Throughout the pandemic, I've often referenced the title of the book, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in my mind. It reminds me that we've been here before as a species. That doesn't necessarily equate to hope that things will return to normal (in fact, I hope it does not in many ways), more so that history is a teacher. When Solomon wrote "there's nothing new under the sun," I think, in part, it was in reference to our anxieties. In other words, we've been here before // you suffer twice when you worry.
A side note: If this were one of the posts written for the internship, I would have to preface that second to last sentence by noting that Solomon is the author of Ecclesiastes only according to rabbinical tradition and that modern scholarship does not agree with this notion.
Anyhow, back on track. As I've mentioned before as it is rapidly being pushed to the front of our minds, the nature of art museums is faced with changing or perishing. I assume most of us preparing to work in the field want to spear-head this change, starting with ourselves. I have been very pleased with the professionals I have worked with, primarily the internship supervisor, Pinar Durgun, and my mentor, John Haberstroh. I've voiced concerns about inclusion and representation, and I've been mostly heard. I haven't lead any committees on the subject, and I don't mean to suggest that I'm the only one with this concern, but when I came into this internship I couldn't help but feel that there was a lot more at stake in the world than simply promoting the same white-male dominated classicist notion of preserving artifacts without recognizing that many of those artifacts were stolen by imperialists. I was pleased to find that others were thinking much bigger, as well.
Another big concern has been that it may be a long while before people are ready to go to the museums and libraries again. How can we benefit from the push to an online environment? How can we as representatives of these institutions, make sure we are not excluded from the conversation? How can we, in fact, lead when it comes to providing access to our human, artistic, and intellectual heritage through education? I can say, with some level of certainty, that I have at least begun to enter into that conversation with others who are experiencing the same disorientation and disillusionment, and who are ready to ride the wave of paradigm shifts.
"You better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone // for the times they are a-changin'" - Bob Dylan
I'm going to leave some links here for whoever is interested:
Free online book coming towards the end of the month – An Educator's Handbook for Teaching About the Ancient World: https://pinardurgunpd.wixsite.com/teachancient
SASA website: https://www.saveancientstudies.org/
