Journal 5: Tasks/Assignments and Educational Implications

As I have mentioned before, most of my tasks involve research and/or organization. I also photograph some events and have opportunities to offer input on designs for invitations and brochures, though these are not everyday assignments. I feel that I am more proficient in completing the normal tasks than I was at the start of the semester and learn a lot about how a non-profit organization (specifically a museum) works. I have not gained a large amount of new skills, mainly because I have mostly been using previous skills, including some from classes I have taken.

One of my first assignments was updating the online calendar with many of the events for this year (available at www.higgins.org/calendar). Though this was not difficult to learn or accomplish, it was a necessary task since it allows the public to see what is going on at the Museum.

Several of my other tasks involved doing online research for specific businesses and related information, such as contact addresses. For example, a few weeks ago Joanne, who takes care of rentals and some events, suggested I look for New England breweries for the September Festival of Ale. I began this task but did not find a large amount of information at the time. Last week, Joanne asked me to return to it and I had much better luck, finding some breweries that were not yet on her list. As I became more familiar with craft beer and breweries, associated events and organizations, I could better complete the task.

Scimitars to Samurai: Armor Goes Global

Like I mentioned in my previous post, my friend Chris and I photographed the exhibit opening last Saturday. There wasn't as many people there as I had hoped, but it was definitely interesting and enjoyable.
Here is a quick overview of some of the day's events:

Nancy did a presentation about Queen Zenobia of Palmyra

In this area, visitors could examine things from the cultures represented in the exhibit, such as samurai armor, a Persian hand shield, and spear heads.

Finally, here are a few photos from the demonstrations of Japanese fighting/sword techniques, performed by Doshi–Kai Kendo Dojo.

Journal 4: Preliminary Evaluation of Internship Experience

Think seriously about your internship performance thus far. Reflect on the items below and use them to help clarify areas of strength and weakness so that you may improve the outcome of your internship.

1) Intern's Name: Malgorzata Malkowska
2) Internship Firm/Organization: Higgins Armory Museum
3) This internship provides me with an adequate learning experience for my background.
Somewhat. I am learning many things, but they are often unrelated to my background experience. For example, I am definitely learning about the workings of a museum and about arms and armor, but my background is in theatre, photography, graphic design, and communication in general. I have opportunities coming up to shoot more photos, but have not had a chance to do any design, public speaking, or other things I studied. I have mostly done research, and organizational tasks such as making lists of events, calendars, etc.
4) My mentor at this organization understands my goals and objectives.
Yes, I believe she does. For example, she supports my desire to practice shooting photos and has suggested opportunities for it.
5) I did adequate preparation investigating the sponsoring organization and level of placement before accepting this position.
Yes, I researched the Museum and spoke with the director to find out what the position would involve. I understood going in that I would complete tasks concerning events, the Higgins' website, and marketing as necessary instead of having a specific job description with things I would always handle.

Week of February 28th

I realize I haven't said much about what I've been doing at the Museum on a daily basis. I've also been thinking I could do more in the time that I'm there each week. Of course after I thought that, I had plenty to do. Here are some of the things I worked on this week:

Scimitars to Samurai: Armor Goes Global is a new exhibit opening this Saturday. There is also a reception during the week (by invitation). Joanne, who deals with event rentals and organizing some Museum events, asked me to find songs from the countries represented in the exhibit to use as background music for this reception. Looking for traditional music from each country (that was actually available on itunes) was pretty interesting. I ended up with African drum music and some Persian songs. (Joanne had some from Japan already, and Suzanne added a bit from India, I believe).
This is one piece Joanne and I enjoyed: Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion

Libbie (PR, memberships, etc.) also had a task for me. She had a stack of a few dozen letters concerning donations. These need to be looked through and entered into a spreadsheet to make the contact and donation information in them more manageable. This is a pretty large task, which I will continue next week.

While I was working on the spreadsheet, Suzanne informed us that some images had been copied without citing the sources, and the curatorial department could use help looking through books to find the originals. I was asked to help, but unfortunately could not since it was the end of my day. Hopefully the images have been or will be found soon.

Finally to finish the week, I will be photographing the exhibit opening with my friend Chris Hoey, who is volunteering his photography. There will be some cultural presentations going on during the day we'll be sure to capture, including Japanese sword technique presentations. It should be a great time!