Thoughts prior and during the first weeks of my time at the Texas Fashion Collection

My initial expectations for the internship were non-existent because I didn’t want to create a pre-conception of the journey I was about to go on. The internship entails digitizing the Texas Fashion Collection. At the time which the internship was assigned I was also searching for my thesis research topic. I had thought the internship was going to be great first hand experience to how institutions digitize collections, which was my initial thesis research topic,  and believed it was going to be a great influence on what my thesis project would be, I was right but not in the way I expected.

As the internship evolved, I didn’t know what my role in the team was. My background is in graphic design and digital printing, not history. At the beginning at the internship I was paying attention to the cameras used, editing program, amount of shots for each article, how the files were being titled, the quality of the digital files, the meta-data for each photograph and even way they are stored on the hard drive, but I was not thinking of things historically, I was thinking of them as a digital(graphic) designer. An example of the difference in thinking as a “designer” today vs. a historian is in how my relationship changed when viewing the fashion collection.

Prior to the internship, and even the first few weeks I was focusing on the technology used to interact with the fashion collection, not the actual collection. My objects of focus were the technologies used to digitize the collection, but now I view the collection as individual evidence of technology. As historical artifacts, and in this case, I am fortunate that these artifacts are objects I can touch and physically hold. The experience of touching, seeing and even smelling the artifacts have helped re-direct me to my role in the team. I guess I expected to go into this internship taking my traditional role as the designer, but it has helped me to gently nudge me to another side of handling objects.

When I digitize things as a designer, my object of focus is the digital copy/replica I am making of the historical object, not the historical object. I ask myself, is this an accurate portrayal of the physical object? If not, then as a designer, I will edit the digital copy as much to resemble the physical object. As the historian, my object of focus is the historical object. I study that object, and its cultural context, it would be my responsibility to detail to the designer the historical accuracy/context of the object so that rather the designer edits the image to be a historically accurate depiction of the original object. An example of a scenario might be metadata assigned to an object photographed.

Meta-data serves various roles for different people using it. For digital designer the today, it is a simple way to be able to find and retrieve digital files, it is a form of adding categories to describe the digital copy. For the historian, the meta-data can be categories of sorting and grouping historical objects digitally, meta-data today I believe assigns a digital cultural context to the object which might have not been a reality for the physical object. I will continue to explore that relationship throughout my internship.

Halfway through the Semester

It has been an interesting few weeks since I made my initial post. I have been trying to have the students the last few weeks look at art that was not produced in Europe or the United States. It has gone rather well as it has allowed the students to tackle artistic techniques they have not tried before like coil building and paper mache. The students responses to the actually art has been pretty varied. With some loving the art and others absolutely hating it. Surprisingly, my students really dislike the Pre-Colombian art. Every time I show, it I am met with a sea of complaints that its so ugly and questions of why any would make that. I want the students to appreciate the art of other cultures, but I do not know if I am going about it the right way. I do understand that many have not seen anything like that and it is so different from the art that they have seen previously. I am hoping with enough exposure they might grow to appreciate it.
On another note, I have been really proud of my students projects recently. Two weeks ago they made masks and they did a great job making them expressive by sculpting three dimensional features. They also made clay cups using the coil building technique and I am excited to see what they look like after they are fired. Unfortunately, not all the students were able to make a pot. One student had to leave early because she was rather upset. This has been a common occurrence, about halfway through every class she usually starts crying saying she misses her mom. Some days I and my supervisor have been able to cheer her up and get her to finish her projects, but last week she left before class even started. I find that I am a little awkward when it comes to handling students that are upset. I understand, though, she gets upset. She is the youngest student and this is her first year at school. I think it might be separation anxiety. I am hoping that over the next two weeks she gets more comfortable being in class. I hope I can find some ways to make it easier for her to be in class while I am researching projects for the students to do in the spring class.
There are only two classes left before the winter class is over and I hoping it can end on a high note.

My experience as an Internship Student at The Sid Richardson Museum

Sid Richardson Museum is located in Fort Worth, and it specializes in American Western art. Once you get there, you will be struck by the art displayed on the walls. Most of the content of the works of art dramatizes the lives of the Native Americans. There are two galleries in the museum. The first one is in the front, and it is called the Brown Gallery. The other one is in the back, and it is called the Blue Gallery. 

What the Sid Richardson Museum asked me to do

The SRM already has a lot of good activities, such as Tea and Talk, where visitors enjoy looking at a selected work of art and talking about it, after which they enjoy teatime with the curators of the museum. They also offer a Gallery Guide booklet, which includes almost all the information that visitors need about the museum, such as a museum map, exhibit overview, and biography of the people who collected the works of art and who created the works of art. 

I am going to improve some of the services and activities that the SRM provides for their visitors. I am going to enhance their Gallery Guide booklet that they already have to make it useful for unsophisticated visitors and blind/low-vision visitors. It would work as a self-docent in order to serve their needs when interacting/observing the works of art. I will include neutral visual descriptions, tips of (VTS) Visual Thinking Strategies, discussion questions, and other visitors’ interpretations of the work of art.  I will add a section where other visitors can leave a written perception of what they have read and/or what they think about the work of art, which will let people have a good discussion about a certain piece of art. 

I will also train the docents of the SRM in how they can better approach blind/low-vision visitors when they visit their museum, which is something that their docents have not done before.  I’ll ask them to consider, “What would help blind/low-vision guests enjoy their visit and have a valuable experience? How can docents get a sense/understanding of their needs in order to serve them in the best way?” and “What would help them interact with the work of art to understand it and give their perception about it?”  I am going to train the docents of the SRM in two different days. The first day will be discussing the theory. The second day will be applying the theory into practice. I will ask some of the blind/low-vision people whom I already know, and I will ask the office of disability at UNT to contact blind and low-vision students, to attend the SRM and let the docents practice what they have learned during the training session. 

What I hope to Learn?

 I want to learn from SRM visitors, workers, and their activities in the museum how to interact with the visitors. What are the best ways to serve the visitors’ needs? I hope to learn how to apply some of the theories that I have learned and read about blind/low-vision visitors; What methods and strategies would work, and which ones would not work well? In my opinion, working with the visitors in real life opens your eyes to things that you had never expected. For example, I learned during a Tea and Talk event last Wednesday that visitors would feel shy about writing their thoughts about a work of art. I learned that perhaps it’s better for them to share their thought by saying it, not writing it down and letting others read it. I thought writing an opinion about a work of art would let people who didn’t have the chance to hear the discussion enjoy interacting with another visitor’s idea instead of just reading the label that’s displayed next to the work of art. However, it seems that reality is much different than the theory, so I have to take that into account when implementing my ideas.  Each time I plan for something, I assume my idea will work just because I read a lot of sources and research that would agree with what I want to do. However, I still do not know about applying these ideas to practical use in real life conditions. Again, experiencing an idea might be different than talking about it. I am hoping to understand/find the best ways that would serve the visitors with their differences in goals, education, abilities, and needs. What would be the positive actions I noticed in the museum? What could be improved more?

My supervisor is a very open-minded person who never dislikes my ideas for improving the SRM services and activities. She seeks to improve the services and activities of the SRM, so she sees my presence there as an opportunity to do so. For that, I am very grateful.   

Four Weeks In - The 'Slow' Month

Hello everyone!

It's been four weeks since I started my internship so I thought now would be a good time to make another post.

With this internship, I find myself constantly writing. I keep a calendar with all the dates relevant to my internship - including events I am not directly a part of, a second journal that acts as a personal reference log of my daily activities, a digital journal that is saved on the computer and emailed to the education staff I work with, and finally this blog that is shared with all of you. I am thankful to have so many opportunities to reflect on this internship - both at the Kimbell and here. While my journaling for the Kimbell is on a weekly basis, I enjoy these longer stretches between entries as I can think over the past few weeks as a whole rather than broken into chunks.

Jan 19th was the day of the focus group tour for the Vision Access Project led by Alli Rogers. It ended up being a full workday for me as we spent roughly an hour on the tour; I was in charge of taking general field notes of participants actions, comments, and if there were any improvements to make during the tour. After a break for lunch, we jumped into interviewing the participants to see if there were any improvements to make about the signage, accessibility of information, and general program improvements. I worked with Connie to record our participant's responses as close to verbatim as possible as the data would be compiled and cross-referenced with other observations and interview responses so that we could target areas to improve upon.

Since then, I have worked on a variety of assignments and projects for various staff members. Some of these projects have been simple tasks labeling folders for archival purposes to making artistic prototypes for upcoming events. Some things I have worked on include watercolor flowers, stamped landscapes, and architectural collages. One of the overarching projects I have been working on is the organization of the storage room to condense materials into labeled bins or bags as well as taking inventory the number of supplies for future activities.

February is considered my 'slow' month as I have no assigned activities outside of my regular internship hours. However, I have multiple assignments that I will be working on for this short month that I am looking forward to!

I hope everyone is having fun in their internship programs and I'm excited to hear everyone's updates soon.