Mid-semester experience

Mid-semester experience

So far, it has been a very interesting few weeks (or month), where I’ve been very busy with this internship and other school projects. So at this moment, time is very precious to me. However, I am trying to get the most out of all that I do. As for my time at the museum, I’ve been doing different types of tasks such as assisting with studio tours and studio activities (for adults, schools, and children studio drop ins), attending lectures, attending training sessions such as the vision access training, led by experts in the field such as a vision-impaired woman who gave us priceless information that we often ignore, and of course preparing for spring break activities.

In the last few weeks, we have been preparing for the spring break extravaganza event activities. The activities were taking place everywhere, at the lobbies of Khan building, Piano pavilion, and in the studio. The activities were designed by education staff a while ago, and led by other interns, I and docents. Other activities were led by local artists and us too, which I thought it was really great to include local artists in such activities. Prior to the event, other interns and I were in charge of making prototypes, inventories, cutting paper, etc. I worked three of the four days of the event, two of them were at the main lobby at the Piano pavilion with a local ceramicist Ralph Tobin, and painter Scott Dykema. Even though I worked with them with three other docents, the number of kids and work was crazy. Everyone was excited to make art with us despite their age and if the activity applied to their age or not. The approach the museum takes is not to say no to any participant and allowing each child to do whatever their age allows them to do. I find it very good for the museum to offer the same activity for all ages and not to exclude anyone, even letting adults also make art with their children on occasion. However, I think sometimes it might not work for the very sensitive kids. For example, I saw a kid during one of the activities burst in tears and his mom was working on his clay piece trying to fix it. I asked him what is upsetting him, and he replied with shaking voice that he couldn’t make the cityscape as he was supposed to do (by looking at the prototypes), I felt so bad for him since he was I assume younger than the age that is expected for this activity, as he looked younger than six. I had to calm him down and tell him that this is a learning opportunity and is not the final piece that he should make because he could practice at home until he makes great pieces, and that’s how I could make this prototype, it was a result of many years of learning and experimenting. His poor mom was trying to fix the scene in order to satisfy him, but with no luck. This incident made me think of this policy where good is intended but sometimes it might not work and proper activities for proper ages should be enforced. But museums always need people to come back and enjoy their facilities and activities, which I understand.

One of the days I was working alone at the Khan building leading a collage activity where children were asked to create collages of cityscapes using paper scraps provided. There were some education staff members assisting me on and off while I was there especially on my half hour break, but I was there alone most of the time which made me very nervous but I could handle it. This is because working with collage was easier and much cleaner than the other two days where we used clay and acrylic paint, which wasn’t easy to teach and control when children are in charge, especially the 2-3 years olds. The artist, docents and I had to teach each child how to use sculpting tools and the process of making a cityscape relief. It was challenging and exciting too. I talked with children during activities and we got to chat while working on their art, I was very impressed with some who really had great artistic abilities, and the ones who were very great talkers. I also enjoyed getting to know the artists and exchanged knowledge and experiences.

This spring break extravaganza was very interesting on many levels, it was tiring and back breaking, but interacting with children and their families and docents was the best part, they made it fun for me. At the end, this intense hands-on experience was a very good lesson to what kind of materials, time, planning and strategies one could consider when designing future events for large numbers of people in the city.

Object or Text? Or Neither???

I never considered writing as part of my professional career. I was aware I had to do it, but only well enough to manifest my thoughts onto paper, or to name Illustrator files with the correct wording letting me know its the ACTUAL final. I never considered the need for my writing to be eloquent and efficient at communicating my thoughts.

I started my undergrad degree as a Communication Design student at UNT. During the semester I was taking the foundation communication design courses, I realized I had an inclination towards logos and type rather than illustrations. Looking back, I didn't really think about it my inclination. I just dwelled on the fact that I could not illustrate. I couldn’t come up with multiple whimsical versions of the same illustration. I had too many questions that stopped me, and it was really hard for me to visually imagine something that doesn’t exist. Some people develop a style of illustrating personal to their own and then they just filter everything through themselves, but my illustration style was non existent at the time. I enjoyed typography thoroughly. I enjoyed the fact that you can alter a letter slightly enough to give it multiple uses. To be able to use type flexibly to convey as many messages as I want. I am good words, so good I enjoy playing with just one letter.

The letter was my object. The digital typeface was my first object of study. There is a need in art history to study the object, I have never quite understood this. My interactions with objects is digitally. The digital object is not a copy. It is simply digital. It is its own entity because it exists in a world that is not the physical world we inhabit. It becomes physical to us by means of an object, but it is never really a physical form. Then, we have the 3D printer and the 3D scanner, technologies that have altered our relationships with objects. How does the role of the historian function in the digitized world we are transitioning our thinking to? I consider myself to be a digital age historian, my relationships with objects and artifacts is different from a historian who thought of objects as exclusively in the physical world. I work with virtual and physical objects to make exhibitions for living humans. As a historian and maybe a curator, my best actual subjects to build from reliably is living humans. To find stories and objects that resonates with humans alive today which reminds them of their eternal connection through time on this earth. To generate new ways of seeing how we are connected and the adventures we have been on as a society to have things such as 3D printing and wifi. The evolution of human creativity and ingenuity is a history that belongs to all.

Transitioning this way of viewing objects and history to my work at the Texas Fashion Collection has made me realize how lacking my relationship with the written word and the physical object is. Part of the fashion collection is currently being digitized to be made accessible on a digital library through the University of North Texas. I used to think that digitizing the object was removing a layer of meaning and adding another, but the digital object is sometimes more informative than the physical object now. You can’t always see stitching without holding it close to your face, but with a digital file, you can zoom in so close you can see the individual threads of the stitching. What does history have to gain from looking at our objects of creative ingenuity through time in that way? It is as if we are looking at everything from a microscope. Prior to the microscope, we only knew our human bodies from what we can dissect and physically open up, through technologies we were allowed to peer into ourselves from a removed point of view and it has allowed us to understand our bodies on a different level, how do technologies allow us to study art in a way that illuminates our ingenuity? What might we gain  from that? How can I use my physical access to the Fashion Collection to create a digital interpretations which might allow others to learn something from the same physical object in a way physical access cannot?

Volunteering Docents: The hidden forces that keep museums running

Something that grabbed my attention in the internship is the docents’ important role in the Kimbell Museum. I have always been ignorant of how important their work is to a museum because of my experience about what their job is about, why they are important to a museum and how they could get this position. Also, because of the lack of docents’ tours in Saudi Arabia, even when I travel abroad and visit a museum, because we are tight in time, we just walk around in a self-guided tour where we just read the objects’ labels, or maybe not.

            When I first studied about museums and museums’ education academically at UNT, I was exposed to this realm by readings, discussions, and museum visits offered in these courses. This was done to observe docents tours and curators talking about how they teach docents, in this sense I had more understanding than I did before. However, the theories weren’t shaped fully until I had the chance this semester to observe what docents really go through behind the scenes in the preparation process, and what they do as the front line at a museum, and in this case at the Kimbell. Through this internship opportunity, I really built more understanding and appreciation of what they do and how important they are in this museum ensemble. To me, they are considered vital players of this collective system, where without their work, museums won’t be able to function to the maximum. Of course, in this ensemble the curators’, and educators’ job is very important, but without the docents who are always there for any activity the museum plan cannot happen or might happen poorly.

An important reason I assume is that there is not enough money to hire a very big number of docents such as in the Kimbell, and pay them, I assume it is incredibly expensive for museums without a big budget to do. Another reason is that the training required to be a docent at a museum takes a very long time. For example, I asked a docent at the Kimbell about the process and she answered that it took three years for her to finish the required training. Add to that commitment and passion. This is really a long time for an unpaid position for a person who is just building their career, starting with school, or trying to make a decent living. An intern also talked to me about how she wanted to apply for a volunteering docent position but the manager of the education department advised her to choose the internship option which was more convenient for her at this age, and as a student in higher education. So younger generations might find it harder to be a full-time docent going through all these years of training, unless they work at the museum as educators when they acquire the required qualifications, then they can guide tours and be part of the museum work as employees, or interns.

            Thus, some scholars consider the docents’ training as adult training that requires Andragogy theories (specialized curriculum designing for adults (The principles of adult learning theory, 2017)) that they apply in order to reach the most benefits in investing in their docents. This is because they are the creators of the visitors’ experiences, and who are able to transfer this experience to a meaningful, educational, and pleasant experience (DePrizio, 2016; Empower docents with experience training, 2016; McCray, 2016). From my observations, I find that the Kimbell follows adult teaching methods in a very effective way. For example, they have a really great approach in providing visual knowledge such as videos, presentations, documentation and even a study room for them to spend time on the materials. They also offer lectures led by the curator, the education manager, outside scholars, and training with each education/art staff member for each activity. What I really liked about some of these trainings is the interactive approach that empowers the docents, demonstrates their point of view, and then for the museum to consider what they offer.

I also observed that there is also a consideration of the age of the docents. Wherein there is always recording for these lectures that can be listened to later, and there is always a microphone attached to the speakers to help the docents who have hearing difficulty. Another aspect that I find great is the chance for the docents to grow and learn by trial and error, where they have a chance to try their teaching style after a training for a certain exhibition. After that they get feedback most of the time from the education manager to adjust and meet the museums’ expectations.

On another note, I find this particular volunteer work beneficial, important, and fascinating for the structure of any society in many levels. First, it offers an opportunity for retired society members to feel as important as they were when they had important positions in their jobs. This is important for inclusion in the museum of all members of society to be active and contributing to the museum mechanism. I find it very important for museums to be the place to connect older and younger generations through the docents’ participation in activities such as art activities. For example, at the Kimbell, docents help in art activities with educators especially in annual big events like spring break, and in regular school tours. Another benefit is for docents to memorize and learn all the information needed for the exhibitions’ tours. From my observations by attending many docent trainings that the Kimbell prepared for them and education staff, I found the information challenging. It requires a lot of studying, memorizing, and other skills such as presenting and performing the information in an interesting way to engage the visitors and make visitors’ experience more effective. Thus, I think these trainings that the Kimbell offers (and other museums who takes docents’ training seriously) are very important to the community as a whole not just the docents, museums, or visitors as individuals. It is an orchestrated work that requires all these participants, and can’t work without them, and at the same time, benefits all of them.

            At the end, I wish to see such initiative like this start among museums in Saudi especially since the country is recently changing drastically and rapidly. This idea started after a conversation with my father who nowadays complains that there isn’t any function for retired people like him in the society, so they end up with a feeling of boredom, and invaluable to the community. However, based on a conversation with a friend over in Saudi Arabia, I understand that this subject is under study by the authorities which is exciting to me and I look forward to being part of its development.

  

References

DePrizio, J. (2016). Making the case for transforming training. Journal of Museum Education, 41(1), 3-9. doi:10.1080/10598650.2015.1126057

Empower docents with experience training. (2016). Retrieved from https://museumhack.com/empower-docents/

McCray, K. H. (2016). Gallery educators as adult learners: The active application of adult learning theory. Journal of Museum Education, 41(1), 10-21. doi:10.1080/10598650.2015.1126058

The principles of adult learning theory. (2017). Retrieved from https://online.rutgers.edu/blog/principles-of-adult-learning-theory/