Week 2: History Colorado Center
Hello!
As my second week began at History Colorado Center, I got to participate in the behind the scenes action of museum work even more. Although I'm not working with exhibits or collections directly, I'm still working as part of the brain team behind an exhibit and an after school program.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was able to go to meetings. Tuesday was an a Lunch and Learn open to everyone who works at the museum where you go, eat lunch, and someone from another part of the museum teaches you about what exactly they're doing. It made me realize how valuable that communication between the different parts of a museum is. Without knowledge of what others do, it's incredibly difficult to work and find out what each side needs in order to create a successful exhibit. That Tuesday, the conversation was centered around artifacts and what goes into it artifact keeping.
Although I knew it before, I realized even more that the amount of care and dedication that HCC takes is off of the charts. The artifacts team had been given a chief's blanket (a blanket worn by Native-American chiefs) from Chief Ouray's descendants and tribe. The team had a conversation with tribal members of how they should display the blanket, the proper way to dress the mannequin (the mannequins in the exhibit all end at mid-thigh rather than at the waist like most because the Ute would portray themselves in pictographs as ending at the mid-thigh), and if they could reverse the sides to have equal amounts of fading. To actually hear about that high level of dedication was different, as well as seeing the process of making sure that they got it right.
(If you're ever in History Colorado, see the Written on the Land exhibit it's amazing).
Wednesday was my first meeting with the team working on the What's Your Spark (WYS) exhibit. There my opinions were heard and held with a value, which was something incredibly nice. We discussed how the graphics looked, words that the team working on the interactive media should use to inspire the users, and the summary of what each superpower meant and how it applied to the person that received it (there's a test that museum goers can take that gives them a "superpower" that aligns them with change-makers throughout the museum).
Continuing with the WYS your spark, I accompanied my supervisor, April, and another worker, Caite, on a trip to Pueblo on Friday (about two hours south of Denver). We met up with a program leader who works for the Pueblo Museum (a HCC associate) named Tamara. Tamara runs an amazing program called Bridging Borders which is meant for adolescent girls, bringing out their leadership qualities and teaching them about not only the world around them, but themselves. Tamara gave great insight to an after school program that would be based off of the WYS exhibit (she's also a good hugger). Afterwards, we had lunch at a spot called Bingo Burger where we spoke to a woman (who's name is escaping me right now, unfortunately) who is an expert in Socratic seminars, a former teacher (she taught at the school April attended for a few months), a leader in the Pueblo community, and the creator of an arts program for students in Pueblo.
The end of my week was satisfying and enlightening (and incredibly hot, since it was also 105 degrees in Pueblo when we went). I learned more about how programs are run and how important the work I'm doing is. I also met some pretty cool people and like Pueblo a little bit more now.
I apologize for the lack of pictures as well. I was so absorbed in what I was doing that I didn't take the time to snap a few!
Thanks for reading,
Victor <3
As my second week began at History Colorado Center, I got to participate in the behind the scenes action of museum work even more. Although I'm not working with exhibits or collections directly, I'm still working as part of the brain team behind an exhibit and an after school program.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was able to go to meetings. Tuesday was an a Lunch and Learn open to everyone who works at the museum where you go, eat lunch, and someone from another part of the museum teaches you about what exactly they're doing. It made me realize how valuable that communication between the different parts of a museum is. Without knowledge of what others do, it's incredibly difficult to work and find out what each side needs in order to create a successful exhibit. That Tuesday, the conversation was centered around artifacts and what goes into it artifact keeping.
Although I knew it before, I realized even more that the amount of care and dedication that HCC takes is off of the charts. The artifacts team had been given a chief's blanket (a blanket worn by Native-American chiefs) from Chief Ouray's descendants and tribe. The team had a conversation with tribal members of how they should display the blanket, the proper way to dress the mannequin (the mannequins in the exhibit all end at mid-thigh rather than at the waist like most because the Ute would portray themselves in pictographs as ending at the mid-thigh), and if they could reverse the sides to have equal amounts of fading. To actually hear about that high level of dedication was different, as well as seeing the process of making sure that they got it right.
(If you're ever in History Colorado, see the Written on the Land exhibit it's amazing).
Wednesday was my first meeting with the team working on the What's Your Spark (WYS) exhibit. There my opinions were heard and held with a value, which was something incredibly nice. We discussed how the graphics looked, words that the team working on the interactive media should use to inspire the users, and the summary of what each superpower meant and how it applied to the person that received it (there's a test that museum goers can take that gives them a "superpower" that aligns them with change-makers throughout the museum).
Continuing with the WYS your spark, I accompanied my supervisor, April, and another worker, Caite, on a trip to Pueblo on Friday (about two hours south of Denver). We met up with a program leader who works for the Pueblo Museum (a HCC associate) named Tamara. Tamara runs an amazing program called Bridging Borders which is meant for adolescent girls, bringing out their leadership qualities and teaching them about not only the world around them, but themselves. Tamara gave great insight to an after school program that would be based off of the WYS exhibit (she's also a good hugger). Afterwards, we had lunch at a spot called Bingo Burger where we spoke to a woman (who's name is escaping me right now, unfortunately) who is an expert in Socratic seminars, a former teacher (she taught at the school April attended for a few months), a leader in the Pueblo community, and the creator of an arts program for students in Pueblo.
The end of my week was satisfying and enlightening (and incredibly hot, since it was also 105 degrees in Pueblo when we went). I learned more about how programs are run and how important the work I'm doing is. I also met some pretty cool people and like Pueblo a little bit more now.
I apologize for the lack of pictures as well. I was so absorbed in what I was doing that I didn't take the time to snap a few!
Thanks for reading,
Victor <3
Comments
Post a Comment