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~~~