Ever since I can remember, museums have aroused a passion in me. Learning about the way other cultures live, which is why I entered Anthropology, and seeing right there in front of me relics from ancient and contemporary peoples, it all drew me toward museum work. This is my overall career goal, to become a museum curator.
Interning at the museum was a day-to-day learning experience. My duties varied from simple administrative tasks, to writing wall chats that accompany an object in an exhibit. Shadowing a professional curator gave me a real taste of how multifaceted curation work really is, the key being flexibility. Although no two days were ever alike, Mrs. Fullerton assigned two exhibitions as my primary concerns: Volkskunst, and Corazon de Pueblo.
My small part in this particular giant puzzle was to assist with the editing and writing of the labels that would narrate the story of the collection. An audience likely pays no mind to the different types of wall inscriptions, simply reading the words placed in front of them to understand the collection, but there are different divisions of wall labels that accompany every exhibition, established somewhere along the way as the best method for chronicling a collection. When I first heard terms like “tombstone”, “chat label or “wall text”, I did not understand the difference between them. Bearing this in mind it is important to establish the separate divisions of information that accompany an exhibit. The first text a visitor usually sees is the “title wall” and “title text”. The title wall contains the title of the collection and usually the signature piece of the whole collection, often used as a symbol in advertising for the exhibit. The title text is a principal summary of the entire exhibit and gives an overall background to the collection. Beyond the title text, the exhibit is further divided into subcategories, each having their own “wall text”. The wall text highlights the cohesiveness of the subcategory, identifying it as a faction within the entire collection. The subgroups are made up of individual pieces and each of these has a “tombstone”. The tombstone gives basic information about the object, usually date of origin, place of origin, materials used and maker. Along with the tombstone, some signature pieces within each subcategory receive their own “chat label”. The chat label provides additional information about an object and the reason that it stands out in the collection. Together all of the textual pieces unfold the story a museum collection aims to chronicle.
My other significant contribution as an intern was to a possible future exhibit tentatively titled, Corazon Del Pueblo: 100 Masterpieces of Rockefeller Latin American Folk Art. However, the collection intends to be a large and is expected to travel across the nation and possibly, to other countries, meaning the exhibit will take years to cultivate. The object list was my priority. Mrs. Fullerton and SAMA’s director and official Latin American curator, Dr. Marion Oettinger, settled on a preliminary object list for the collection. I was given this list and assigned the task of organizing, scanning images of the pieces, and, along with Mrs. Fullerton and Dr. Oettinger, extracting the proposed pieces from the permanent collection for photographing and visualizing.
Following the completion of the object list, I began extracting the pieces from storage. I assisted Mrs. Fullerton in finding and taking down the objects to place them together in the provisional categories that would guide the flow of the collection. Once the pieces were aligned, we discussed possible changes and additions to the collection, based on the objects’ condition and relevance to the exhibition. Dr. Oettinger and Mrs. Fullerton deliberated and eventually settled on certain signature pieces to photograph for the grant proposal.
Providing the observer a small insight into the soul of a collection is the passion of museums and their curators. After breaking it down to the bare bones, all that I can hope for is to one day, manage this exhibition finesse as well as all of the curators that I had the pleasure of working with at SAMA.