What I learned? It is a difficult question to answer; I am not sure if I can recall everything I learned, but I will try. First of all, I have to mention again that the GDAC where I did the internship is not a museum so that the experience might be different a little bit from the rest of my colleagues . The first thing I learned was how to follow the role of answering the phone. I sometimes forgot that I am working on a public place, so I answer the GDAC's phone as answering my cell phone, which made me feel embarrassed. However, after time it became an easy task to do.
I learned to manage my time to arrive at work early and plan ahead when I could not come. I learned to work with the group and be flexible when taking the lunch break to assist the visitors better. I learned more about GDAC events and contribution to Denton community. I got to know that they have to lease the facility to pay some of their expenses. I got to know that the art center is essential to any healthy community, and I hope I can see a similar center in my hometown.
I learned to work on excel files more than what I expect, especially when I worked on the survey project. From the survey, I found out that people are varied in almost everything, so it takes an effort to know how to deal with them correctly, and how to get them to know your place and activities.
Finally, I learned that people are not coming to the exhibition, for example, to study about it or get the facts, most of them are coming to feel connected with the community. So, I must have a smiley face to welcome anyone and communicate nicely with them to hook them up with the center atmosphere.
Dealing with the public can sometimes be a daunting task. You never know what kinda day a person might have had or what it going on in their minds, so it can be tricky. I've learned that it works best for me to treat people the way I like to be treated, be courteous and friendly and hopefully you will get that in return, it usually works, but not always. I believe linking art and the community is always very important. My friends are having a motorcycle build show at GDAC in October, so it's not always art presented as paintings or sculptures or photographs, it can also be functional art such as cars or motorcycles and such. It sounds like you had a really good time and enjoyed what you were doing. I would have loved to hear you answer the phone like you did your cell, I bet that was hilarious! Take care and I hope to see you soon!
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