My First Month at the Meadows Museum: Feeling Grateful and Excited for Upcoming Projects

         Every Tuesday I get the privilege to walk through these heavy 'back of museum' staff doors into one of the most beautiful museums I’ve ever been in. Each week at approximately 9:57am I scan my staff ID card at the door, nod hello to the security guards and walk down a narrow quiet hallway filled with staff offices. My day begins with a thirty minute one on one meeting with my supervisor Anne. We chat briefly about our weekend and then move on to daily tasks for the day and bigger picture projects- these are projects I have a little more time to complete. After our meetings I usually begin working right away- answering emails, getting ready for student interviews, starting some research on virtual touring companies. Somewhere in the middle of all this doing, I find a moment to feel grateful for the one whole month I’ve been at the Meadows Museum. I know this might sound silly, but whenever I walk past the brown brick campus buildings and admire the lush greenery and perfectly trimmed bushes, I think back to when I was merely an art history undergraduate student from Canada. I would visit the SMU campus and Meadows Museum often during my summers in Texas, and dream of one day even working at the Museum. What a month it's been so far at the Meadows! I have been part of staff meetings, brainstorming meetings, walked all over campus with an advertisement flyer for the student collective, planned a syllabus and sent out countless emails and even interviewed the future collective members. 

            I want to start off by stating that the internship experience has been very different from what I had expected a mere six months ago before the pandemic swooped in and changed our normal day to day lives. I originally thought the museum would be filled with people and I’d be physically present for education programming and staff meetings. Although everything happens virtually on Zoom now, I am thoroughly enjoying the process of planning, organizing and meeting with other staff virtually. I am working on two major projects at the moment. In the beginning they seemed small, but I have come to discover that they take up pretty much all of my time at work. The Meadows Museum student collective began as a bundle of abstract ideas for me, and now couldn’t seem less real. I have worked with Anne to develop ideas into goals for the collective, logistics of meeting, a year-long syllabus outline and actually meeting the students. It has been the most rewarding experience (which technically has not started yet). Over the past two weeks, we have interviewed undergraduate students from all kinds of disciplines, who love museums and love art. Talking and getting to know them is a reminder of why I love teaching and art museums. My second project will require some more work and research on my part, but is something I am so grateful I get to do. This year I am collaborating with staff to create a specific program for pre-med students at SMU. This is an unbelievable opportunity to try out different teaching strategies and to work with students on empathy and observation skills. I am excited to see what form this project takes in the spring! 

-Beatriz Galuban