Today is a sad day

It is a sad thing to leave an internship that has been so meaningful, educational, and regularly amazing! Today was my last day at UT Southwestern Medical Center working with the Art Curator, Courtney Crothers. Even today we catalogued many Indonesian textiles, contemporary American drawings and paintings, prints, and photos. The collection is huge! After a pleasant exit lunch celebration, we continued combing through old files in order to merge information. That part of the job has felt like a treasure hunt in an art collector's attic and has been very rewarding for me. Gleaning information about methods of shipping, storing, preparing and exhibiting art took my mind by surprise on occasion as I sifted through invoices, letters from donors, construction drawings for pedestals, and so much more.

The bits and pieces of software technique I learned through working with the Excel database and other technology have helped me to grow in my abilities but also have made me realize how much there is still to learn. (Perhaps next summer I'll take some software classes at the community college.)

This experience has helped me to focus on the types of activities that would be possible for me in the world of art. Collections management is calling out my name! Art handling would be very exciting, but can be physically exhausting and difficult, so I would want to look into handling drawings and prints as opposed to paintings or textiles encased in heavy plexiglas cases! Organizing special events for not only children but the adult population -- classes, tours, and lectures -- seems to be a focus that needs more attention in the general museum arena. Once again (I wrote a paper about art therapy in an undergraduate class), I've realized how intertwined art and healing can be and am wondering what opportunities are in that area of museum work.

One huge regret is that I did not take more photos. When we were on campus, I either had a laptop or a tape measure in my hand. Besides, we were not leisurely touring the buildings; we were riveted on completing the work without disturbing staff or patients (not an easy task!). There was much to be done in one summer session.

In closing, I will reiterate that my drive home from Dallas (that's one part I will not miss) was full of sad thoughts about not being involved in the work anymore but also amazed reflections about the entire intern experience!

Wrap up and notes for future DMA FAST interns

My time at the DMA ended last Monday, and I've taken the past week to reflect on my experiences over this summer.  The most valuable part of the internship was that the FAST staff allowed me a lot of time to learn and experiment on my own.  While I was there I observed and assisted with programs for a variety of audiences facilitated by different educators, prepared four self-guided family guides, put together an adaptable social story to prepare visitors with autism for their museum visit, brainstormed ideas for Art to Go self-guided tote bags.

I am incredible grateful for Amanda Blake, Danielle Schulz, and Leah Hanson allowing me to observe their programs, letting me look through archived materials from past lessons, and offering feedback about the materials I put together.  Their collective knowledge and expertise paired with their friendly personalities made this internship a really positive experience.  It was also really great having Emily Wiskera around, as she held a similar internship role the previous summer and knew the lay of the land.  She was invaluable in getting acquainted with people, finding meeting rooms, and retrieving object files.

For people interning at the DMA in the future, I have a few words of advice.

• Make sure to observe programs with as many educators as you can, because all of them have wonderfully different styles of teaching and interacting with varying groups of visitors.  I also learned a lot from gallery attendants, as they had observed the objects people seemed most curious about and knew some of the questions visitors had. 

• Planning your summer schedule to cover the same days of the week for several months would help you get the most out of your time.  Because of other summer plans, I came sporadically for the first part of the summer and then 40+ hours a week for the last half of summer.  While I still learned a lot, I wasn't around for a long enough amount of time to get comfortable with a few programs to the point that I felt like I could lead anything.  Also, as most of the other interns spent a lot of time together at the beginning of the summer, I felt a bit out of place coming into the game later.

• Grab some comfortable shoes, bring a cardigan, and wear skirts or pants that are long enough that you can comfortably sit on the floor.  After the first day I knew that all of my clothing choices would be dictated by my desire to be as involved as possible, and I refused to let my clothing get in the way of learning or experiencing anything.  I think floor-length skirts are the art museum educator's best friend.  

• Know that all of the staff at the DMA are very happy and grateful that you are there.  I could not believe how much energy was put into making sure that I was working on projects that I enjoyed and benefited from, celebrating birthdays and last days of interns, and acknowledging and thanking everyone for the work we were doing.  During the first few days the FAST staff spent an extraordinary amount of time orienting the interns, and throughout the internship I was invited to as many programs and meetings as my schedule allowed.  

• Interns are treated very well here.  While they call it the "intern pit," your work space is most definitely not as horrible as it sounds.  You will have your own email account, your own work space, and your own calendar.  Instead of being treated as one person in a continuous cycle of interns coming in and out, you will be treated as a valuable staff member.

• When deciding if this is the internship for you, think about logistics too.  For example, I live in Denton and it is 80 miles round trip to go to the DMA.  Figure out how much time you will spend in traffic, how much money you will spend on gas, and make sure that those are two things that are compatible with your situation.  You can always try to carpool, take the train, or work from home some days, but make sure you have a plan!  (I carpooled for a while and then house-sat in Carrollton to make my commute shorter, but getting there was still a significant commitment.)

Conclusion

It is going to be end of this summer semester, and my summer internship session is going to be ended soon as well. My filming education programing project is still negotiating and preparing on going. It will be a long term project that is going to benefit all departments’ promotion of Crow Collection if it is working out well. The video will be on our official websites and social medias.

I learnt so much from this position of intern either from art education aspect or marketing aspect. I was planning the Asian activities for AfterDark Summer Block Party in Art District, and contacting the sponsorship of May31 days of Asia in 2015. Lukily, I will still keep part time intern in Crow at the semester of Fall 2014. I like this job and have a lot of passion and ideas when I am working there. Hopefully, in the future when I graduate, I could get some kind of job like this would be perfect.

July

In the month of July, I am back working in Crow for full time every week. It was a bit tough driving everyday back and forth in rush hours, but I like it because this job is truly related to art and my major. I like to work and deal with something everyday that is connected to art.

In this month, I had chance to visit Trammell Crow’s son, Trammell S. Crow and talked to him about his collections in his house when we had pool party. The inspiration of his interest on Asia Art Culture really moved me. When he showed and explained to me, I had a exact feeling like a boy sharing his treasure box to his friends. I can feel the love of art.

I started another big project this month--- making a proposal for Filming Education programming included gallery educator tours. I made a proposal of cost for Plan A hiring film crew and Plan B purchasing equipment and software, renting space for interview. This project would start in August as well. Currently I am contacting with a UNT MFA film maker who used to work for our museum about shooting the videos.

Hopefully I can work this big project out with a team of our gallery technicians and professional team. It is a big challenge for me, but nothing can stop me : )

June

The Crow Collection office is located on the 2^nd floor of Trammell Crow building in Dallas Downtown. On the hall way of our office there is a nine panels of glasses window displayed space for exhibition of our programming. I am taking the responsibility of curating this show of Printmaking Exhibition. Starting from the month of June, there is a big exhibition of Chinese dancer and painter artist Shen Wei. I happened to see him in person and talked to the curator of this exhibition, Karen. I was getting so much experience from talking with them including the acknowledge of curating. I watched a free show of dance directed from Shen Wei as benefit of staff member.

The month of June have been a bit crazy for me since I had morning history class and taught afternoon at school from Monday to Friday. However, I still went to work in museum on weekends whenever they had gallery educator trainings and “Friday After Dark” and “Saturdays Adventure Asia” events. In that month, I felt that I cant almost breath but still enjoy it because I can work with great artist and curators.

After getting inspired by the other exhibitions, I did a proposal of printmaking exhibition of east west exchange artist residency to have my supervisor look at., and we decided to discuss the plan with marketing department since they have particular requirement for fonts and amount of letters. At this point, I knew what is the real team work about even though that takes little bit more time to do adjustments in between different departments.

This show is gonna be up in August after final approve from our own designer in Crow Collection.

Starting in late May

It was a bit complex for me to earn this internship position in Education Department of Crow Collection Asian Art.

After the meeting with Laura and other interns in art building on the first day of May, I was still waiting for the response about the internship from Crow Collection of Asian Art. Until May 21, I got through the first meeting about my internship. The meeting went great, and I got the intern position eventually. Literally I didn’t start the internship until May 26.

Mentioning about the process of getting the job, I have to bring in a long story about getting the position there that made me a bit stressed out.

In the month of April, I first applied for the interview of paid part time position of gallery educator in Crow Collection. Fortunately, I got passed on the interview and was offered the position with a year contract. However, I had to refused the offer since later I figured out that I cant keep both jobs from Campus and Off-campus as international students. Luckily the Crow internship department agreed to change my part-time position into unpaid internship position. Then I have a long period of time waiting for response of starting date of internship. Well, I learnt from this time that I have to keep myself patient enough for waiting.

The last week of May was my first starting week of my internship. In that week, I got my To Do List over the summer from my supervisor, which including attending staff meeting, department meeting, brain storming of activities, proposing evaluation tools and participating on Fridays “After Dark” and Saturdays “Adventure Asia” events. Through out this summer, I also have the other two big projects that I need to totally take care of, curating Printmaking Exhibition of East West Exchange Artist Residency and making visual promotional documentation video of Education Programing.

The education programing is still very fresh and new for this small museum team, but I can feel the motivation from every staff member and the potential growing opportunities for my own ability and capacity of work. At the end of week, all staff members went to dinosaur state park for team hiking. I got praised from my supervisor when we had group conclusion.

Final Thoughts

Friday, August 8, 2014

Whitney of the future here:

Wow, was this summer amazing or what? After working with the Education staff at the DMA this summer I feel a renewed sense of passion and focus for working in the world of art education.

I accomplished my goals and much more as I learned how a museum works, who works in a museum and how different people work with one another, how to write lesson plans/curriculum, created relationships with some amazing educators that I now consider mentors and friends, and I learned that I have what it takes to be an educator myself (minus a master's...but I'm working on it!). I have found that more than anything, if I am willing to listen and to learn myself, I can be a good teacher. Hard work and commitment don't hurt either.

I don't really wish that I knew anything specifically before I started. A lack of expectations for the internship proved to be helpful. For future interns: be ready to work hard, be ready to learn, but also remember to have fun (even if you have to make time for it!). Enjoy being close to art everyday. Enjoy the artists you meet and the supervisors that you work under. They have so much to teach you!

I was thrilled to be around the art at the DMA daily. I made sure to walk through the galleries at least once every day. I found pieces that I wouldn't have otherwise and I grew to appreciate pieces that I didn't understand at first.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to practice teaching in the galleries as well. I was quite nervous at first because I was unsure of my audiences, but once I became comfortable I didn't want to ever leave. I was fortunate enough to have great supervisors that allowed me to make mistakes and to be nervous so that I could learn and be better. The DMA was the perfect environment for me to learn good skills and habits of educators.

I wouldn't have done anything different this summer, though I really wish I could go back and do it over again for the fun of it all.

I am excited to continue pursuing my master's degree this year in hopes that I can one day officially be an art educator. This internship was just what I needed after a challenging academic and professional year. It helped give me confidence in my skills and taught me so many more!

Xo,

Whitney Sirois

Stretch and Grow at the Greater Denton Art Council

As an Exhibition Coordinator at Greater Denton Art Council I sat in on Board meetings to hear of all of the interesting ideas and details of upcoming art events in the Denton Community, brought all of the 2014, 2015 and 2016 exhibition files up-to-date, wrote letters to the artists about important exhibition deadlines, sent out contracts, updated the exhibition calendar, participated in the opening reception for American Bride's, and attended Margaret Chalfant's farewell reception.  My first assignment outside of the administrative office was to hand deliver American Bride posters to the accommodating shops and restaurants on the Denton Square, the community banks, and the Chamber of Commerce for display in windows.  This rigorous activity did not phase me a bit, and was definitely enjoyable as I was able to meet and greet the community at large.  Being flexible as an intern was a must.

The American Brides: Inspiration and Ingenuity exhibition featured wedding gowns from the Texas Fashion Collection, University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design.  Steven Porterfield, designer,  historian and owner of Cat's Meow vintage shop loaned some items for the show, and gave a gallery talk on June 28.  Myra Walker Texas Fashion Collection director invited designers Victor Costa of Houston, and Michael Faircloth the Winn Morton Dallas designers to lend dresses to the show.  The collection will continue to be on display through October 24 in the Meadows and Gough galleries at the Patterson-Appleton Center for the Visual Arts, 400 E Hickory Street, Denton, Texas.  Gallery hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday through Saturday.  Admission is Free.  Here are photographs I took at the opening reception.

Dean Robert Milnes, Dr. Laura Evans, Chan Juan Chen

These lovely people attended the opening reception representing University of North Texas.  Chan Juan Chen, graduate student at UNT modeled a contemporary wedding gown throughout the evening.

Margaret Chalfant, center, Executive Director of GDAC with Myra Walker, right, Fashion Curator.

"American Brides" represents 40 bridal gowns from the 1840's to the present time.  These are just some of the dresses selected from the Texas Fashion Collection for the magnificent display of the historical  wedding gowns.  

These UNT students modeled dresses from the Texas Fashion Collection at the opening reception.

I learned how bringing children into the common area of GDAC for Art Camp provided opportunities for creativity to flow through talking, painting, and playing music.  Because our youth participate in  museum environments as a natural place to visit, socialize and grow, they will return for future events.  Museums continue to be a special place for me to find connections to our culture, and will always be a part of my life.  I found out I may not want to work full-time in a museum, but definitely want to stretch and grow every time I enter the gallery doors.  I learned I want to teach art more than anything in this world.  I care about our youth and want to encourage them to create and experience art in all different avenues.  Children can be exposed to the museum atmosphere by attending events such as the William Joyce:  Guardian of Childhood exhibition, November 14, 2014, through January 18, 2015.

The most creative activity I was involved in at GDAC was the writing of the Press Release for William Joyce's exhibition.  Some of the dates and times may change, but he is coming to the Meadows Gallery, at Patterson-Appleton Center For the Visual Arts.  Get ready to read his books in the gallery space.  I hope GDAC uses my press release.  Here it is:

Greater Denton Arts Council 400 E. Hickory Denton, TX 76201

Press Release

Contact: Phone: (940) 382-2787 exdir@dentonarts.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 3, 2014

What:      William Joyce:  Guardian of Childhood

Details:    Original illustrations by noted artist William Joyce

Where:    Meadows Gallery, Patterson-Appleton Center For the Visual Arts
   400 E. Hickory Street, Denton, TX 76201

When:     November 14, 2014-January 18, 2015

                 Opening reception Friday, November 14, 2014, 5:30-7:30 pm

Gallery    Tuesday – Sunday, 1:00 – 5:00 pm

Hours:     Free and open to the public

THE GREATER DENTON ART COUNCIL PRESENTS 77 ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS

 BY WILLIAM JOYCE

        DENTON, TEXAS, OCTOBER 3, 2014: 

The Greater Denton Arts Council presents William Joyce: Guardian of Childhood.

William Joyce is an author, illustrator, filmmaker and a pioneer in the animation industry.  The show features 77 of original drawings, paintings, and lithographs. Digital images of illustrations from his award winning book “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” can be seen in the Meadows Gallery, Patterson-Appleton Center for the Visual Arts. His latest books released in the fall of 2013 “The Mischievians” and “Sandman and the War of Dreams” will be on display from November 14, 2014-January 18, 2015, for your enjoyment.  These illustrations are representative of 16 superbly created books that tell a story visually for children and

parents too!  Come see illustrations of “The Leaf Men and The Brave Good Bugs” that is currently being produced as a film. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Williams Joyce was born in 1957 in Shreveport, LA, where he lives today with his wife and two children.  He attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and is a true luminary and creative spirit.  He has put his personal stamp on children’s media in every direction.

Come enjoy Joyce’s illustrations, digital images, and books, at Patterson-Appleton Center for the Visual Arts, 400 E. Hickory Street, Denton, TX 76201, November 14, 2014-January 18, 2015. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 pm.

The opening reception will be held on Friday, November 14, 2014, 5:30-7:30 pm.

               This exhibition was organized by the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, Abilene, TX.

        Additional information can be found at http://www.dentonarts.com/ .

# # #

Check out William Joyce's Moonbot Studios website at http://www.williamjoyce.com/

Anyway, I left the press release in the exhibition file.  Whether the future executive director choses to use my version of the release remains unknown.  Unexpected changes occurred in both of the museums through the summer months.  The Museum of Biblical Art's full of excitement atmosphere was totally different from the Greater Denton Art Council's quiet interior space.  I would not have missed being a part of either team of people that made the museum's behind the scenes responsibilities appear effortless to the public.  It takes a lot of people with different kinds of gifts to accomplish all of the demands of museum life.  I saw museums activities excite the people who visited them such as a scavenger hunt at the MBA.  For the public to continue to grow to love museums they need the types of activities I participated in at both of these museums.  All of the phone calls, filing assignments, the planning for the art camps, the preparation for the tours and the receptions were all necessary duties for these places to exist, and to benefit the public.  Museums may look stoical on the outside, but reach the public with a warm welcome on the inside.

As my time with Art Path comes to a close...

            Next week will be my final week as an “intern” at the UNT Art Galleries. Although I will still be working on my regular duties as Manager of Programming here, I will not be focusing my time on Art Path details. Over the past three months I have researched, and sometimes re-researched, artworks and artists, expanded my familiarity with the UNT campus, and learned just about everything there is to know about UNT’s mascot, traditions, and history (there is an entire section included in the brochure highlighting eagle artworks and all things UNT).

            While conducting my research, I found that my old research (from way back in 2010 when I was a baby-child undergraduate J ) was actually pretty strong. I was able to pull from that information when writing about the artists and artworks included in the original brochure. It ended up saving me a lot of time and allowed me to search for more detailed information elsewhere. While writing the copy for the brochure and some of the signage, I found that it was best to think about the information that visitors would want five, even ten, years from now. For signage, I found it easiest to focus on factual information about the artists and the works themselves, whereas for the brochure, I felt there was a little more wiggle room to add in interpretive aspects that would guide visitors to ask questions and spend a little more time with the pieces. I felt as though visitors using the brochure were looking for more of a guided tour where the text served as a stand in for docents.

            What I enjoyed most about my time as an intern was getting to use concepts we have discussed in class outside of a conventional museum education setting. I think this opportunity has highlighted the fact that museum educators do more than programming and tours. Of course, we all already knew this, but I think as time moves forward we will continue to see new and different ways educators are using their skills.

I have really enjoyed reading and hearing about everyone’s experiences this summer. It makes me especially excited to know that we are all part of the next generation of museum educators! I know that I have already started a list of various collaborations I’d like to make happen sometime in the future. Congrats on a great summer, everyone!

-Katy

Museum of Biblical Art Practice Thinking Routines

Teaching the Museum of Biblical Art staff about thinking routines was a total success!  These people greet the public, set up the ballroom for wedding receptions, curate collections, coordinate exhibitions, fund raising . . . yet they stepped up to the plate to participate in Thinking Routine exercises.  I established patterns of thinking in the classroom for the staff to envision how they might become the teacher in the museum environment.

 Marseille Moon at the MBA

By teaching the staff about the following patterns used by teachers in the classroom they were able to connect to and participate in the learning and teaching exercises.

HOUSEKEEPING

Manage movement and physical materials within the classroom. THESE ARE Rules and guidelines for living and working together as a group.  In connecting with the museum space an audience and a location/space would be selected such as a classroom or a specific gallery or path for a docent led tour.

MANAGEMENT

Helping the audience prepare for learning includes:

•Passing out papers

•Forming groups

•Coming to attention

•Transitioning from one activity to another

•Preparing for discussion

Having efficient and well-tuned management routines helps the audience to be focused and actually directs the learning activity or artwork production.

LEARNING

Guide the actual learning and thinking of the audience as they engage with content of an object. In the museum this would be as basic as answering the questions that follow the viewing of a piece of artwork. This routine provides a recognizable structure for the audience to work within.  Or use journals for note-taking procedures such as mind-mapping, problem-solving protocols, and classroom debates about the interpretation of a painting. FOR THE MUSEUM VISITOR TO Learn routines gives structure to the audiences’ activities and provides the tools for engaging with the content OF THE ARTWORK.

DISCOURSE

Structure the discussion and sharing of audiences’ learning, orchestrating the many types of conversations that occur among art educators and audience. We are all familiar with the routine of raising one’s hand for permission to speak, used in the classroom throughout the world. However, this is not the only way of structuring discourse.  Here are other ways of structuring ideas with all audiences.

1.  Think-Pair-Share (TPS)

2.  KWL strategy:  What do you know? What do you want to know? What have you learned?

3.  Experiences scaffold by the thinking routines.

After introducing these ideas to the eager audience, I prepared them to become the teachers by introducing.

THINK-PAIR-SHARE

1.  The teacher poses a question

2.  Provide time for students to think about the problem

3.  Ask students to pair up and discuss

4.  Students share their discussion with the whole class

Thinking routines provide structures for the museum staff to initiate, explore, discuss, document, and manage their thinking.

Thinking routines help guide students’ learning and intellectual interactions.

Teachers establish, use and adapt thinking routines to make them a part of the CULTURE of the classroom.  This establishes and maintains a thoughtful classroom environment.

KWL is another strategy used to guide learners by asking these important questions.

What do you know?

What do you want to know?

What have you learned?

Serves to structure students’ learning about a new topic and is a widely used learning routine in classrooms. This routine activates prior knowledge, engages curiosity, and prompts reflection. Think-pair-share and KWL become routines rather than merely strategies through their repeated use. This repetition of use is a key characteristic of all routines. It is what makes them common, shared practices.

Sample thinking routines from the Visible Thinking projects.

SEE-THINK-WONDER

CONNECT-EXTEND-CHALLENGE

PERCEIVE-KNOW-CARE-ABOUT

CLAIM-SUPPORT-QUESTION

LOOKING 10 X 2

THINK-PUZZLE-EXPLORE

HEADLINES

WHAT MAKES YOU SAY THAT?

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATURE OF ROUTINES

WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES A GOOD THINKING ROUTINE?

WHAT MENTAL MOVES WOULD BE EMBEDDED IN A ROUTINE AND HOW?

All classroom routines are explicit in nature, that is, they must be known by the learners.

In time, the teacher can activate a routine merely by naming it.

Having only a few steps, often identified in language that makes the thinking moves explicit, is an important characteristic of routines.

Easy to:           Teach

                        Learn

                        Remember

Routines operate as tools for getting a particular job done.  The goal of thinking routines is to scaffold and support a particular set of thinking moves.  The routines by teachers and students alike become useful tools for achieving thinking and learning goals.  They must internalize not just the actions but the purpose and message behind those actions.

Individual and Group Practice

When standing in front of a painting at a museum,

we can identify:

1.  What we see,

2.  Think what it might mean,

3.  Pose wonderings to ourselves

Thinking routines still can be of use to us in our private speculations.  This aspect of thinking routines makes them useful tools in developing visitor's ability to think.

In Review:  Characteristics of Thinking Routines

Individual and Group practices

Useful across a variety of contexts

Use over and over again

Instrumental in nature

Explicit, and

Having only a few steps

In working with teachers two additional characteristics emerged:

Flexibility and Language

WHAT KIND OF THINKING ROUTINES DO MUSEUM VISITORS PARTICIPATE IN?

Recall in a short series of steps or thinking moves.

Sample thinking routines from the Visible Thinking projects:  See/think/wonder—three steps

1.  What do you see?

2.  What do you think about that?

3.  What do you wonder about?

Each step constitutes a certain sort of cognitive behavior.

Types of Cognitive Behaviors – STUDENT AND/OR MUSEUM VISITORS

Generate lots of ideas

Give evidence and explanations

Look for comparisons and connections

Construct reason-based syntheses, summaries, and conclusions

Construct evidence-based interpretations and explanations

Make discernments and evaluations

Ask questions

Identify and explore multiple perspectives

Create metaphors

Reflect on and consolidate learning

These are photographs of the Museum of Biblical Art staff showing off their newly learned skills of teaching in the museum environment.  Staff members were asked to think-pair-share with a partner.   The slips of paper with instructions about what teaching routine to use were handed out.  I pre-selected reproductions of paintings by artists currently represented in the galleries.  I wanted the staff members to be familiar with the images they were looking at to have a prior connection.  They were given ten minutes to look at the image and determine what and how to present the particular thinking routine in reference to the reproduction.  They used computer images of art by Sunol Alvar, Victor Bregeda, Michalangelo, Kathe Kollwitz, George Tobolowsky, and Jack Terry to teach the rest of the staff about a selected thinking routines.

Photographs by Marseille Moon (unless I am in them).