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.