The Curator Reader

Latest work as Curator

2015-03-03T23:54:00.000-08:00

It has been quite a while since my last post. In that time I've been busy working full-time at different institutions creating and collaborating on work in which I have been able to take pride. I would like to showcase some of it here. Each part of my work is presented here as the most recent at the top of this posting.

The following 4 Pictures are of a showcase exhibit for the Fort McMurray International Airport's new Observation Lounge that I produced as Curator of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame.

This was installed in January 2015.

I was sent a draft of a educational wall panel that would be installed in the Observation Lounge that had images of bush pilots who had operated out of the area. From that I selected which artefacts I would use in the display area provided for me. I chose to tell a story combining an artefact with a corresponding photograph from the available archives. The hope was to bring the person and the artefact 'alive' in conjunction with each other.

The following was part of major project to replace the 30 year old Member exhibit panels which were too large for the exhibit space. As a Hall of Fame, with new Members each year, it is easy to eventually run out of space, regardless of how big that space is. In this case approximately 200 exhibits had to be reduced in size so the public could view them all. The photos below show the solution derived at. To the left can be seen the older style being replaced.

This was a very involved, multi-part process. After the panels themselves were produced and ready for installation, all the previous elements had to be removed - much easier said than done. The background was painted, then, velcro was used to hold the new Sintra board in place on the wood.

Much trial and error was involved, to get the process standardized.

2014 panels created in time for the induction ceremony in May.

This is an example of one of the panels created for Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 2014. All the photos are from the Hall's archives and some had to be treated with Photoshop to remove signs of damage.

The following 5 pictures are of some of the 5 sets of 6 panels I prepared, designed, and wrote for the City of Leduc, Alberta that are placed in their Walk of Generations Park. They were installed in 2013.

The photos were pre-selected for me by members of Leduc's Community in Bloom committee and from there I researched them, gathering as much information on them as I could, figured out how to place them in relation to each other, Photoshopped where needed, and wrote the captions based on the information I uncovered.

The following pictures are of the Entertainment - 1890 - 1940 exhibit I worked on at the Wetaskiwin Heritage Museum in 2012. As of 2015, this exhibit is still in place.

This case originally had a tablet computer showing a loop of 5 silent movies. The curtains are genuine theatre curtain material and were set up exactly as designed in the 1920s with a painted backdrop. The sides and top of the case are glass to give a 'cross-section' view of the stage and 'wings'.

The exhibit was divided into various sections by different types of entertainment. These included types of theatre, including film...

...home entertainment, as seen in the case on the right,...

...festivals and Chautauquas, and not pictured, a case on bands within Wetaskiwin County and one on how picnicing fit into the entertainment scene.

The following pictures are of other exhibits and elements I worked on to improve the overall feel of the Wetaskiwin Heritage Museum.

Pioneer of the Year and Women of Aspenland exhibits. These were recreated from cardboard and foam core, respectively, panels to Sintra board, redesigned on computer.

Sintra board panel the excerpts of letters from WWII soldiers from Wetaskiwin to a local family who sent care packages or 'comfort parcels'. To accompany the panel a mock up of a comfort parcel was created along with actual artefacts that would have been included, as well as instructions on how to complete a parcel from period magazines and newspapers.

For existing exhibits I designed and had printed Heading panels for each section of the museum.

A panel that I completed, started by a previous employee, as one of my 1st assignments when I arrived to work at this museum.

Walk down the aisle and back in time at Dr. Woods House - Leduc Representative - Alberta, CA

2011-10-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

Walk down the aisle and back in time at Dr. Woods House - Leduc Representative - Alberta, CA

Exhibit of British Television Comedy

2011-05-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

The Ant, An Introduction 

The recent controversy stemming from Ricky Gervais’ hosting job at the Golden Globes Awards has provided the perfect opportunity to examine British humour in general, and British television comedy, in particular, the medium that made Ricky Gervais a household name.  Why did American critics rankle at the apparently unbridled humour by Gervais and what does this highlight about the character of British humour? 

People go on quite a bit about the differences between American and British humour.  To sum up generally, the difference can be stated as sentiment versus irony.  Both places have both types, but each concentrates on one style and does not understand the others’ apparently excessive use of the other style.  

What is British Comedy, anyway?  The thing is, British comedy is rarely just one thing and is often a combination of many things.  Those things include, but are not limited to laughing at naughty words, sexual innuendo, satire of the class system, mocking authority figures, slapstick, farce, puns and word-play, accenting the British tendency towards embarrassment, and generally pointing out the absurdities of modern life, often by putting it in a foreign context for contrast.   

British television comedy can plausibly be separated into two eras, before Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-1974) and after.  Monty Python having been described as The Beatles of comedy had their precedents and influences and then there are the comedies that were influenced by Monty Python.  

There are also those milestones in British comedy that have sometimes changed the face of comedy worldwide.  Monty Python is of course one example of this. Though it must be said that one of the true hallmarks of British humour is its unrestrained nature, and that is why it has garnered so many non-British fans around the world.  The original cast of Saturday Night Live have said many times that their main influence was Monty Python.  They were put on at a previously unwatched timeslot on American television, where they still reside, because of their take on uninhibited British comedy.   
To be continued...

The Wolf of Badenoch - A Notorious Knight: What is Knighthood & Chivalry

2011-03-19T15:29:00.000-07:00

The main issue here is similar to that of how to display a controversial subject. That is, how is one able to display an artefact that is associated with a complex concept with many preconceived notions attached to that concept. Also, as an artefact, it is unwieldy and immovable.


Stone effigy of Alexander Stewart (The Wolf of Badenoch) at Dunkeld Cathedral, Scotland

Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan 'Wolf of Badenoch'

Who was this knight?

The man…

Alexander Stewart was third eldest son of King Robert II, earl of Buchan, lord of Badenoch, and Justiciar of the North. Closely associated with the northeast highlands, he also became known as Alisdair Mor mac an Righ (Alexander the Big, son of the king). As earl and Justiciar it was his role to dispense justice, often in a necessary high-handed fashion. Though he gained a reputation for cruelty in the south, he was highly respected within his jurisdiction.

Elgin Cathedral 'The Lantern of the North'

His reputation was set over a dispute with the bishop of Elgin. Alexander’s wife, the countess of Ross remained childless, while his mistress, who he lived with at Lochindorb castle, provided him with several children. His eldest child was named after himself, later earl of Mar. The bishop refused to grant him a divorce so he could make his children legitimate. In revenge, he burnt Elgin Cathedral, along with half the town and monasteries. He was excommunicated, ordered by his brother, the king to do penance, and then forgiven.

The legend…

After Alexander's death in 1406 tales and rumours circulated about a visit to one of his bases, Ruthven Castle, by a tall man dressed in black who said he was there to play chess with the earl. After many hours playing, the unknown man called ‘checkmate’, rose from the table, when a terrible thunder and hail storm suddenly appeared. The storm cleared by the morning when the earl’s men were found outside the castle struck by lightening. The earl was found dead in the great hall with his boot nails removed, but with no mark on his body.

The storms returned during the funeral procession and only stopped when the earl’s coffin was carried at the rear. It was feared that the unknown chess player was the devil come to pay him for all the evil he had committed. Out of fear of further retribution, he was not buried locally but at far away Dunkeld Cathedral.

Dunkeld today

The setting…

Dunkeld Cathedral

The current cathedral was built during King Robert 1’s reign, about 85 years before the earl’s internment. It was largely ruined during the Reformation (c. 1560). Despite the ruins, it now appears to be little more than a small parish church. Hence, its current appearance obscures the importance this cathedral once had. Strategically important since the Romans, St. Columba established the first church here. The first King of Scots, Kenneth macAlpin, made this his capital , and generously endowed the church.

What is Chivalry?

What does the life of Alexander Stewart say about chivalry?

‘By whatever means necessary’ is not exactly a quote to describe chivalry, but it could be used to characterize the reality of the activity and behaviour of knights in the fourteenth century. For knights the reality was that whatever behaviour supported their ambition, or at least did not hinder it, was how they chose to act. Alexander Stewart was one of these knights. What he and knights like him through the centuries would do, was to shape the ideals of chivalry to suit their ambitions. Personal gain and success were what mattered most.

However, Alexander's story does tell us a few things. He was Justiciar of the North for the Crown. He had to enforce royal law on a highland culture that was unused to the customs of the south on a land that had their own traditions. Therefore, he had to adapt to their ways to enforce what passed for peace in those days. To authorities in the south, once they heard of alien methods in use by one of their own, judgement and opinion would quickly be made against him—that he had become wicked and even criminal. He was a knight, but was practicing methods outside the south’s accepted code of behaviour, which they would also regularly violate.

What most of us learn what chivalry is

Chivalry was a tool used by the nobility to separate themselves from the rest of society through unique types of behaviour. In theory, breaking this code of behaviour was considered disloyalty to the order of knighthood, but also to the natural order of the world and would be punishable by death.

It is in this light we can view the story and the legend of Alexander Stewart. If we look beneath the surface of the legend it says much about chivalry and the norms of the time. By breaking the civilised or accepted order of accepted knightly behaviour and conforming to the little understood highland culture of the fourteenth century, he had committed a great evil. Because of his situation geographically and politically, he had been placed outside of normal punishment. Therefore, the only fitting result was a visit from the devil himself.

What does the Dunkeld Cathedral effigy say about chivalry?

There are various things to look for in knight’s effigies. Pose of body, clothing styles, armor and heraldic devices, animals, symbols of authority depicted in armor makes clear that he is a knight. A lion at his feet may simply mean that he is a member of the royal family. Was a knight really expected to protect the weak and the poor? If it meant those he legally had the duty to protect, then yes. Could it be that this was simply where this rule came from? Can we answer any of these questions by examining the artifact?

Scots were seen by outsiders as poorly equipped rabble, which this and other effigys can be seen to contradict. An arming act passed by the Scottish Parliament was nearly identical to one passed by the English Parliament. It stated that anyone owning more than £10 of property must possess fairly substantial minimum standard of armor. A knight could be struck by a sword in the chest and not be wounded. Additional information like this reveals values held and aspects of the economy.

Exhibit Questions and Strategies

Challenging accepted wisdom

What does chivalry mean to you? What can knighthood mean to us when the knights we see are Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Sean Connery?

Nearly everyone has some idea of what chivalry is. It is still around us in popular culture and speech. If anything, the audience will be reminded of this and how relevant this concept is still in the 21st century?

How does modern literature accurately reflect chivalry in the 14th century? What is the difference between courtesy and chivalry? Describe how symbolism was important to medieval people and the respect the were shown after death displayed feelings towards the departed.

The challenge of displaying the artefact

Could this be best achieved by moving the artefact to the exhibit location or placing the exhibit where the artefact is? Both are problematic. Could a duplicate model be constructed or could a 3D computer model be displayed? The latter seems most likely.

Google Art Project Brings World's Art Museums to You

2011-02-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month Google launched a new online service which will allow art lovers to virtually explore hundreds of famous works found in seventeen galleries from around the world. The Google Art Project brings together some of the company’s unique technology, such as Street View that will allow visitors not only to look at various works of arts, but explore the rooms and places they are kept in. The galleries involved in the project include The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Tate Britain & The National Gallery in London, Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Klimt - 'Love'

Amit Sood, Head of Google Art Project, wrote on the Official Google Blog, “It started when a small group of us who were passionate about art got together to think about how we might use our technology to help museums make their art more accessible—not just to regular museum-goers or those fortunate to have great galleries on their doorsteps, but to a whole new set of people who might otherwise never get to see the real thing up close.”
One of the main features of this website is the ability to examine these art works in great detail. Sood explains that they were able to use “super high resolution or “gigapixel” photo-capturing technology. Each of these images contains around 7 billion pixels—that’s that’s around 1,000 times more detailed than your average digital camera.”

Lesley Bailie: A Scots Ballad - World Digital Library

2011-01-24T18:46:00.000-08:00

More for tomorrow's Burns Day. Original Burns manuscript in his own handwriting. No wonder he was popular with the ladies, writing stuff like this. For more Burns go to http://www.robertburns.org/.
Lesley Bailie: A Scots Ballad - World Digital Library
Upcoming will be my first full virtual exhibit that I'm still working on.

A Toast to Robert Burns Day - January 25

2011-01-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

Art Gallery of Alberta apologizes, changes breastfeeding policy

2011-01-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

Art Gallery of Alberta apologizes, changes breastfeeding policy

Okay, I'm going to get a bit controversial here. I saw this story last week on the news in Edmonton and came across it online again today, and I can't resist sharing my (objective and professional) opinion here. Now, I am not and I don't think anyone who makes the policies at the Art Gallery of Alberta, against public breastfeeding. As a whole, the professional museum community in Canada are a fairly liberal bunch. However, keeping food and drink away from exhibits and artifacts is a very important and usually rigorously enforced policy in just about every museum. Often this is a delicate balance when a museum as a public space is used for various purposes, such as receptions of various kinds, and teas where food is served. Still, a big effort is made to keep any food away from the artefacts. This is an extremely important policy to enforce, since as part of the public trust, the museum must protect the objects in their care from damage, which food and drink can easily cause. Even if the artefacts are not directly damaged, pests of various sorts can be attracted to the areas where they are stored or displayed. Hopefully, you will never catch a museum worker eating their lunch in a storage room.

Going back to the AGA, if another patron was eating a self-contained piece of food on the same bench as the lady had fed her baby, the same request would have been made, to take it out of the exhibit room. The management stated they had nothing against the breastfeeding, just not where food was not allowed. There are benches and chairs outside of each exhibit room where the feeding could have taken place just as easily. I really hate to say it, but this is a case where public pressure and political correctness has taken over common sense (and professional expertise), and the museum management caved into it for the sake of avoiding bad publicity. The father of the baby stated that “There should be no limitations whatsoever at the AGA when it comes to breastfeeding”. Really? So how is it that someone with no museum training whatsoever should be dictating exhibition policy? If the lighting is too dim for his eyesight on a sensitive and valuable painting, should they also turn up the lights for him, thereby causing damage to the artefact?

The response from the AGA, though caving into the demands did begin appropriately defiantly, stating, “As a professional museum dedicated to the preservation and presentation of art, the AGA must maintain policies that ensure the safety of the works of art in our care". That is where it should have ended, where the museum states their reasoning, while also stating that another area for breastfeeding within the gallery would have been more appropriate, not for modesty or anyone's standards of decorum, but solely for the purposes of preservation of the galleries collection. Let's not forget that much of the works on display in the galleries are on loan from other institutions and may be extremely valuable, so the gallery has an important trust to ensure they are sent back in the same condition in which they were received.

Is it different if a baby is being bottle fed or if a 5-year old is drinking from a juice box? Where do you stop relaxing the restrictions? The answer is that no, it should not be different. Policies must be enforced consistently and not be altered to avoid being on the wrong side of a sensitive social issue.

The Internship: The RCR Museum

2011-01-05T23:54:00.000-08:00

First, I must apologise for the delay in creating this next posting. Not only was starting a new job and Christmas a distraction, but there was some procrastination due to the complexity that this subject would involve. My internship under a great mentor, the director and curator of The Royal Canadian Regiment Museum involved such a wide range of activities that my abilities of succinctness will be stretched to the limit (not only that, but my memory, also) to cover everything I did in my short, but productive time there.

Wolseley Barracks - London ON

I did not actually realise it at the time of my arrival in London ON, but Wolseley Barracks was practically across the road from my first childhood home on Gammage Street and I could easily walk over there on my lunch breaks. I was given my own office, adjacent to the curator's. My office included the computer, the only air conditioner in the offices, and the only printer and scanner.

The desk in my office with at least 3 separate projects visible (I could have included a photo of me sitting at the desk, but I think we've all seen enough of me here already.)

Included in my ongoing projects was creating an individual exhibit file for each exhibit space in the gallery. To do this, I photographed each exhibit, created a catalogue list of each artefact, made up a number with the matte cutter to put in each case, and made up a folder for each one to go in the archives. Some of the photos I took and photoshopped are used on the museum's website to this day.


The archival folders and the matte cutter

Another project I was given right from the start was to go through a pile of old biographical files that were recently sent down from the Dept. of National Defence. I was to create an individual folder for each person and assign it an archival file number and enter each one into the computer database.
At the beginning of the internernship I was allowed to create my own display that would be a part of a larger RCR temporary external exhibit at the converted pump house building at a park downtown. Since I was already assigned a large collection to accession, that of the CO of the barracks during WWII who was also in WWI as a soldier, I took his helmet and field cap and centred the exhibit around those two artefacts. This exhibit can be seen in a previous entry on this site.

Along with various other side projects and tasks I was asked to perform, my other main project was writing and external and internal survey for the museum. Along with composing the surveys I had the internal ones set up on a table in the museum lobby with instructions for the attendants for receiving them and for the external surveys, I personally visited shopping malls and walked the streets of downtown London asking people to fill them out. Finally, when I had the required sample number of surveys filled a wrote up an analysis of the results and bound them in a fancy coil booklet.

A couple of these side projects I was asked to carry out was finding a place to have a security camera repaired and get an estimate. For this, I had to take the camera there in person, finding the business in a city that was still a bit strange to me. I was also asked to find someone who would be able to convert a commemorative RCR LP record to mp3 format. Calling all the local radio stations, I was able to find someone in a nearby town that would do it for us. On a memorably hot southern Ontario day with my mapquest printout I drove out there and sat in this man's computer room office in his house while he labouriously ran through the record on his computer.

What I saw when I looked up

After my internship ended, I continued to work there as a volunteer and assisted in a Remembrance Day external exhibit. One of the things I'll remember the most is special things apart from my actual work. For example, the museum board chairman, a retired general told me that he remembered my grandfather, who I must brag was commandant of the barracks at one point, but also said he was a great man. I could only agree, but was beyond proud when he said this to me. I'll also always remember how kindly the museum curator treated me, inviting me to his house a few times for dinner and watching movies. Even more, he took me out to lunch when we were out around the city for various reasons. I really was proud to carry out every task and project and assist the curator wherever I could. I believed this work and with the mentorship of the curator of The RCR Museum, I would be well set on the road to my museum career.

After the Interlude: My Story Continued

2010-12-13T22:05:00.000-08:00

Omen or not, driving to Peterborough from Edmonton during the week of Katrina, watching the gas prices steadily and sharply rise each day, was a minor adventure and a foot in the door of my dreams. I'll let you be the judge of whether that metaphor works. Anyway, what can I say about the Fleming College, Museum Management and Curatorship program? It was an amazingly intense program where one of the greatest lessons was in time management, with so many projects on the go, from the various courses with various project partners and project group sizes, it was still hard to believe we fit so much into and accomplished as much as we did in the months of course work and 4 month internship. We worked hard and occasionally, on the days and nights I'm able to remember, we played hard, forging some great friendships along the way. Many of us were quite sad to part company and go off to our various internships at the beginning of summer. We even had to struggle through on our own while we worked on our final exhibit installation, which was a testament to our great training, for a few weeks during an Ontario college strike.

Preparing a case borrowed from the Art Gallery of Peterborough

Mount that I helped make for our exhibit

A couple of our text panels intended to give a 1930s impression

Using to local media to publicize our exhibit

Hats for the 1920s

Our opening panel

My date for the grand opening with my 'strike beard'

My 1st foam core text panels for my mini exhibit

Anyway, the MMC program that year had 29 students enrolled and we all stuck it out to the end. After the initial few weeks we were divided in half and given an exhibit project to work on each. The one group was given 'The Italian Community of Peterborough' and allowed to use the exhibit space of the Peterborough Centenial Museum and Archives, where we had one of our classrooms away from the college and spent at least half our classroom time. The other half, which I was in, was given Sadlier House or '751 George Street' to come up with an exhibit for in nearly 8 months of planning by various committees. We made it easier on ourselves by dividing even further into 3 groups of 5 to work on 3 separate aspects of the exhibit - a little too separate, as it turned out. We met weekly as a group of 15 to share progress and ideas and to attempt a common vision for the exhibit and had rotating chairpersons for the meetings, every few weeks. I think that was my contribution, but I don't really want to take specific credit for anything we accomplished as a group.
I think that's enough writing for tonight. I'll be back in a couple of days to share the experience of my internship in London at The Royal Canadian Regiment Museum with a few photos again.

An Interjection - My Favourite Artist: Jeff deBoer "Buddha in You" Art Interview

2010-12-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

Some Background

2010-12-06T19:49:00.000-08:00

Hey, I thought I'd give a little background on my museum experience. (Not part of my CV) ---> My earliest museum memories are going to the Provincial Museum of Alberta (now Royal Alberta Museum [RAM]) and Fort Edmonton Park. Both of these I went to various times in my childhood, sometimes with my family, sometimes with a school group, and also managed to find other ways to get there. The John Janzen Nature Centre should also be included in this. I loved to get a book related to my experience and loved everything about these experiences - though most of all, I loved dinosaurs.

Years later, I was able to work two consecutive years as a volunteer at the Provincial Museum of Alberta (not yet, RAM) on a medieval exhibit, where they utilized my 'expertise' in medieval history, which was my area of concentration for my Bachelors degree in History at the University of Alberta. That was my first taste of museum work, but I was able to get some training as part of my Anthropology training, taking a course in artifact handling. Before that I had a great experience in Inverness, Scotland at their civic museum where I paid for a 3 day tour of various archaeological sites in the area, which included an extensive tour of the work and storage rooms of the museum. I felt like I was becoming a museum expert already.

My next experience was volunteering at the Marischal Museum in Aberdeen, Scotland, where I became a regular there for three years. I was even hired for a full summer as a student intern and worked 9-5, 5 days a week. That was probably my most valuable experience, where I had a great mentor in Neil Curtis, the curator. During the whole three years, he entrusted me to catalogue the museum's Scottish coin collection, dating back to the Roman Empire. During my summer internship I was part of the team that rescued the collection from an infestation of spider beetles, which was also used as an opportunity to transfer a large number of artefacts from the old storage area to the newly created one - from the tower to the basement (you can imagine the walk between each one. I was also part of a smaller team that catalogued and reorganized the painting and print collection belonging to the university - large project for a 500 year old university. Amongst the various projects I assisted and was entrusted with, partly with a team and partly on my own, I organized the museum's Egyptology collection in the new storage, setting the parameters for the records storage area.

Marischal College, home of Marischal Museum owned by The University of Aberdeen

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/marischal_museum/

With this experience behind me, upon my return home, I spent 4 years finishing the thesis that I began in Scotland, at home in Alberta. With the lag time between continents and examiners going on sabbatical during my rewrites, it took a bit longer than I expected. In the meantime, I decided a career in the museum field was exactly what I should have been doing and set about researching where to go for my training, this time within Canada, though ideally, I would have loved to have gone back to Scotland to work. I found Sir Sandford Fleming College and their Museum Management and Curatorship program and decided it would be perfect for me, with their hands on type of training and intensive 1-year postgraduate program. The 1st year I applied I was accepted, but because I was still working on my thesis, I turned them down, quite correctly realizing that I could not accomplish both at the same time. I applied again the next year, but was not accepted, since their numbers are very limited. I tried again for the 3rd time and told myself that if I wasn't accepted again, I would give up my ideas for a museum career, since it wasn't meant to be. I was accepted and at the end of August 2005 drove myself across country to move to Peterborough. I will share a few photos and describe my time there in my next post and if I haven't taken up too much space, will also describe my internship in London, Ontario with photos.

My 1st Independent Exhibit - WWI Home Front

2010-11-30T21:07:00.000-08:00

The WWI Home Front at Wolseley Barracks as installed, without the Plexiglas case


Exhibit mock-up to test final appearance

Text panels in the mock-up

Mount for the text panel

Hat mount with fabric cover

Custom made field cap mount


WWI helmet belonging to Capt. Petrie and custom mount

1st Posting! What is a Curator?

2010-11-23T15:32:00.000-08:00

[from Latin: one who cares, from cūrāre to care for, from cūra care]

1. exhibition organizer: somebody who organizes and chooses the items in an exhibition at a museum or gallery

This is the defintion that I'm choosing to go with for now.
I'll be back later when I figure out how to post multi-media here without violating copyright. We want to be all legal here now, don't we? For some fun reading, maybe I'll post the museum code of ethics.