Time goes so fast!
This was my last week working at this lovely regional museum. I have been here for 12 weeks and I really enjoyed this position. Although I have no experiences about museum education and public programs, this time I learned different skills. The internship was an excellent opportunity for my further study. Anyway, I still had a lot of works in this week.

The monthly meeting was held on Monday morning. I presented my works in detailed of the last 11 weeks, especially introduced the process of how to organize “touch-tables” programs. After that, I have a very short meeting with the museum curator and she arranged to me some final tasks. First of all, I checked out very carefully of all my paper works including “touch-tables” research report, “touch-tables” programs planning for young children and old people, educational resources of permanent exhibition, education worksheet and booklet for “touch-tables” programs etc. I have to make sure there was no spelling and grammar mistake of them. Secondly, I printed out different versions of posters and laminated them. Some posters will be pasted onto the wall in front of the museum. Others will be put into libraries, shopping centres, community centres, local schools and other museums and galleries. This was the first step to promote this education and public program. In addition, we also prepared to use other approaches includes direct mail, personal sales, advertisement and media release etc. Thirdly, I designed labels for the light table and sensory table. The label consists of picture and context. Therefore, visitors can easily catch up information through labels. Finally, I have to input the exhibition and program data into computer such as prop’s list. It can help the museum staff develop or redesign the “touch-tables” programs when I left.

I learnt a lot from the internship. It was really helpful. Hope I still can get a permanent job in the near future.

We spent two days to install a brand new exhibition last week. That was a documentary photograph exhibition. All of works were belonging to black and white photography. The theme of this exhibition was presenting a place in the wilderness. All exhibited works were collected by Brisbane artist Judy Parrott. She is a very famous female photographer and she travelled to the world’s southernmost continent on an Australian Antarctic Division Arts Fellowship in 2005. The exhibition presented the community life and extreme environment at several remote research stations of Ms Parrott. Besides a lot of black and white photography, the exhibition also displayed many found objects. Museum visitors can see a range of Antarctic items and listen to a collaged audio recording of ambient sounds, including the cracking of ice and the slicing of bitter winds etc. It was a very interesting and enjoyable exhibition. Otherwise, we also provided an informal public talk inside museum. The community residents can talk about the exhibition of “Antarctic”. They can have a cup of tea or coffee and eat some deserts through the talking. I hope all visitors can have fun here.

When I finished the installation, I was keep writing the “touch-tables” educational worksheets. During the last couple of weeks, I have completed the educational resources of our permanent exhibition and designed “touch-tables” programs for the public. However, I also got many small works to do, such as I wrote instructions of each educational booklet last Wednesday and arrange each items into the right kits of light table. After that, I have to numbering each object of “touch-tables” programs in case lost anyone. That was a big job for me. I brought plenty of objects for the visitors. And I needed to record the number on both objects and papers.

“Dress-ups” activities are very popular with people. Whatever, young children or adults like to play it. This time we are not only design different kinds of paper dress-ups activities for visitors, but also prepare to make real clothes for them. Actually, we got some clothes and hats already which local residents donated before. However, those clothes were pretty old and most of them were in tatter. Therefore, the museum curator and I decided to make new clothes for “dress-ups”. Our permanent exhibition presents the local history between the early 19th century and the early 20th century. Thus, I have to collect as many old photos as possible. And have a look what people wore during that period. After that, chose some interesting photos and sent them to dressmaker. The dress-ups clothes included women’s fashion, convict uniform, school uniform and sport uniform etc. It was really expensive for the special order. I contacted with the dressmaker and asked for a quote. There was 120 dollars for each.I also designed the other three worksheets for “touch-tables” audiences, such as home front theme, early settlers theme and local shops/businesses theme. These worksheets and educational resources were for young children from Kindergarten to 12 years old. Therefore, I must very carefully think about different questions for them. For example, I tried to introduce the local history and the exhibition object in simple languages. The educational kits were for local school’s teacher. Students can understand our exhibition and objects through these educational resources. Visitors also can learn the local plants, animals, famous residents and local businesses via these resources. I also have a formal meeting with museum curator on last Friday. We talked about all finished projects and the future plan of “touch-tables” programs. Next week, a new photography exhibition will be held in our museum. I also will join the installation job.

Our museum belongs to a small regional museum, so we only have limited money for “touch-table” programs. However, this education and public programs relate to the permanent exhibition and it covers different themes. I have to purchase a lot of objects for children and older people. How to control the budget is a huge challenge for me. I tried to compare the price of each object through internet. After that, I contacted the seller and talked about the details of these items. I finished the budget plan on last Monday and submitted it to curator. She thought I should delete some objects, because we have to spend a lot of money on dress-ups activities. Therefore, I re-wrote the budget and finally we started to purchase all objects on last Tuesday.

Because of limited budget, I deleted some items what I wanted to buy for children and older people. Thus, I went to museum storage on last Wednesday and attempted to find more useful objects for “touch-table” programs. Luckily, I found many stones, plants specimens, traditional washboard and clothes, old bottles and picnic baskets and old photos etc. I put all objects on the light table and sensory table. Then, I took photos of them, because I have to make poster of “touch-table” programs.

Besides it, I also worked at other positions last week. For example, front desk services, packing down an old exhibition and contact delivery service. Otherwise, we also got 10 kids from local primary school to join the kids club on last Friday. This was a one hour arts education and public programs for children. It divided into there parts, first twenty minutes was story time. After that, we have ten minutes for answering questions. Finally, children spent half hour walking through the museum. We explored the objects together. It was really excited to work with children, especially when I saw their smiling faces.

Program planning is very important for museum education and public program officer. A good education and public program plan can assist museum staff organise and create activities easily. I submitted the program planning to museum curator including children’s and adult’s programs. At the same time, I also discussed them with her. Our permanent exhibition attempted to present 13 themes to visitors, so the education and public programs will relate to these themes. In fact, this was a big job for me. I have to decide to purchase different kinds of items, make budget, contact with seller, design educational kit, registering and numbering items and write condition report etc. I have already ordered one light table last week for children’s program. It was delivered to our museum yesterday afternoon. I was so excited to receive it. The light table was big enough for young children. It has a smoothly white glass top. Under the top was a series of LED lights. There were six boxes in front of the table. Children can play with friends or parents on the table. And they will explore different items and finish worksheet through playing. This program will help the young visitor understand the permanent exhibition. I particularly explored aboriginal theme and natural environment theme last week. First of all, I read the exhibition panel very carefully and tried to think about some interesting activities. Secondly, I made the education kit for young visitors, such as first aboriginal resident of this area, the life of aboriginal people in this region and what plants and animals lived in this area etc. All of educational resources can help young visitors learn something from exhibition. Thirdly, I design activity worksheets and booklets. These activity materials will put into box of light table. Children can finish them through playing. For example, the activity worksheet including colour in page, find the different spots, question & answer and dress up etc. Finally, I ordered many cute and funny objects from internet for children. Hope I will receive them as soon as possible.

At present, we have a big scale permanent exhibition in this regional museum and gallery. The exhibition was divided into three parts and displayed in three rooms. The theme of the exhibition was “Living on the Water’s Edge”. It attempted to discover the history of this Region. Room one mainly introduced the early period history, aboriginal residences, natural environment and industries of the Region. Room two presented the local businesses, shops and schools of the Region. Themes of the third room talked about entertainment and multiculturalism etc of this Region. I will organise and design the education and public program for this permanent exhibition. We named it “touch-table” program. The aim of the program was assisting visitors understand the exhibition and improving their interests in museum. Although I already have some ideas of the program, I also needed to do many basic works. For example, I decided to buy a light table for children and wooden tray for adult, I will buy different kinds of items for children and adult which related the exhibition theme and the most important thing is I have to design many educational resources for them etc.The display of room three was not finished yet, so I have to assist museum staff D finish it first. We went to museum storage room on this Wednesday and collected some items, such as chemical, fossil, antique camera, traditional typewriter and so on. At the same time, I also tried to find something interesting and useful for my programs. Worked at storage room was not easy. We wore gloves to protect works. And we moved items very carefully. The air of storage room was humid and uncomfortable. Lots of items were covered by dust and grim. However, I was so excited to see different artworks and antiques in here. Besides this, I also done other works this week, such as prepared condition report with curator for a temporary exhibition, front desk services and wrote delivery information of a finished Indian culture exhibition. I will write “touch-table” program planning on next Monday and present it to curator by next Friday.

Finally, I finished the research report of “touch-table” programs by last Friday. That was really a big job. I spent nearly two weeks to do that, because I believed that a good research could help me organize the program more easily. I also had done lots of tasks this week. First of all, I submitted the hard copy of my research report to museum curator on Wednesday morning. At the same time, I still needed to give an oral presentation to her. The main aim of the presentation was introducing contents of research report and my research methods. Basically, we spent more than one hour to talk about this report. She agreed with my ideas about the “touch-table” programs and also gave me many useful suggestions about how to improve the report. For example, wrote more details to describe why set up this program for public, what was the benefit for both museum and visitors and use more quotes to support the report and so on. Through this meeting, we also talked about the next step about “touch-table”. I was really appreciated for her advices.

I went to powerhouse museum, maritime museum, and Sydney children’s museum on Thursday. The purpose of the trip was viewing their permanent exhibitions and collecting public program catalogues and educational resources. Before started to write my program planning, collected more information from other museums were essential. The “touch-table” programs belonged to a very special public and education program. It was for the permanent exhibition of this regional museum which I worked at. The permanent exhibition mainly exhibited local history and people’s life in the 19th century. The curator introduced me a lot of articles and documents which talked about local history. I have to read and understand them as soon as possible. The kids club of this Saturday was celebrating Easter Day. I prepared PowerPoint to talk WWI stories, colour in worksheets and drawing materials for children with museum volunteers. Hope children will love it. Happy Easter~~~