{"id":9844,"date":"2019-08-30T11:43:01","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T18:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=9844"},"modified":"2019-11-25T14:46:07","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T22:46:07","slug":"getting-schooled-in-museum-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=9844","title":{"rendered":"Getting Schooled in Museum Education"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Art, Design & Architecture Museum student interns strike a pose. Courtesy UCSB Art, Design & Architecture Museum.<\/p><\/div>\n

Interns at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum earn academic credit and valuable experience<\/h3>\n

By Leslie Dinaberg<\/a>
\nWednesday, August 28, 2019 – 06:00 Santa Barbara, CA<\/p>\n

When this year\u2019s cohort of interns take their place at UC Santa Barbara\u2019s Art, Design & Architecture Museum (AD&A Museum)<\/a>, they\u2019ll have the opportunity not only to add valuable skills to their own resumes, but also serve to the University and the broader Santa Barbara community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are contributing to the development of the museum field by fostering future professionals,\u201d said Elyse Gonzales<\/a>, AD&A Museum\u2019s acting director. \u201cI also see the internship program, and all of our efforts really, as a means of developing future museum visitors, members, and donors for our museum and all museums in general. Our goals for the undergraduate internship program at the AD&A Museum are quite ambitious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Internships for academic credit are offered in the curatorial, collections management, archival management, programs\/events, education outreach and public relations departments of the AD&A Museum. The museum also offers collaborative internships with the University Library<\/a>\u2019s special collections department; the Santa Barbara Museum of Art<\/a>, where interns serve as gallery guides for students in grades six through 12; and with online platform impactmania \u2014 in collaboration with the Neuroscience Research Institute, Department of Religious Studies and global partners \u2014 where interns work to deliver a suite of interviews, interactive presentations, and events related to the topic \u201cHuman Mind and Migration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI approach all of our UCSB students \u2014 really all students \u2014 who come to the museum the same way, with a warm welcome, emphasizing that the museum is for them,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cIf we can get them to visit while they are at UCSB, give them a positive experience and help them understand that the museum is not an intimidating place \u2014 this is not a place that is about exclusion, it\u2019s about inclusion \u2014 then you\u2019ve hooked a museum-goer for the rest of their life.<\/p>\n

The more we can reach out to and engage younger generations, the better we are going to be in the long run. And when I say \u2018we\u2019 I mean the AD&A Museum, but also museums in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzales credits much of the vision for the internship program to Bruce Robertson<\/a>, the recently retired museum director. \u201cStudies reveal that most museum professionals and others in the arts became interested in these fields because they had a pivotal moment with an object or a formative creative experience. Knowing that, and with education as the imperative of the entire university, we immediately understood that we could make a significant contribution to our field,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cBut, also the reality of our situation is that we have a lot of tasks, projects, and events that need to be executed and managed and loads of ambitions to do even more. Knowing this, it became clear that working with students would not only help them but help us achieve our goals and mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Focused on professional development, the resulting program pairs students with employees at the museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students have been great to work with \u2014 they are excited to learn new things, go \u2018behind the scenes\u2019 at the museum, and are able to explore possible career paths,\u201d said Architecture and Design Collection Reference Archivist Julia Larson<\/a>. \u201cThe students are eager to come in for their intern shifts because they are working on concrete projects \u2014 putting materials in folders, organizing and labelling collections, assisting with cataloging which they can cite as examples of work projects for future jobs or grad school. They also ask a lot of good questions and force me to think through my work and how best to explain things.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe students learn how to process archival collections,\u201d she added, \u201cwhich is very hands-on work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Susan Lucke<\/a>, collections manager and registrar, \u201cWe rely on our interns so much. They’re just not doing entry-level work. They actually get to do work that I would do. We need the help, and they gain a lot of experience and that\u2019s so useful when they start to look for a job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s helpful for kids to look at all their options in school and this is a really a good program,\u201d Lucke continued. \u201cIt\u2019s not like sitting in a classroom with 300 other kids. It’s more of an intimate experience, and students get a lot of one-on-one attention plus it enables them to look at another side of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

AD&A Museum interns have gone on to graduate school; the Peace Corps; and to careers at many different kinds of museums, including the Smithsonian, the Peterson Automotive Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara<\/a> and the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n

For-credit internships are open to undergraduates in all majors. \u201cWe find that many of our interns love art and architecture but also feel like they need to have a degree in something else, something they perceive as being more stable,\u201d said Gonzales.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impetus behind this internship program is primarily to help give students professional experiences but also to help alleviate student and parental concerns about future career opportunities,\u201d she added. \u201cIn addition, one of my goals is to help reflect the diversity of our campus and to create opportunities to diversify the field for future museum leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

What she feels most proud about the internship program is that when students leave, they have concrete real- world experiences they can put on a resume and several individuals willing to give them a great reference. \u201cA really smart and committed intern can do wonders,\u201d Gonzales noted. \u201cWe should know, our museum wouldn\u2019t function half so well without their terrific help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published in The Current<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(UCSB) on August 28, 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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