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~~~

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?