For those of you who know me well, you know I like to keep myself busy. Graduation was on Saturday, May 5th and I was already back to work on Monday, May 7th. But no complaints…I am fortunate to be gainfully employed at the Evansville Museum.
Between May and August of 2012, I stepped in as the Acting Registrar while the Museum Registrar was on maternity leave. During those months, in addition to my duties as Staff Assistant, I also took on the Registrar’s responsibilities. I organized paperwork related to loans and gifts, monitored the museum’s collection storages, oversaw the museum’s re-housing project, managed the entries and advertisements of the museum’s Annual Mid-States Art Juried Exhibition, coordinated shipping arrangements for three art exhibitions, and installed five art exhibits and one history exhibit. The list goes on and on.
When the Registrar returned from maternity leave, I resumed my position as the Staff Assistant. My duties mainly lie within the Curatorial Department, but occasionally I get called to the Education Department and the Marketing and Development Department (hence my title). I enjoy my job immensely because every day is a little different - one day I will be traveling to a location to pick up art loans, another day I will be vacuuming textiles, and other days I will be installing exhibits. However, the re-housing project is my favorite task. Since the completion of our new collection storage facility, we have been meticulously going through every object, making sure that they are properly numbered and documented. In doing so, I get to research about the objects and custom made archival storage boxes.
Besides staying busy at the museum, I am also keeping up with my study of collection management. I am currently attending a series of online courses about the preservation of archival and historical collections called Caring for Yesterday’s Treasures – Today through the Heritage Preservation: The National Institute of Conservation.
I certainly enjoy life after graduation. It is great not having to go to class every day, do homework or study for exams. And it is even better that at the end of the day I can just kick back and be a couch potato. But all jokes aside, in October of last year, it suddenly dawned on me one day that this is all there is to life as an adult: you go to work, get home, eat, sleep, and you go to work again the next day. I was not impressed by that thought at all. So I decided to pick up a hobby. Right now I am working on crocheting scarves, throws, hats, doilies, etc. It keeps me occupied and I love it. I guess what I am trying to say is; don’t stop learning just because you are out of school. There are many things out there to learn and do. You might surprise yourself with what you can accomplish.
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