Alberta
This museum is dedicated to gophers, but not their life cycles. Instead the museum has multiple diagrams in boxes where gophers are fishing, curling, and preaching. A fun museum full of imagination and whimsy. The website is HERE.

Photo courtesy of Gopher Hole Museum. Source. 

If you're interested in other special museums (specifically food museums): Beijing Shi has the Daxing Watermelon Museum, Prince Edward Island has a Potato Museum, England has a Carrot Museum, and Italy has at the Museum of Tomato. People really do love food, and all the industries that rely on it.

Each of these attractions call themselves a museum; that is an identity, but one that is flexible enough that people can take an interest and best represent it to fit the community or the mission of the museum. From wacky to childhood to experimental, there is a place out there, and you can find it.

HAVE FUN BECAUSE THESE MUSEUMS ARE

IN THE BACK RIGHT CORNER

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: KATLYN WOODER

This time, for Collections Corner I decided to go literal. I went to five institutions in Toronto: The Onsite Gallery at OCAD, The Art Gallery of Ontario, the University of Toronto’s Art Centre, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Gardiner Museum to see what they put in their back right corner (to find out what are the things that I might overlook when visiting one of these fine establishments.)

I was curious about the corners. When I think of a corner I think of something being stuffed in it. It’s not really a power position for artwork to be placed in. The back corner just highlighted this power position because it is the farthest from the entrance.

The Onsite Gallery (a Contemporary Art Gallery associated with OCAD)

The Sunshine Eaters, January 10 to April 15, 2018
https://www2.ocadu.ca/event/the-sunshine-eaters

Jessica Karuhanga being who are there is no other 2017 (a dual screen video produced with the work of Jessica Karuhanga , Xin Lio, Serene Husni and Aaditya Aggarwal, Joyful Joyful and Ahlam Mohammed).

 

                                                                         Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

                                                                        Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Art Gallery of Ontario (a Large National Art Gallery)

AGO’s Marvin Gelber Print and Drawing Study Centre, containing over EIGHTY THOUSAND prints, drawings and photographs.
http://www.ago.net/marvin-gelber-print-and-drawing-study-centre-overview
http://artmatters.ca/wp/category/prints-and-drawings/

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

The actual Artwork in the corner is Summer, 1878 by James Tissot from the Four Seasons

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

The University of Toronto Art Centre (a University Gallery Space featuring both ancient and contemporary work)

Figures of Sleep, January 17, 2018 - March 3, 2018
http://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/exhibition/figures-of-sleep/
 

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.        

The Royal Ontario Museum (Michael Lee-Chin Crystal Entrance) (an Encyclopedic Museum)

Gallery of Korea: Ceramics
https://www.rom.on.ca/en/exhibitions-galleries/galleries/world-cultures/gallery-korea
 

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

The Gardiner Museum (a Ceramic Museum focusing on objects and art made out of clay)

Mesoamerican objects in the Ancient Americas
https://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/collection_type/mesoamerica/
On the Right Intellectual Accomplishments of the Classic Maya on the Left and Zapotec 500 BC-AD 800

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.

The Onsite Gallery and U of T’s Art Centre had contemporary art videos in their corners. Both pieces focus on creating a visitor experience through the adoption of new media rather than traditional art practices. While the ROM and Gardiner, both museums, had ceramics (not surprising in a ceramic museum but still) both display exhibits of material culture, and humans' ability to transcend practically to develop aesthetic value. The AGO corner was a practical use of space (NO natural light that would damage the artwork) and presented a sampling of work that is most of the time locked behind the closed doors.

All the corners had something interesting in them, and by concentrating on the corners I spent my time with pieces that I would not ordinarily focus on. Thus I present you all with a challenge: look at what's in the corners. It’s usually something interesting and new, and it is a way of changing up your museum experience.

Many thanks to my Mother for agreeing to a mother-daughter day of visiting museums and gallery spaces in a blizzard! Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder.