University Art Museums and Galleries - a Student Perspective

No matter where you are in Virginia, you’re only as far away from an art museum or gallery as you are from a college or university. Around 30 college or university art museums / galleries are scattered across the state, and that number doesn’t even include independent university collections, historic houses or other specialized museums. During the Spring 2011 semester, I was a part of an undergraduate museum studies class at VCU took an entire semester to look at the phenomenon of university art museums and galleries, visiting a small handful. From the museums’ functions within the university to collections, cite visits showed that each institution was unique and a great asset to the Commonwealth. But while museum professionals know where to find them, does the public? Or––maybe an even more important question––do students know where to find them? While many students will search for internships in DC, New York and other museum hubs, they only need to look outside their dorms.

University and college art museums and galleries already provide invaluable resources to students, and now we need them now more than ever. All students are more than aware of the job market that awaits them after graduation. Many are looking to fill their CVs and resumes with experience related to their fields, and university museums are in a unique position to prepare students academically and professionally.  

Most students are looking for internships. While formal internship programs are time-consuming to organize, having some kind of structure really helps utilize the work interns do. For example, long-term projects allow students to invest in the work they do––plus, interns that come to work (because that’s really how we look at it) and can pick up where they left off spend less time hovering around the office doors of staff, waiting to be assigned a task. The University of Virginia Art Museum and the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary list formal internship programs on their web pages. The Muscarelle even requires students to have already volunteered before applying for internships. On the job training is really the only way to acquire the skills needed to work in a museum, so students are looking for opportunities to gain the necessary experience in proximity to where they live and study.  

An internship may even help a student decide if he or she really wants to work in a museum. If students are considering graduate school or an academic career, they are most likely looking for opportunities to conduct research. Sure, students can contact university museum directors and curators directly about gaining special access to the collection, but does the wider university community know that a collection is available for research? This past spring, one exhibit at Randolph College’s Maier Museum of Art, Nature Perfected: The Art of Botanical Illustration, was curated by a pre-med student. Reaching across departments and disciplines is one unique opportunity that museums have when operating under a university umbrella. Partnering with professors to create courses that relate a particular field of study to the museum would also offer more university-wide exposure. And regardless of academic background, students are looking for opportunities to learn new skills.

So university museums, keep offering and expanding programs, internships and research opportunities for your students!

And, students, don’t pass up those internships and other opportunities that your university museums offer—especially while you’re still on a meal plan!

by
Sharayah Cochran
M.A. Student, Museum Studies
Virginia Commonwealth University
Department of Art History, School of the Arts

The End of PowerPoint

There's lots of advice on the web about how to avoid it. But PowerPoint, or any other presentation tool (check out Prezi) is only as good as the person making the presentation. A great presentation leaves you inspired, gives you ideas, helps you solve a problem, allows you to discover something new. Too often, we use digital slides as a crutch, cram in too much text, jam too many slides into too little time, and do not rely on the power of our ideas, our experiences, and our stories. And, because we try to cram all of that information in our presentation, we stifle questions and dialog. Whatever your calling in the museum field, you most likely have to communicate information to peers, patrons, and/or the public on a regular basis.

At this year's American Association for State and Local History Conference, I attended a session entitled, "The End of PowerPoint." Presenters Lindsay Baker and Linda Norris delivered—and modeled--several good ideas for conference session presentations and for presentations in general. (Linda blogged about it in her popular Uncataloged Museum blog, too.)

Two ideas stood out for me. The first was a demonstration (using "good" and "bad" PowerPoints) of the Pecha-Kucha approach. Basically, it's twenty slides, twenty seconds per slide. The approach is a powerful means to focus what you are saying, using the slide deck as a powerful visual aid, not as a visual crutch. Imagine that. You have 400 seconds-- six minutes and forty seconds--to make your point. Do the standard conference panel math: panel lasts ninety minutes with three presenters. Each presenter uses the pecha-kucha approach and you end up with just over twenty minutes of presentation and nearly seventy minutes to reflect, react, comment, and question. That's a proportion more in line with promoting dialog than the standard conference math: three presenters, twenty to twenty-five minutes each, with only fifteen (often) to thirty (rarely) minutes left for questions and discussion.

The second approach was to present via an interview. At first, I didn't think this made much sense but, as Lindsay interviewed Linda about a project she worked on, I realized the power of it. The agreement beforehand was that there was nothing off limits and they had not scripted or outlined the interview. As Linda described the project (which you can read about here), guided by Lindsay's questions, interest in the attendees led us, without prompting, to begin asking questions about the project. For ten minutes or so, we were not talking about presentations, we were talking about the project. The attendee questions stemmed from the answers Linda gave to Lindsay's questions and provided more detail or further information on that related to the participants’ interests. I think the approach has merit for discussing a project or related projects, and avoids the "show and tell" tendency of panel presentations.

Lindsay and Linda presented other ideas, including a small group activity where we had to come up with alternative proposals for programs based on the titles of actual sessions at the conference. It was a fun, creative way to talk about and think about applying what we had learned, while modeling yet another effective technique for more involvement.

The session inspired me to be think more creatively about how to promote a greater level of engagement in my own presentations at work--or in panels--to instruct, to inspire, and to lead. Why not head over to the "tips for presenters" page on the VAM website and see what is there that will inspire you or suggest resources that work for you. Also check out Linda Norris’ blog, The Uncataloged Museum. She may be putting the slide deck up from the “End of PowerPoint presentation.”

Happy Presenting!

GARY SANDLING | VICE-PRESIDENT | VISITOR PROGRAMS & SERVICES

MONTICELLO | 434.984.9833

www.monticello.org

What a Ride...

This has been the inaugural year for Virginia’s Top 10Endangered Artifacts program, which is part of our larger Virginia CollectionsInitiative. The past few weeks have been our public voting ‘contest.’ To be honest, we weren’t sure what to expect during this first year. Will people be engaged enough to “vote” on an artifact from a collecting institution? Will the media be intrigued by the “stories” behind artifacts and their conservation and preservation needs? Will we accomplish, through the public voting, our goal of engaging the public and the media, and raising awareness of collections issues for all museums?

Of course we hoped so. We were bold enough to even “think” so. But we didn’t know. For sure. Because, of course, during public voting there could be something like an earthquake or a hurricane to take away people’s attention (but what are the chances?). There could be a major day of remembrance that dominates the media (still can’t believe it’s been 10 years). All sorts of things could happen to distract people and take their attention away from our little campaign.

Well, I’ve got news to report. Today is our final day of voting. We have about 90,000 votes as of now. The public has been incredibly engaged, with museums’ ‘groupees’ pitting themselves against each other in a friendly competition to see who can get the most votes for “their” museum’s artifact. As I type this, I have another window on my computer open which shows me every time someone casts a vote – it is clicking away every 3 – 4 seconds!!! Right now I can HONESTLY say, “Every 4 seconds in Virginia, a member of the public shows their support for artifact conservation.” Wow.

As far as the media goes, the AP picked up our story last week and it has hit news, radio, and TV across the state and in Washington, DC. Virginia Living Magazine ran a piece on the project, too. Here are just a few of the stories:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/1-week-left-in-online-voting-for-virginia-top-10-endangered-artifacts/2011/09/13/gIQAlFTnOK_story.html

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2541598

http://www.nbc29.com/story/15454936/most-endangered-artifacts

http://blogs.roanoke.com/arts/2011/08/virginia-museum-of-transporations-1776-engine-among-candidates-for-top-10-endangered-artifacts/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/house-divided/post/civil-war-items-compete-to-be-among-top-10-endangered-artifacts/2010/12/20/gIQArCV1fK_blog.html

So, what’s next? We’ll see how it all pans out. Public voting ends tonight. Our independent peer review panel will meet soon to determine Virginia’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts for 2011. We’ll have “the big day” in November (stay tuned!) announcing those Top 10. Then museums will be armed with a little more marketing know-how, and some fine voting numbers, when they begin the challenging work of engaging donors or grantors to help fund conservation of artifacts. I’ll keep you posted in this space, but we are hopeful that our little project has helped put conservation on the map in Virginia!

Heather Widener,
Communciations Director, VAM

Leaving a Legacy to Your Profession

Well, my brother the attorney finally convinced me – I’m not getting any younger (the big 50th birthday hit me last fall), and it was time to think of where I wanted my millions (well, maybe a few thousand) to go after I’m done with it here on earth.  Yes, it was time to draw up my WILL!  It gave me sort of a spooky feeling to be thinking of planning for my death, but I must admit that I did want to make up my own mind about where my hard-earned money would end up.

My husband and I gave this a lot of thought over many months.  We were not able to have children, so the option of leaving any funds to our kids was off the table.  Along with my twin brother, I’m the youngest in my family, as is my husband in his.  We figured our siblings could cope on their own, so maybe we’d look toward the next generation.  We’ve lots of nieces and nephews, we thought, so let’s help them out!  Of course, none of them have chosen the lucrative museum field, so they’re actually making or likely to make much more in their chosen professions than we ever will.  Okay, so they don’t really need the bequest.

So…what to do with the bit that we are squirreling away?  Charities and educational foundations, of course!  We’ve come up with a few crusades that are very near and dear to us – a scholarship for high school students (my husband taught for 30 years), funds for homeless kitties (cats make great children!).  And lastly, a cause that is nearest and dearest to my heart: Museums!

Once I thought of that, all was clear.  What have I spent my first 27 years of professional life doing?  Working for museums!  What is the one organization I have had a membership in for all of those years?  VAM!  The Virginia Association of Museums has been valuable to me since I first joined as a graduate student in the early 1980s, and it’s remained a crucial part of my professional life ever since.  Now that I have been on the VAM Council for several years, I have come to see how the organization works behind-the-scenes for its members.  And, clearly, I have come to realize that VAM cannot survive without support both now and in the future from all of us.  I can work in the museum field for another 27 years, and will remain on the VAM Council until the organization tires of me, but the best thing I can do for VAM is to name it as a beneficiary in my will, and that’s what I’ve done.  It won’t be a huge amount of money that will come to VAM in the end, but every little bit helps. 

Come on, VAM colleagues, think ahead and plan for not only your future, but VAM’s as well!  Draw up your will, and include the Virginia Association of Museums as a beneficiary.

- Tracy

Tracy J. Gillespie
Historic Site Supervisor
Aldie Mill Historical Park
Mt. Zion Historical Park/Gilbert's Corner Regional Park
Properties of Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority

Purposeful Museum Blogs

To complement the third VAM member White Paper being released today, entitled Blogging: An Introduction for Museums, this blog post highlights a few museum blogs that we have come across that we think are innovative, purposeful, and provide a conversational 'voice' for their museums.

Wilton House Museum’s Found in the Collection
Museum and Gardens’ Hermitage Collection Connection

These are two innovative blogs that use the museum collections to give life to the blog posts.
The blog posts reciprocate by giving life to objects, telling their stories, and discussing the
overall story the museum has to tell in the process.

Library of Virginia:
Multiple Exposure: Catablog of the Prints and Photographs Collection at the Library ofVirginia
Out of the Box: Notes from the Archives at the Library of Virginia
The LVA has two blogs. They’ve used the first, their “Catablog,” to post prints and photographs
from their collection. The second is similar to the Wilton House and Hermitage blogs in that it
focuses on collections from the LVA archives. I think these collections-focused blogs are great
because they not only enrich the experience of learning about the collection for visitors, but they
extend the museum’s reach and ‘flavor’ well beyond their walls by hosting ‘conversations’ about
their collections for a worldwide audience.
Gari Melcher’s Home and Studio at Belmont: Special Events blog

This is a smart marketing move, aimed at people who may want to rent facilities at Belmont for
a special event such as a wedding. Chocked full of great pictures and stories, I’m sure it’s
enticing for those looking for such a venue!

Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum’s Pushing the Envelope

This is an interesting blog in that it highlights the history behind various stamp designs, and it
shares the content of letters written at different times in history. It’s a smart move for this
museum to have a blog, since they have a lot to offer the very-niche-but-also-very-passionate
audience of stamp collectors around the world.
As stated by Nina Simon of the popular Museum 2.0 blog,
“I believe that the museum blogosphere is still underdeveloped and there's lots of room for people to share their inspiration, experience, and ideas.”

Check out the rest of her post, where she outlines six MORE museum-related blogs that show promise
(December 2010: http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2010/12/six-museum-related-blogs-you-mightnot.
html).

If your museum has a blog, please share that with us - we're always looking to connect to museum blogs!

What's in a Name?

As you may have heard, the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park has a new name - the Virginia Museum of the Civil War. Read Director* Scott Harris' commentary on the name change:

Since 1967, the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park has told the story of the battle that occurred here on May 15, 1864, with special emphasis on the role of the Virginia Military Institute Cadets.  We also describe how that battle and the war generally impacted the Bushong family (whose farm was at the center of the fighting) and other residents of the Shenandoah Valley.  The other major part of our interpretation is the overview of military activity in the state during the entire war, using exhibits originally created for the Civil War Centennial Center in Richmond from 1961 to 1965. 

Adoption of the name “Virginia Museum of the Civil War” places our overall interpretation of the war at the forefront, while retaining the Battle of New Market and Bushong/Shenandoah Valley aspects of our mission.  With the Sesquicentennial upon us, many travelers will (hopefully!) be coming to the Commonwealth for Civil War heritage tourism experiences.  It is our hope that the “brand” embodied in the Virginia Museum of the Civil War will resonate with these travelers.  The broader vision of the museum will also facilitate additional exhibits and programming in the future, which will be developed as resources allow.

What VMI has done with the New Market name isn’t a new concept.  In Virginia alone, I can think of a few relevant examples of institutions that have (or are) undergoing transitions in their names, usually to broaden their appeal and build awareness.  The Roanoke Transportation Museum became the Virginia Museum of Transportation.  The National Museum of the Marine Corps consolidated two former museums, the Marine Corps Historical Center in Washington and the Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum in Quantico.  Jamestown Festival Park became Jamestown Settlement, and the other two Jamestown locations operated by the National Park Service and Preservation Virginia have also seen revisions.  I seem to recall that the Yorktown Victory center was once going to be the Museum of the American Revolution, though variations of that name are being used in several locations. 

Among Civil War sites, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society’s “Confederate Museum” adopted its current name, the Museum of the Confederacy, in 1970.  Pamplin Park Civil War Site (opened in 1994) evolved into Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier.  In 2000, the Tredegar National Civil War Center opened in Richmond, but was later designated the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar.

The list goes on.  For kicks, I Googled “museum name changes” and got over 49,000,000 hits—though I think there may be a few repeats!

Getting back to New Market, there will be considerable overlap in use of both “Virginia Museum of the Civil War” and “New Market Battlefield State Historical Park” for some time.  The latter name currently appears in many publications, signs, and online resources.  Over time, the new name will assume greater prominence.  However this evolution proceeds, the primary goals will be the same—to help visitors understand the rich legacies of Virginia in the Civil War, including the Battle of New Market and the Shenandoah Valley.

Scott
*Scott Harris is leaving the Virginia Museum of the Civil War in July to assume directorship of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library. Best of luck to Scott and both museums as they make leadership transitions!

Cultsha Xpo a Great Success for Richmond's Cultural Nonprofit Community

I'm just speaking by way of what I saw last Saturday. VAM attended the first annual Cultsha Xpo, which was put on by CultureWorks for Richmond at the Science Museum of Virginia. Not knowing what to expect from this inaugural event, I pulled up to find that parking would be a challenge. Turns out I got lucky and found a space right out front, but the place was absolutely packed! Thousands of Richmond's "Cultural shareholders" were on hand to register, pick up their Cultsha Bucks, and "spend" the day away!

We were representing our TimeTravelers program, and gave away a ton of information, and sold several hundreds of dollars worth of TimeTravelers' passport guides. As the crowds slowly diminished and we began to pack up at the end of a long, tiring, but exciting day, I saw a lot of smiling faces, a lot of Cultsha Bucks being counted out, and a "coming together" and bouyancy in the cultural community. Thank you CultureWorks! We'll be there next year.

Flashmob at Cultsha Xpo: