The Dashiel Family Collection was immense but not exactly organized.   Taking over the Sisters’ home it was a monumental undertaking to sort and move the objects.  In a feat worthy of its own season of clean house the FPPS, with help from the Gang, eventually cleared the house.

We pick up our story again in August of 2011 with Hurricane Irene heading towardsBaltimore.  Fearful of a storm surge a group of local students from UMBC was called out to help carry the FPPS archives out of the basement and to safety on the upper levels of the museum.  Then with the storm past and the archives left in disarray the White Gloves Gang was called on to help again.

The Gang tackled two problems that day.  First, the re-organization of the archives.  Moving everything so that it was accessible, re-labeling the shelves and sorting the archives.  By the end of the day the Gang had re-arranged the archives and created an inventory list of all of the shelves.

Chris, Jenn, Jen and Robin organizing the archives

…Meanwhile in another part of the museum the rest of the Gang was hard at work re-boxing part of the museum’s textile collections which had been damaged in their brisk move from the basement.  They photographed, recorded and boxed most of the textiles, providing the FPPS with an inventory list in the process.

Heather, Motrja and Sandra

In closing the White Gloves Gang would like to express appreciation to the Fells Point Preservation Society (FPPS) for letting us play with their collections, we had a blast and hope to see you again soon!

Jen Swisko, Fire Museum of Maryland.

On the morning of October 12, eight volunteers arrived the Historical Society—and former almshouse—of Baltimore County to volunteer as part of the White Gloves Gang. Administrator Adam Youssi headed up the gang and started our day off with a tour of the 19th century building. It was fascinating to see the former quarters of the inmates, and the furniture and other items in the collection, but the greatest surprise of our tour was an intact nuclear fallout shelter in the basement, replete with cots, radios, and sealed tins of crackers from 1962!

With the help of Collections Manager Melissa Heaver, we laid out a plan for the day, including the tasks of transcriptions, photography, and preparing a group of dollhouses for display in the exhibition Dollhouses – Then and Now, hosted by the Maryland Miniaturists Unlimited, from Oct 15th-16th.

The Historical Society’s dollhouses include replicas of the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, and Baltimore County’s historic home “Ravenhurst,” among others. Many of the dollhouses were dirty, and needed dusting and vacuuming before the furniture could be re-staged. For Ravenhurst, the furniture was neatly packaged into boxes and labeled with the appropriate room. The real magic, however, was in the photographs that showed the original layout of the décor and presented clues as to what the room should look like. Rugs were “installed” first, followed by the large (3” x 5”) furniture and the dolls. Books, chessboards, vases and other tiny accessories provided the finishing touches to the dollhouse displays. My favorite item was a lovely little photo album with a metal latch, showing pages of gelatin silver print portraits inside.

Much of the work was finished by our 2 pm deadline, but some of the volunteers continued working as my classmates and I filed into the van to head back to Wilmington. We were sad to leave a few pieces of the furniture unplaced, but the day was surely as success; we met other museum professionals, got the behind-the-scenes look at a small institution, and worked directly with a collection. I think I speak for my classmate when I say that volunteering with the White Gloves Gang was a fun and truly rewarding experience. Until next year…

Heather Brown, Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.

Interns. Photo by APS Museum.

Presenting four different perspectives from the point of view of an educator, an internship supervisor, a student and an internship coordinator, the panel discussed how to strategize internships in a way that can provide value to both the institution and the intern.

I have been fortunate to have interned at several types and sizes of museums, under many different personalities.  From my perspective, I find the most important things an institution can do are organize, communicate and evaluate.

1. When considering advertising for an intern, sit down and brainstorm all of the tasks/projects they can do.  It is better to have more items than to have a bored intern.
2. Write appropriate postings.  Do not mislead an intern into thinking they will learn something they will not, or that nobody at the institution themselves knows how to do.
3. Involve us in day-to-day activities.  It is not hard to let an intern sit in on a meeting or seminar and you might be surprised at what we can learn simply by attending.
4. On the first day be clear about your expectations with the intern.  Your policies on dress, attendance, arriving late, professionalism etc.  You should also make it clear who the intern will report to.
5. Provide your intern with some form of evaluation part-way through the internship.  This lets you inform the intern of their strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to be aware of what they should improve upon.

The most important things an intern can do are communicate, be honest and evaluate.

1. When applying or interviewing for an internship, be prepared with questions and interview the museum as much they interview you.  You will be dedicating a large amount of time to the institution and you should be careful that it will be a good fit and you will gain from the internship what you hope to.
2. If you don’t like your internship part way in, are unhappy or do not feel like you are gaining what you had hoped, then just be honest.  Tell your supervisor. If they don’t know you are unhappy, then it is hard for them to remedy the situation.
3. Evaluate your internship in the same way your supervisor might evaluate you.  Is it meeting your expectations? Are you engaging in the activities you thought you would?

Pam Veebaas is an internship coordinator for the Smithsonian Institution, who has more than 1200 interns a year.  One important aspect of her job is screening internships applicants to ensure they are being chosen as candidates to learn a certain skill, not being chosen for the skills that they already have. The Smithsonian Institution defines an internship as:

“An internship at the Smithsonian Institution is a prearranged, structured learning experience that takes place within a specific time frame. The experience should be relevant to the stated academic and/or professional goals of the intern and to the disciplines represented at the Institution.”

I feel this is an excellent definition of what an internship should be and how it differs from a volunteer position.

Antonia Moser, registrar at the Newark Museum, discussed the necessity her institution has for interns and all the amazing opportunities they have to offer.  As a mid-sized institution in a difficult economy, interns have much to offer the museum and the museum in return can give the intern qualified experience in their field.

An interesting point Antonia brought up was about the difficulties sometimes had with enforcing professionalism in interns.  Often, the students are not being paid and making certain demands of their time, punctuality and dress may be daunting for supervisors.  However, internships are a study in the real life of a student’s chosen career field and they should be expected to act appropriately.  Again, communication is key: supervisors should be upfront immediately about punctuality and dress or professional expectations for students.  Supervisors should also not forget to lead by example!

Dr. Chu, department head of Museum Professions at Seton Hall University discussed the difference between an internship and a volunteer position.

Most interns are students paying to receive academic credit from their internship. Because of this, students should receive training/education equivalent to a (usually) three credit course at their home institution, which applies to their career field.

There is also the differentiation between an internship and what should be a paid position.

The U.S. Department of Labor defines six criteria for determining between these. Those criteria may be found here.

From an academic standpoint, Petra struggles with museums offering “internships” that are not providing students with qualified experience.  An institution should not offer an internship merely to get the work done because they themselves cannot complete it, or  because they themselves do not know how.

Relevant Resources

• “The Unpaid Intern, Legal or Not.” Article by Steven Greenhouse in the New York Times, April 2, 2010.
• The “resource section” of the Internactive website has a good article on internships by Lydia Johnson et al.
• The website of the Institute of Museum Ethics at Seton Hall contains a report of the 2011 AAM roundtable on internships, called “Museum Internships: Today and Tomorrow.”
• Blog post by multi-time intern turned intern supervisor Karen Bucks, May 6, 2010.
• Bruce Weinstein, “Dos and Don’ts of Unpaid Internships.” Article in Businessweek, May 2010.
• “Museum Internships as Catalysts for Change.” Paper given at the Museums and the Web conference in 2011.
• Article about the difference between internships and volunteer positions.
• Theresa Gray, “Five Tips for  Successful and Rewarding Internship Experience.” 2001. Though this article pertains to schools, it contains much useful information about museums.

• CHAIR: Lauren Silberman, American Association of Museums
• PANELISTS: Sara Gonzales, Heritage Preservation; Rebecca Massie Lane, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts; John Simmons, Museologic; Julianne Snider, Earth & Mineral Sciences Museum at Pennsylvania State University

Vennesa

As a student, the MAAM conference was far less daunting than some other conferences in the field not only because there were many seasonal professionals who were very willing to share their experiences with us “emerging professionals,” there were also multiple networking sessions on day one, including a leadership lunch, and two receptions for emerging museum professionals to meet other conference attendees.

The conference began with a plenary keynote speech by John Durel, an organisational consultant (bio here via Qm2) with over 30 years experience working in and with museums.  During the first round of breakout sessions, my classmate and I helped the MAAM staff with setting up the silent auction. It was an interesting experience and it was great to get a glimpse of the behind-the-scene side of the conference.  We also had an opportunity to network with presenters at the conference and staff members of MAAM during this “quiet time” while other attendees are in session.  As I am organising the 5^th Annual Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium at American University on April 15, 2012, during the weekend of Arts Advocacy Day, I was certainly learning lots and taking notes along the way.

After helping with the Silent Auction, we were invited to join the Leadership Lunch, during which emerging professionals were seated at tables with seasoned professionals in the field. I was very lucky to be seated at a table with Jack Rasmussen, MAAM president and director & curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center; Nina Simon of Museum 2.0 (if you don’t follow her blog already, you ought to start) and the executive director of the Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz; Laurie Baty of the National Capital Radio & TV Museum and Bill Beitel of Case[werks] and a number of other emerging professionals.  We had talking points that we followed loosely and we came out with some great conversations with insider tips, encouragement, advice and stories from experience – not what you would typically get from a networking session at a conference!  Not only we walked away with new friends, mentors and knowledge, we felt motivated and reassured that there is something past this fog of being in graduate school and working as an intern if you keep working hard for what you believe in!

The 2011 Weil Lecture featured Nina Simon, whom I had been a huge fan of but hadn’t met in person.  I won’t go into details because Dana Allen-Greil from National Museum of American History covered it in this blog here.

The last events we were able to go to before our train left were two receptions – one at the hotel where the conference was held, and one at Urbanite@Case[werks] in Baltimore’s Station North Arts District.  Both were fantastic and I had some really great conversations with professionals from the region. I had to leave

I know I will be keeping an eye out for the next MAAM meeting – I have got lots to learn and certainly look forward to more of the creative programming by MAAM. Hope to see you all next year!

Vennesa Yung (@vennesa), born and raised in Hong Kong, is currently working towards her MA in Arts Management at American University in Washington, D.C.  She is the assistant public relations coordinator and social media manager for American University Arts (@AUArtsDC) and a public affairs and marketing intern at Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (@FreerSackler). She also does work in event planning, consulting, marketing strategy (with a focus on online media), and graphic design.

Photo by pml2008

On Tuesday morning I wandered into the session on the role of interpretation in the master plan of a historic site. I knew little about the two huge 19^th Century stone sites—the Fort Monroe Authority on Virginia’s coast and Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. I learned each has its own unique challenges.

Eastern State is a stabilized ruin, a huge structure that was abandoned in 1971. The museum had to choose what stories to tell and then decide which cells to restore that tell those tales. Sean Kelley, head of the site, told the group that he is now working on incorporating current day issues into the sites tours. Not an easy task!

Eastern State is on the road to developing a strong interpretative plan. The Fort Monroe Authority is really just beginning. The site is a de-commissioned Army base on the coast of Virginia. When Shawn Halifax from the Authority showed us a slide with a list of the stakeholders for this site, I gasped. They ranged from Hampton Institute, a historically black institution, to the Daughters of the Confederacy! Not only that but the board of the site is comprised of political appointees from the Commonwealth of Virginia. That group changed completely from Democrats to Republicans shortly before the Authority was to present its interpretative plans. Add to that some of the historic facts—this site is where slaves were first brought into this country and where Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy was imprisoned after the Civil War. This is only a small part of the story Fort Monroe has to tell!

This session was incredibly interesting since representatives of both sites gave us a clear picture of the issues they must wrestle with every day in developing a coherent plan that will guide interpretation of their sites into the 21st century, more than a hundred years after each of these monolithic buildings was constructed.

Nadine Stewart, 2011 Bruce Craig Fellow, Ellis Island Immigration Museum