Curating the Curator: Perspectives from Mary Alexander

For our first post in the series “Curating the Curator: Perspectives from MSMC Committee,” I introduce Mary Alexander.

Mary joined the MSMC committee last year and is currently instructing the Introduction to Museum Scholarship and Material Culture course. She has worked in and for Washington area history museums for the past four decades. She has been a museum educator, assistant director, leader of the Common Agenda for History Museums project for the American Association for State and Local History, and most recently administrator of the Museum Assistance Program of the Maryland Historical Trust.

I asked Mary, “What tools should every museum scholar take time to develop?” and she responded with the following insight:

A scene from “The Real Museum Directors of Kansas”

“The slide projector in the main exhibit hall kept needing adjustment so I had to open the back of the exhibit case and slip in to jimmy with jammed slides, replace bulbs and other mechanical fixes.  Because this happened so often I got to eavesdrop on visitors chatting in the gallery.  It was amazing what I learned simply by being a hidden observer.  All our highfalutin’ ideas about what visitors would notice from our impressive collections and our brilliant explanatory texts went right out the window.”

This scenario from an old friend of mine who ran a small museum in Kansas illustrates an important reality for museum professionals (curators, historians, researchers, registrars, educators)—watch out for the museum “bubble.” Visitors will surprise you with their perspectives, interests and ability to simply overlook what you consider so important.  In our Museum Scholarship and Material Culture Introductory class discussions we remind ourselves that we are not “regular” visitors and therefore we must always question our perspectives as potentially biased.

Be aware of your assumptions about visitors. Visit museums and take time to observe what others are doing and saying while they wander the galleries.  Note where visitors cluster and seem engaged; why are they stopping there?  Is it an object, a label, a bench to sit or an interactive?

Interpretation is complex and difficult to codify, but writing clearly is a central building block for both scholarship and its interpretive expressions. It’s easy to warn against jargon, but more important to focus on clear, concise descriptions that are readily understood. Exhibit design reports will quantify “appropriate” label length, but that’s not the solution, it is clarity. Working with others will improve your communication regardless of its form–labels, artifact layout, design decisions and programming–as it will inevitably challenge your assumptions and help you work towards clarity.

Your important tools are:

  1. Knowing your audience,
  2. Questioning your assumptions,
  3. Writing, re-writing, and writing again, and
  4. Working with others to gain clarity and provide understanding.

~Mary Alexander

Post-Symposium Thoughts

Symposium on Museum Scholarship and Material Culture of Prince George’s County: Starting the Conversation

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Dr. Judith Freidenberg gives opening remarks at the Symposium

This past Tuesday, Dec. 8th, the MSMC Certificate held a symposium to discuss ways in which the University of Maryland and museum and cultural organizations in Prince George’s County can better collaborate. It was well attended with over 35 participants representing over 20 museums and cultural organizations in the county.

The following notes provide a summary of topics discussed and key points made by speakers and attendees, followed by a reflection of the event by one of the Certificate students.

Use - IMG_20151208_171427_385Dr. Judith Freidenberg, Director of the Museum Scholarship and Material Culture Graduate Certificate program at the University of Maryland opened the evening with remarks about the purpose of the symposium. She highlighted the importance of creating stronger links between the University and the cultural and museum organizations in the county, especially for the Museum Certificate students who are preparing to enter the field as new professionals. Dr. Freidenberg also explained that this will be a conversation about “how to best work collectively to address common issues and problems.”

Four speakers addressed symposium participants beginning with Dean Gregory Ball of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland. Dean Ball spoke of his support of this event, having grown up in Prince George’s County and fondly remembering museum experiences.

Dean Ball said,“universities and museums are significant cultural institutions which can change the conversation” and incorporate new methods into museums and academia.

Susan Pearl, Historian with the Prince George’s County Historical Society gave a brief history of the county, drawing on the rich cultural outlets since its founding. Cities like Upper Marlboro, Bladensburg, Piscataway, and College Park have had a long history of theater, art, musical performance, and exhibits which continue to thrive today.

Use - IMG_20151208_172540_657The rich history and culture in the County that Mrs. Pearl described was echoed by John Peter Thompson, Chair of the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission. He spoke about the county’s over 500 historic sites which provide opportunities to explore many aspects of the county’s cultures and history. He spoke highly of the resources at the Prince George’s Historical Society library open to anyone and located in the Greenbelt Library building with special collections pertaining to the county and beyond.

Aaron Marcavitch, Director of Maryland Milestones, described the importance of “Heritage areas” as cultural landscapes created to preserve the meaning of these spaces without owning or restricting the land. He engaged participants to consider the benefits of making tourism work for the small and sometimes remote museums and organizations in the county.

Think about local museums and organizations as an alternative form of recreation to mainstream tourist locations in Washington, DC., he exhorted.

The speakers set the tone for the conversations that happened around each table of symposium participants. Issues discussed included:

  • How to better represent the diversity of the County’s history?
  • Addressing the transient population within the county
  • Engaging stakeholders – getting people to care about and invest in cultural organizations
  • Leveraging County projects like new construction and transportation outlets to get better signage for smaller museums
  • How to better work with the public schools
  • Uniting museum “Friends Groups” to discuss shared challenges
  • Acknowledging what museum staff don’t know in order to address gaps
  • Creating new ways to track visitors
  • Better awareness of home school opportunities – bulletin boards, parent groups, brochures, as field trip sites
  • Use social media to connect with broader audiences outside of the museum spaces

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Once groups shared their conversations about common issues, Dr. Freidenberg asked

“What are your organizations are good at? How can we use these successes to help each other?”

Some responses included:

Then the discussion led to ideas about improving communication and resource access between the University of Maryland, College Park and the County museums and organizations. Comments included:

  • How to connect students with organizations for class projects and internships
    • The Prince George’s Historical Society reported 5 graduate students working on projects through word-of-mouth references
  • Can county organizations have access to University library resources?
  • Two-way sharing between individual organizations and the Museum Certificate program via website (umdmuseumcert.wordpress.com).
    • Announce events, internships, write a guest post about an important topic, or contribute an exhibit review, etc.
  • Contact the Museum Certificate program about hosting the Certificate’s graduate class on a tour of your museum, or hosting a graduate student for their practicum project.

 

Reflection from a Student

Sarah Janesko
Masters of Applied Anthropology Student
Museum Scholarship and Material Culture Certificate student
Class of 2016

This event was successful in bringing people together in a single room to talk about relevant issues. It was successful because everyone who attended cares about their organization and community. It was successful because participants were not afraid to talk about what is lacking in their organizations, and about what goes right.

There is a lot to be said for the presence of University faculty, a dean, students and local museum and material cultural professionals starting a conversation together in one room. However, big issues were discussed that can’t be easily solved in 2 or 3 hours. Getting to “success” in the long-term will involve action by all parties to continue the conversation.

It felt similar to our seminars as part of the Certificate program. Students discuss scholarship issues around the classroom table and then visit museums and talk to the directors and curators about how they handle community partnership, collections management, accessibility, diversity and many other issues. Understanding how different museums implement the scholarship in their daily work and programs is critical to reproducing those successes elsewhere.

Hopefully, this is what the Symposium has started with the museums in Prince George’s County – thinking about 1) what programs, initiatives and goals were successful, and 2) the ways to receive help from and 3) give help to other museums and organizations working toward similar goals.

Has your school, organization, museum, historical society had luck with partnerships like this? What made them successful in the long-run?

Last Chance – Greenbelt Museum Excursion this Friday

Don’t forget to RSVP (sjanesko@umd.edu) for the  Greenbelt Museum tour happening this Friday, November 13th (yes, we know…Friday the 13th).

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Save your spot on the tour by Tuesday (11/10) afternoon! We’ll even give you a ride – just let us know you’re coming.

Since the Greenbelt Museum tours are only offered on Sundays, this is a unique opportunity to visit this New Deal Era house museum and community center for free. Start your weekend right with local history, culture, and art!

Questions, comments and RSVPs can be directed to Sarah at sjanesko@umd.edu.

Intro Course Announcement

Attention all graduate students interested in the Museum Scholarship and Material Culture Certificate!

The first course in the Certificate program – “Introduction to Museum Scholarship and Material Culture” – is opening for registration next week. The class is capped at 15 students in order to accommodate for exclusive trips to large museums in the Washington, D.C. area and a personal learning experience. MSMCfieldtripCollage

The course is open to all graduate students in any department which allows for interdisciplinary perspectives on museums and the stories they display.

This is a unique opportunity to network with area curators and enhance your career prospective with museum scholarship. This course will be taught by Mary Alexander, a professional with over 40 years of experience working in and with museums.

If you missed the information session back in September, take a look at our previous posts highlighting Alumni experiences and Introduction to Museum Scholarship field trips to Smithsonian museums.

And, if you still have questions, feel free to contact Dr. Judith Freidenberg at jfreiden@umd.edu.

Interested in Getting a Certificate in Museum Scholarship and Material Culture?

Come to an information session about the MSMC Certificate program on Thursday, Sept. 10 from 12 – 1 pm.  The session will be hosted by UMD’s Anthropology Department in room 1102 Woods Hall. Bring your lunch and your questions about earning a certificate in museum scholarship to enhance your graduate degree.

The info session and Certificate program are open to all graduate students in any department.

Check out our Museum Certificate Info Flyer for more details.

Community Collaboration at the National Museum of the American Indian

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(On left) Cynthia Chavez Lamar, Assistant Director for Collections, National Museum of the American Indian.

 

This week, in the Introduction to Museum Scholarship class, Dr. Cynthia Chavez Lamar, Assistant Director for Collections at the NMAI in Washington, DC discussed her role in co-curating the Our Lives exhibit that premiered in 2004. She spoke about the challenges and benefits of collaborating with American Indian communities while co-curating this exhibit. It focuses on layers of identity and belonging within indigenous communities and will be up until July 2015.