DEACCESSIONING, THE REAL WORLD, AND AN INSIDE OUT MUSEUM

INTERNSHIP CHECK-IN

BY: KATHLEEN LEW

Welcome to the 2nd installment of the Internship Check-In series! MMSt students are spending the summer completing internships in institutions across Canada. Read the following interviews to gain a peek into their internship experiences.*

This post features:

Beth Dobson: Dance Collection Danse (DCD), Toronto, ON

Rachel Moats: Markham Museum, Markham, ON

Kesang Nanglu: Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, ON

Tell us a bit about yourself and your museum-related interests.

Beth: I came into the museum field by way of theatre costuming and prop building. My research and professional interests focus on decorative arts and costume history, especially dance costume. During my undergraduate degree, my final project was a study of current Canadian approaches to ballet costume conservation, preservation, interpretation, and display in museum settings. That project was also what connected me to my internship – Amy (my internship supervisor) taught a class on Canadian dance history. When I needed a supervisor for the project, she not only helped guide my research, but was one of my sources since DCD has a lot of costume holdings. My theatre background makes me extremely hands on, and my dream is to end up in a community museum with a dance or costume focus where I can wear a lot of (not fragile, historic) hats.

Rachel: I am a third year CRO working towards a Master of Museum Studies and the Master of Information with a concentration in Archives and Records Information. One of my undergraduate degrees is in History and using that knowledge at the Markham Museum has been great. I am from Pennsylvania, and interestingly enough, Markham was originally settled by Pennsylvanian German Mennonites, so interning at the Markham Museum feels like coming full circle. I’m fascinated with social history and the study of how people lived. History museums are definitely where you’ll find me. I’m also interested in the history of fashion and textiles. Museums such as the Textile Museum of Canada can keep my attention for hours.

Kesang: Coming from a fine arts background, I'm most interested in art institutions. I was born here in Toronto, so I've been lucky to grow up in a city with all kinds of art spaces. During my undergraduate degree at OCADU, I had the opportunity to get involved as a volunteer and as an exhibiting artist. I've found through my past curatorial roles I really enjoy project-planning and the more logistical aspects of museum work.

Rachel completing inventory in the Chapman House. Photo Courtesy of Rachel Moats.

What is a typical day at your institution? What are your responsibilities?

Beth: It varies. The only fixed activity is that Amy and I work in the National Ballet School of Canada’s archives on Fridays. I’m currently working on organizing 60 years worth of press clippings. For the rest of the week I work on some large projects (right now that’s organizing new acquisitions from Kaeja d’Dance) and do other jobs as needed. DCD has a lot going on, so the other jobs are really diverse. I’m only in my third week and I’ve helped pick up new donations from Veronica Tennant and Peggy Baker, set up and recorded a lecture on choreographic process, photographed a 1940s house program for a research request, and helped prep (with a lot of bubble wrap) five bundles of twigs (from Lola MacLaughlin’s Provincial Essays) for pickup for a Canada Council exhibit.

Rachel: At the moment, my main project is a building by building review of the collection, which includes assessing each object for relevancy, use, condition, ability to store, and provenance. For this project, I have been scanning records of objects into the collection management system and making sure the records are as complete as possible. I have recently moved on to assessing the objects housed at the Wilson Variety House. Objects with a passing score remain in the permanent collection, while objects that fail will be deaccessioned from the permanent collection. Currently, we are taking an inventory of the main floor of Wilson, which is set up similar to a general store. A separate project I’m finishing up is locating a birth fraktur for a community member. This project mainly involves communicating with other institutions to identify the object’s current location.

Kesang: I'll have to invoke the cliché -- there is no typical day. As Education Intern, I’m working on projects involving visitor research and evaluations of our education programs. Some of these tasks include: collecting data from visitor feedback forms, daily administrative duties like updating the museum mailing list and calling program ticket holders, creating graphs for reports, designing new online survey templates, and creating a manual of standards for implementing different types of surveys in the future.

Beth in the DCD gallery holding a National Ballet of Canada trunk full of Veronica Tennant's NBoC costume pieces, shoes, and rehearsal gear. Photo Courtesy of Amy Bowring.

What is something you have learned so far at your internship?

Beth: The most important thing I’ve learned is how to archive and organize with the researcher in mind. DCD is really dedicated to accessibility and making sure they keep research needs at the forefront, as well as balancing manageable collections. That means things like forgoing envelopes full of cheque stubs but keeping the yearly audits. Amy also encourages me to do research wherever possible to prevent disassociation. It’s a more hands-on, critical thinking method of archiving than I have previously been exposed to and I really enjoy it. Also – those score marks on the bottom of file folders? You fold those to give the folder a flat bottom. No more sagging folders or bending documents! I never knew and my life is changed forever.

Rachel: I’ve had the opportunity to learn about the process of deaccessioning objects from a collection. So often we discuss what goes into building a collection and the processes of bringing objects into the museum. However, there is just as much research, administration activities, and meetings that go into objects going out of the museum. Being able to be involved in these meetings and the project has been an incredible experience thus far. The experience of looking at each object individually and identifying the provenance, relevancy to the museum, condition, etc. has opened my eyes to a different role of a museum professional. Thankfully the community understands the importance of deaccessioning objects from the collection, and the museum is being transparent throughout the entire processes, which has also been a wonderful learning experience.

Kesang: Applying knowledge gained from our coursework to “real world” situations can be tricky. Problem solving on-the-fly is a constant in museum work. I've actually found this super liberating, since I initially underestimated myself. In actuality, if you have patience and an open-mind, you can work on equal footing with more senior staff, because everyone needs to work together to find the best solutions.

What are you excited about accomplishing throughout your internship? 

Beth: This summer is going to be a crash course in all the nitty gritty aspects of running an archive and I am really excited. Deed of gift forms, how to un-crease 80 year old letters, building custom choroplast boxes, how to remove old rusted paper clips, how to load a dolly; I am really excited for all the little stuff I definitely haven’t learned in class. Additionally, since I’ll be learning everything as I need to, there will be a lot of transitioning from theory to practice immediately. That is a scary proposition (I only have limited archives/collection management experience) but I feel very supported at DCD and I am really excited to hit the ground running.

Rachel: I’m honesty excited to see some of the objects leave the museum. As weird as it sounds, it’s going to be a great sense of accomplishment to see some of the objects that I have worked with find a better home at another institution. Seeing objects leave the museum would be the completion point of that project, and I’d be thrilled to see some of my work create a better museum and a better collection. I’m also excited for the prospect of being able to help create a temporary exhibition. Since this is something we have talked about at length in class, it will be a great accomplishment to be able to put those skills into practice.

Kesang: Seeing as the work I'm doing at my internship is new for the museum, I'm most excited to see the project through to the end. The standards I research and implement will ultimately form the foundation for the museum's future visitor research initiatives.

Kesang in front of the Aga Khan Museum. Photo Courtesy of Kesang Nanglu.

If you could create any museum (no matter how ridiculous) what kind of museum would it be?

Beth: Clothes, inside out. Just a whole museum of clothing flipped inside out. Clothing artefacts are normally collected for their exteriors and rarely exist in exact duplicates. As such, the focus is on displaying them as they would look on a person. You rarely get to see the insides, but seeing that completely changes how you think about a garment. One of my all time favorite museum things was an inside-out mid-1800s bodice at the ROM’s Dior exhibit. I would love to see a whole museum of stuff like that.

Rachel: Recently I have become fascinated with haute couture and the original fashion houses in France. I’d love the opportunity to watch the teams work in the ateliers to create extraordinary pieces of wearable art and turn individual pieces of fabric and thread into exquisite garments. That being said, I would love to be able to dive into the archives of the fashion houses, pull out all of the sketches, designs, fabrics, and clothes and put them on display for the world to see. It may not be that far fetched, but the delicacy of textiles means that it isn’t the most feasible museum that’s ever been dreamed up.

Kesang: I'm really inspired by the history of artist-run-centres in Canada, and I'd love to be involved with one in the future. So, I would create my own artist-run-centre with amazing, experimental exhibitions and programming… and extremely affordable studio space to accommodate all of the displaced artists in Toronto!

*These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

MMSt DAY TRIPPERS PART III: MARKHAM

WEEKEND EDITION

BY: MMSt GUEST BLOGGER KATHLEEN VAHEY

For the third and final time, I’ll be giving you a recap of the final MMSt day trip! On Friday, February 23rd, a handful of iSchool students braved what seemed like the only cold day in February and made the trek north to Markham. 

MMSt students listening to the staff at Markham Museum. Photo courtesy of Kathleen Vahey. 

Our first stop was the Markham Museum, where we learned about how the institution is changing their interpretation strategies and redefining their curatorial approach to the onsite historic buildings to be more engaging for its existing audiences. 

Laetitia, Nicole, and Emma participating in the
digital scavenger hunt at Markham Museum.
Photo courtesy of Kathleen Vahey.

After hearing a bit about the history of the museum and City of Markham, we got to explore parts of the 25-acre site all while participating in a digital survey about their curatorial decisions. The answers from this survey will help museum staff understand visitor perspectives.

After a quick lunch, we journeyed to the nearby Varley Art Gallery. There, we were provided with a tour of the gallery spaces and engaged in interesting discussions with the Gallery’s curator.

We were also given a tour of the collections storage area, where we were presented with two relevant ‘case studies’, aka real issues or problems the museum has faced and how they have dealt with them. Students were encouraged to think and respond to the case studies as well. Finally, we were given an introduction to the educational and public programming side of the Gallery as well.

Varley Art Gallery curator Anik Gaude speaks to MMSt & CRO students about the travelling exhibition on display. Photo courtesy of Kathleen Vahey.

Despite the cold temperature and the freezing rain, the day was full of engaging talks and interesting insights into the museum and cultural heritage field by a range of museum professionals. Take a look at some of the highlights from trip participants:

Hannah on a tractor in the interactive exhibit
at Markham Museum. Photo courtesy of
Kathleen Vahey.

"I felt seeing an art gallery and a revitalized historical pioneer museum in the same day was a great way to see different collections and exhibiting practices. The highlight was definitely the interactives for kids at the Markham Museum. I could have stayed and played for hours!" - Kristen McLaughlin

"Great to get the chance to talk to professionals about how they've been solving problems in their museums." - Sam Kilpatrick 

"I really liked all the interactives at the Markham Museum, especially the corn maze!" - Hannah Hadfield 

"So great meeting museum professionals and speaking candidly with them! It was such an awesome experience, especially at institutions you may not typically go to!"         - Nicole Kolkman 

"It was a very educative day. I especially liked visiting the vaults and storage areas of the museum and art gallery. It was great to learn and receive tips from various museum professionals."                 - Laetitia Dandavino-Tardif 

Viewing the art at the Varley Art Gallery.
Photo courtesy of Kathleen Vahey.

I would like to extend a sincere thank you to: Andrea Carpenter, Janet Reid, Mark Scheibmayr, and Tammy Law at Markham Museum; and Fraser Ching, Anik Glaude, and John Abrams at the Varley Art Gallery, for hosting MMSt and CRO students and for being so generous and eager to speak with us.

I would also like to thank Prof. Matt Brower for taking time out of his busy schedule to accompany us, as well as all the students who took a day out of their reading week. I hope you found the trip worthwhile.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the MMSt trips and who were excellent representatives of the Faculty of Information. It’s not an easy task to plan three separate day trips to multiple institutions throughout the year while also juggling planning other MUSSA social events, a full course load, and volunteering. While it is a bit hectic, it’s all worth it when we get to visit those institutions and speak to different museum professionals to see what they are doing and how it relates to what we are learning.

Good luck next year!

DUST, RUST, AND ALL THE REST: PART ONE

CONSERVATION TIPS & TRICKS

BY JULIE DAECHSEL

I love dust. I love rust. I love grime.

Source.

Before you question my sanity and scroll past this post, I let me explain – I love cleaning these things off an object. In this two part series, I’ll outline a practical beginner’s guide to conservation. By using stories from my time in the Markham Museum’s curatorial department, I’ll show you how to defeat dust, rust, and all the gross grime that attacks artifacts.

Part one will look at planning your war on dirt and part two will show you how to execute your plan and annihilate your foes.

Why conserve?
Removing layers of dirt and neglect from an object is insanely satisfying, and not just for the conservator. To the object, conservation is life or death (seriously): surface dirt and grime promotes deterioration, interferes with the aesthetics and the interpretation of an object, and attracts pests.

I think most people are more frightened of conservation than they should be. I’ll take this moment to clarify what I mean by “conservation” – it is by no means restoring an object to perfection. Cleaning an object doesn’t mean taking the object back to its original state: it means preventing further deterioration.

Definitely not the kind of cleaning I mean. Source.

Before cleaning, ask yourself...

Is it required? Does the object need to be cleaned?
Look at the object itself and how the museum (or entity that owns the object) wants to use it. If the object’s purpose depends on it being hygienic, then a deeper clean makes sense. Case in point: the curator of the Markham Museum, Janet Reid, restored a brass and chrome Babcock tester by removing layers of oxidation. Her goal was to clean it to a level appropriate for "Dairy Testing Clean", as it was a dairy testing tool. In consultation with Miriam Harris, Professor of Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management at Fleming College, it was determined that certain mechanical cleaners would be safe for both object and conservator.

Babcock tester from the Markham Museum after being restored. Layers of green corrosion were removed. Photo courtesy of Anna Kawecka.

The tester is now fully functioning as the corrosion was removed from all surfaces. Photo courtesy of Anna Kawecka.

What is a reasonable level of clean?
Determine how dirty the object is and what resources are available to you. Conservation is a lengthy and expensive process. So how do you balance the needs of the object with limited resources?

Triage the object: identify areas that need immediate attention (those that put the object in danger of irreversible damage) and areas that are not hazardous but not ideal. Figure out how much time and how many resources you can devote to the object. From there, it’s a matter of making a plan: the entire object needs to be brought to a uniform level of clean.

At the museum, Janet Reid wanted to add a cast iron horseshoe to an exhibition. Two hours were devoted during a busy exhibition installation to improve the appearance of this horseshoe (which was to be added to the upcoming exhibition) and stop the active corrosion. From a compromise between curatorial goals and conservation ideals, the horseshoe was taken from this:

Pretty gross, right? Photo courtesy of Julie Daechsel.

To this:

Two hours of conservation work. Photo courtesy of Julie Daechsel. 

Notice how it is uniformly clean? Equal amounts of time were spent cleaning every surface.

What is the dirt? How should it be removed?
Without intensive curatorial training, it’s next to impossible to look at an object and diagnose its dirt. Never blindly guess what dirt or corrosion is on your object: make an educated guess.

Look at where the object acquired its grime: was it outside, in a barn, in a basement? Could the grime be dirt, dust, or a combination? What is the object made of? When in doubt, ask other museum professionals: send a picture to the OMA listserv and wait for the responses to pour in. Museum professional love to share their wisdom and are only an email away. If you’ve identified the material, consult the CCI Notes before drafting your plan of attack.

Source.

But remember, never clean something without express permission from the object’s owner and never touch an object without complete confidence. Even the smallest inkling of uncertainty should give you pause.

Tune in to part two where I get down to the brass tacks (pun intended) of actually cleaning!

Source.

MMSt 2017 INTERNSHIPS: PART THREE

INTERNSHIP CHECK-IN

BY: TABITHA CHAN

Part three of Internship Check-In is here. Let's see what our peers are up to!

Today's post features:

Emilie Albert-Toth: The Bata Shoe Museum - Toronto, ON
Erin Canning: Art Gallery of Ontario - Toronto, ON
Samantha Eadie: Doris McCarthy Gallery, U of T Scarborough - Scarborough, ON
Anna Kawecka: Markham Museum - Markham, ON
Jenny Lee: Theatre Museum Canada - Toronto, ON

Describe what a typical day is like for you at your institution. What are some of your main duties and responsibilities?

Emilie: A typical day involves setting up for the tours booked for the day. Depending on the grade level, the program includes a craft activity, a hands-on workshop and a tour of our permanent gallery or First Nations gallery. The craft is introduced through a brief discussion of symbolism and identity; we use a painted clog from Holland to talk to the kids about these ideas. We then ask the kids what symbols they think represent Canada and themselves and have them paint a miniature wooden clog with the symbols they think best represent them. Then, we lead a hands-on workshop where the kids can touch and handle different kinds of shoes from our collection. The program wraps up with a 30-minute tour of either the permanent gallery or the First Nations gallery depending on the curriculum connection. Following the program, I might work the front desk for an hour or so and spend the afternoon being trained in the galleries, learning about the collection in more depth and practice giving tours. My main duties include delivering guided tours, facilitating interactive hands-on workshops, front desk and visitor services, encouraging visitor participation in family programs through children’s craft activities, preparing education and family program materials and resources.

Erin: Currently, I am involved in three projects to do with the expansion of the AGO’s collections information systems: the implementation of the Exhibitions module in TMS [The Museum System]; the addition of a large number of artists to the system; and linking artist Constituent records with Linked Data identifiers such as ULAN (Getty Union List of Artists) and VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) ID numbers. I spend most of my day at my computer, or in the Archives doing research for the Exhibitions project. I don’t really have a “typical day” in terms of how and when I do my work, but each day tends to involve a little research (online and/or in the Archives), data cleaning, running the scripts I have written on the cleaned data – and finessing a script if necessary – and working to write some new programming processes to automate the Linked Data project. The purpose of this is make feasible projects that involve digital data, and that are too large to approach manually.

Samantha: My internship focuses primarily on an archival project at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, specifically the organization of the Cold City fonds. The project is in its earliest stages so my main responsibilities are rehousing the archival material (which is comprised of fourteen boxes) in order to ensure proper storage standards are implemented. Once the material has been assessed and transferred to archivally approved folders, the material is logged in a database which documents all of the important details of the individual records. The database is intended to inform the creation of a finding aid which will assist researchers in the future.

Anna: In the past few weeks I've been working on developing my own exhibit here at the museum. I usually spend my days researching, designing, and editing everything I've been putting together. In terms of main duties and responsibilities, preparing for exhibition development meetings and getting this exhibit finished are top priorities at the moment.

Jenny:  I have a few projects going on at the moment, so a typical day can range from organizing a box of donated theatre programs for the education collection to writing up audience survey data. The museum itself is still under construction, so we do a lot of planning - a favourite project has been mapping through what visitors will think, feel, and do at every stage of the experience so we can anticipate their needs early on. I've also been helping out our affiliate, the Toronto Theatre Database, to get some programs online as they prepare for the Fringe Festival next month.

Say hello to Emilie and The Bata Shoe Museum!

What is something you have learned in your first few weeks of your internship?

Emilie: I’ve learned a lot about the Ontario school curriculum and the ways in which the museum’s educational programming can enhance children’s learning experience through alternative ways of learning including hands-on activities or simply through a change in setting or environment.

Erin: I have really seen in practice how supportive and enthusiastic the museum data community is, and how open people are to helping out their peers, even across institutions and country borders. In particular, for the Linked Data project, I was reaching out to people working in the field that I have never met at institutions across North America, and received nothing but support and offers of assistance.

Samantha: The most important lesson that I have learned in my first few weeks at the gallery is the importance of archival standards. In my first week I was able to spent some time researching archival standards and the archival description process. This early research has informed all of my work and helped me to construct an efficient structure for the logging of the material details. The amount of archival material that is included in these fonds is vast and I have developed a great appreciation for all archivists and the tedious work that they do.

Anna: My internship has been a whirlwind of opportunities! I've learned a ton of practical skills that I can apply to future projects. Trying my hand at the responsibilities of installation and conservation has shown me a few skills I never knew I had, and a few things I know I'll have to practice (curse you, scissor skills!).

Jenny: How grant-writing works! Most grant application websites are labyrinthine, and the information you need is invariably spread out over twelve different pages, so even the research is a bit of a process.

Erin taking a selfie at her work station.

What is something that has surprised you about museums that you did not know before working in a real one?

Emilie: The biggest surprise was finding out that The Bata Shoe Museum, despite being a mid-size institution, actually runs on a very small staff, only about one person per department. I was also surprised at the wide range of educational and public programming that comes out of such a seemingly niche institution, a shoe museum. It’s very impressive.

Erin: Is it bad to say nothing? Over the time of my undergrad, and in the years between the end of it and when I returned for my Masters, I worked in museums in a couple of different provinces, an artist-run centre, an auction house, a commercial gallery, and an artist estate… I feel like those experiences prepared me for what this internship experience would be like, at least in terms of the culture and behind-the-scenes practices of arts institutions and museums.

Samantha: I have worked at a number of museums of varying sizes and with very different scopes and mandates and I think that the thing that has struck me most is the diversity and dynamic nature of Canadian cultural institutions. Although there are particular standards that govern museum work in this country, every institution has a different approach to how they present and preserve their collection, how they engage with visitors and the wider community and how they conserve our history. I think that’s one of the things that makes this field so exciting to be a part of and it certainly makes the work more interesting.

Anna: The community is very close-knit. This goes both ways in terms of the museum and its local community, as well as the museological community. Everything (and everyone) seems so intertwined and although I knew that was true already, I didn't know it was to this extent!

Jenny: The optimum temperature for collections storage rooms is actually quite uncomfortably cold for humans. I think I knew this before, but now I am acutely aware of it.

Samantha hard at work at the Doris McCarthy Gallery

What do you enjoy most about your internship?

Emilie: I really enjoy being with the people I work with. We’re a small group of four students along with our two supervisors who are extremely devoted to providing us with a meaningful experience and teaching us skills that we can apply to our future career. I also really enjoy working with the kids. They’re so smart and funny.

Erin: Getting the opportunity to write implementable script to the systems, and watching it run and do what it is supposed to do! I love the satisfying feeling of seeing a large pile of data become part of a working system, and the kinds of new insights that the influx of information can bring.

Samantha: I really enjoy working independently and being able to directly oversee the progress of a project like this. I think that having the trust of my supervisor and the wider gallery staff is an incredible thing and it has certainly helped to instill a level of confidence in myself and in my work that would not be easily constructed by anything other than practical experience and positive feedback.

Anna: It's a close tie between all the amazing things I've been able to take part in (installations, archival research, conservation, etc.) and having such a great team to work with. I literally could not have chosen a better internship.

Jenny: I get to do a lot of research (through reading museum journals and just looking at other museums' websites and blogs to see what they do and if it works) which is just about my favourite thing to do.

Anna interning at the Markham Museum.

How has being in your specific institution changed or affirmed what you want to do in your future career?

Emilie: I definitely went into the whole internship experience not knowing exactly what I wanted to be doing but I’ve always been really interested in the museum’s role as an educational institution and one that is engaged in society and its community, so I think the internship in the education department has been a really excellent fit and a career path that I will likely pursue. Based on the size of the Bata Shoe Museum and the familiarity that comes with a smaller staff, I definitely would want to work at a small institution. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect from an education department at a museum, let alone a shoe museum, but leading up to the start of my internship, my supervisors outlined their program and explained how they developed their programs to connect directly to the school curriculum in their own unique way.

Erin: This internship experience has really highlighted for me, how few tools currently exist to support this bigger-picture version of museum data work, especially for people who are less technologically inclined. In order to make this kind of work feasible for institutions, we need to both hire people with the skills, and develop products that are accessible for those without the skills and educational background. There is a lot that the perspective of museum professionals can bring to these discussions, which is getting left out if we do not support the industry as a whole, as opposed to only select individuals working within it. I would be interested in continuing to do this kind of work, and then leveraging that experience to support software development in this area, so that museum informatics companies can support the wide breadth of information work that is occurring in the industry, beyond the day-to-day cataloguing and constituent-management needs.

Samantha: I think that this position has helped to confirm that my career path is in collections management. I enjoy working with the physical material and analyzing it for important details and it’s so incredible to see how all of the bits and pieces of the fonds fit together in order to construct a wider narrative. Additionally, interning at a contemporary art gallery for a second summer has also confirmed my desire to work within an institution dedicated to the arts as I think that they are important spaces for dialogue and engagement.

Anna: I can definitely see myself working in a curatorial role more than ever. It's something that has been on my radar since I started the program, but now that I've gotten some first-hand experience, I'd love to continue down the same path. I've also come to appreciate the environment of a smaller institution. I really like the ways they interact with their community/audience.

Jenny: It's opened me up to aspects of education, programming, and visitor services, which wasn't something I had given a lot of thought to previously.

Jenny with a mini theatre at Theatre Museum Canada!

What’s your passion?

Emilie: I would say my passion is working with the community to increase the accessibility of art and public programs and I’ve found that working with children in the education department is a very mutually fulfilling way of doing that.

Erin: My passion is data of all kinds about visual arts institutions – collections data, visitor experience data, and (what interests me most) the intersection between the two, i.e. affective metadata. I love to find the patterns and potential cause-effect relationships that can be gleaned from large amounts of information, that are otherwise hidden from the ground-level view. If you have not yet had me chatter at you about affective metadata, trust me when I say you will, as I will (hopefully) be spending the next year writing my thesis on the subject.

Samantha: What I find most interesting about museum work and, therefore, what I am most passionate about, are the stories that are contained within all cultural material. There is so much that can be learned through the study and documentation of objects and being able to share that with museum audiences and the wider community is an incredible thing. I’m looking forward to working more with collections in order to discover our country’s diverse narratives.

Anna: Oh man, that's a heavy question. I think I can safely say that I have a real passion in artefact conservation. I helped restore a cast iron stove for one of the newly unveiled exhibits and it has definitely been one of the highlights of this internship. There's a certain feeling of pride attached to making an artefact live up to its potential.

Jenny: I have a bee in my proverbial bonnet about accessibility in museums - from physical accessibility to programming for visitors with disabilities.

Thank you Emilie, Erin, Samantha, Anna and Jenny for sharing honestly about your experiences and taking the time to participate in this interview. See you in two weeks for Part Four!