"Pre" Internship :) In the beginning...

Technically my internship started in January so this post is long overdue. At the beginning of this internship, I had a lot of expectations so I'll start there. After hearing about The Museum of Street Culture and their mission I knew I wanted to be a part of their team. So I wrote a proposal for the Texas Associations of Museums in hopes that I could advocate for this Museum at TAM but also to start a working/internship relationship with them as well. Well, my plan worked and they were happy that I wanted to spread the news about their recently opened museum. I then set goals along with the Art Education director of the museum to go to different conferences and use the Museum of Street Culture as my muse to talk about the big question; what is the role of the museum?

I  began this relationship because I wanted to be a part of a museum that was uniquely different in why it started, its mission, structure, and program system that is closely connected to social services. I was hoping to expand my own concept of what a museum is and could be. I wanted to understand how this type of museum can be funded and established. I also wanted to investigate if this museum was truly one of a kind. On a personal note, I wanted to get more experience in advocating and conference presentations.

Since I first began this partnership with Danielle Naylor the Art Educator of the museum we have presented at TAM and we will be presenting at USSEA/InSEA Regional Conference in July. We are currently working on proposals and research for NAEA, TAEA, and USSEA international conference.

A few things I have learned so far is if you have a good idea then don't wait for something to happen, you may have to make things happen. Another would be that working with a team has its up and downs and people have their bad grumpy days don't take it personally, it's just human nature. I'll talk about this more in future post.