Maitland A&H Summer Blog Entry 11

 The final stretch is here, the second to last week. This week was the week that I wore multiple hats. When I arrived at Maitland A&H, Katty directed me to help the other interns working on making a permanent exhibit. From this, I had to take off my Archivist hat and put on my curator hat, and the difference was night and day. Instead of just working on protecting the artifacts, I was now in charge of trying to use them to use the artifacts and make an exhibit for guests to see them view them. I was excited because my focus in building the permanent exhibition was to focus on the cold war.  

While this is technically a secret, and the public is not supposed to know right now, Maitland's plan for their cold war exhibit is to make the room an underground bunker theme. The group of interns and I were tasked to figure out what the room would look like and what would be in the room. When we visited the room, the room was a perfect fit for a space that is supposed to feel cramped and dark. The room is a small dark room used as a video viewing room. Walking in with three people felt a little cramped. I noticed that the only light in the room was dim as well. These two elements were enough to make the room feel like an underground bomb shelter. The first idea that came to me was that the light in the room needs to be a flickering light bulb to give the room an eerie feel.

I thought it would also be best to show off some of the museum's provisions in their archive, such as canned food and water. Michelle, who had some museum experience, said that a perfect idea to ask the Smithsonian to see if they could provide a photo of the inside of a civilian bunker and fill one wall with the image to see what it was like to be inside. It was also suggested to fill the room with other items such as sleeping cots. Talking with Dan Hess, the Chief curator for Maitland, he loved all of our ideas. From what I learned, Dan has worked in the top well-known museums in New York. He was delighted that we were providing ideas that professionals would produce. What he was pleased to see was that we were thinking big scale and not limiting to our limitations. Dan told us that when working with the master curators, they don't start with their limitations; they think big and work backward.

Overall, seeing the curator's perspective was one that I was glad to have experienced. It was a great introduction to being a curator. I know that it was just a snip and that there is still a lot to the job, but knowing that there is a fun part to the job and being creative gave me hope that this was the path I wanted to take part in for the future.

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