Informational Interview and Upcoming Lesson

 

Hello All!

Over the last few weeks I have continued to work in my capacity as the Onstead Fellow in Museum Education for the CVAD Galleries and the University of North Texas. Stefanie, my supervisor, mentor, and the director of the CVAD Galleries, was kind enough to introduce me to a colleague of hers, Jamie Lawyer, who works at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. I was able to meet with her twice to learn about her job and to get career advice. 

Jamie works as the Chief Experience Officer, which is a job that falls into the realm of museum interpretation. Interpretation is something that I only knew a bit about so I was so excited to speak with her and learn about what she does and how she got her position. It has made me really interested in this field within museums, I love that her job is so focused on visitor experience as she connects different museum departments to one another. As a former gallery attendant, I cannot express enough how important I think that this job is-- it is something that I think every museum needs. In my experience, there was always a disconnect between the curators, designers, educators, and visitor services. This was something that gallery attendants were aware of but were not empowered to change, or even suggest, in my experience. We knew what confused guests, what they found most interesting, what text they did not understand, and how they navigated the space when not led by a docent or gallery teacher. But due to museum hierarchies, this was not something that was considered with the creation or reinstallation of artworks and exhibitions. Jamie's job is to work across departments to make sure that the visitor experience is central to the institution and consistent across departments.

In addition, I have had to opportunity to do some further reading as a way of professional development. I read Sarah Urist Green's You Are an Artist which I loved. In her book she works with contemporary artists by speaking about their work and having them come up with "assignments" to encourage people to create using the materials that they have around them. I think that this is such a cool way to approach guided art-making in the wake of COVID-19 when most programs are virtual and participants are in their own homes with limited supplies.

Next week I will be working with the students in Dr. Evans' Art Appreciation class. I am so excited to try my hand at actually facilitating an extended program! I am going to be talking about environmental/land during the program with the hopes of facilitating discussion about the way that artists interact with the environment and how they grapple with ecological concerns. This is something that I am really excited to talk about and I am so please to introduce them to artists like Agnes Denes and Ana Mendieta. 

As Dr. Evans said to me, I am sort of doing things backwards because I am jumping right in to facilitating a discussion before I have taken Art Museum Education II (the one that is supposed to teach us how to teach). BUT I think that this is a great opportunity to see where I stand and will let me know what I really need to focus on going forward so that I can be a better educator!