This week was quite busy. I did front desk from 10am to 1pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Because I have no previous experience with front desk job, so the museum provided me a quickly training. Somebody may think front desk is a simple job, however, I believed that it is a serious matter. I have to introduce the permanent, temporary exhibitions to the visitor, answer their questions and take notes etc. Some useful tips for answering calls: telephone calls received at the museum & gallery should be answered as quickly and efficiently as possible; answer incoming calls as follows – “Hello XX museum & gallery, this is (stating your first name clearly) how can I help you?”; unanswered calls should divert to another member of staff or to voice mail; staff making outgoing calls should identify themselves by name and section, as appropriate, and should clearly outline the purpose of the call.

In addition, I also assisted the local female artist to install her artworks on Wednesday afternoon. She is a nice person and also interested in art administration area. We talked about lots of art administration issues with each other. Especially she concerned the relationship between artist and curator. We believed that some matters should be improved, such as artist and curator need more communication, curator should understand the creative background of artist and so on. She exhibited more than forty works this time, including charcoal drawing and black-white photographs from small size to large size. We spent the whole afternoon to install these works. This was a complex process. Measure height and width of the wall, calculate distance between each work, test the temperature and humid level of room, use different lightings and display artworks by theme etc. We also put two desks and several chairs in central of the room. Visitors can look those albums and write feedback to the artist. I was so happy to do this. Hope I can have more opportunities to install exhibitions in the near future.

Our museum is run by the local city council, as an important cultural department to collect, preserve and exhibit works related history and heritage of this regional area. Basically, all collect materials will be used in permanent and temporary exhibitions. The museum also provides lots of activities for the local community and residents, such as interesting education and public programs and some special events. During the last two weeks, we organised and launched education programs for primary and secondary schools. This week my job was learning how to collect objects. Currently, the museum staffs are preparing a new exhibition for visitors. This exhibition explores the different experiences of men, women and children who lived in this regional area between 1930s and 1940s. Therefore, we have to collect different objects and photographs. All of them should present the stories and history of local communities. Although we can find some books and photographs in national library and local library, we also need more artefacts to show people’s everyday life, for example, dress, home ware and so on. Because the exhibition will be focused around four main themes, so objects could relate to any of the themes.

Last week was a very busy week. First of all, we wrote an exhibition report. This report outlined the main purpose and content of the new exhibition. At the same time, it also listed some available items for the exhibition. After that, we designed poster “call for objects and photographs for the new exhibition”. These posters will be shown at different places, including museums & galleries, libraries, community centre, schools and shopping centre etc. Finally, we made donation form and receipt form for the new exhibition. Besides these, we still sorted many previous donation forms. Last Friday, I also worked with volunteers to pack down the Indian culture exhibition.

P.S. A new exhibition will be displayed at the main gallery next week. Hope I can find something interesting.

The first week of my internship was research week. Before started to think about the “touch-table” programs, I have to do a lot of research works. What is “touch-table” program? Why present “touch-table” at this regional museum & gallery? What are the benefits of “touch-table” programs for both museums and visitors? Many different questions appeared in my mind. Besides collected relative information by myself in city library, I still joined the monthly meeting with the other staff on Wednesday morning.

The meeting was lasted for nearly three hours. Everyone reported their previous jobs and the coming planning. For example, exhibition schedule in 2009/2010, details of artworks’ delivery and installation. We spent a lot of time talking and making the new customer service guidelines for city museum & gallery, library and community center. In my opinion, good customer service guidelines are really important for every art museum and gallery, whatever the main museums or small regional museums. Some objectives of this new guideline are ensure that our museum & gallery resources are used efficiently and effectively when dealing with clients, ensure that all our clients are treated fairly and with respect, provide staff with a guide on appropriate ways to demonstrate excellent and efficient customer service and so on. As one staff of this regional museum & gallery, I have to learn and understand the customer service guidelines very carefully and try to provide a professional and efficient service at all times. Some useful instructions such as keep smiling, listen to what clients have to say, explain all reasons why you are unable to fulfill a request, suggest relevant courses of action for clients to follow and refer complex enquiries to the relevant subject expert etc. I believe that every art organization will have different customer service guidelines. Any good recommendations for customer service guidelines?

I worked as the exhibitions and programs organizer in this city museum & gallery. The curator asked me to do a brand new project. My responsibility was to improve visitor interaction with exhibitions at this regional museum & gallery through the development and installation of “touch-tables”. The “touch-tables” programs especially for young children and old people who with disabilities. I worked three days per week and eight hours per day in this museum.
In the next three month, I have to finish different kinds of tasks. For instance, Research the benefits and challenges of installing “touch-tables” in this regional museums and galleries. At the same time, I also need to develop an exhibition brief for the creation of a “touch-table” in museum’s permanent exhibition. Source quotes for potential objects and resources for the “touch-tables” are also important. After that, I will create and install “touch-tables” in the permanent exhibition. Finally, I will develop procedures for the creation and installation of “touch-tables” for permanent and some temporary exhibitions at this regional museum and gallery. If I have enough time, I will develop additional education resources for the museum’s exhibitions.
During this period, I also have to practice some other skills as part of my internship, including object handling, preparing new exhibitions, artefact research, developing museum procedures, customer services, front desk, storage management, networking with staff and volunteers from a range of museums and galleries etc. This is an excellent opportunity for me to improve my art knowledge and gain more work experiences.
About my internship, I will directly report to the museum curator. Moreover, I also will meet with the museum curator and manager on a regular basis to discuss work progress. At the same time, I also need to join the museum staff monthly planning meeting and produce planning reports to the curator.