Re: Information &
suggestions
Hi.
My name is Amy Read. I will be graduating in May with a BA is
Art (focus of
Art History) and a Studio Arts minor. I have a year experience
working as a
gallery assitant in the college gallery. During this semester, I
have been
working as the gallery manager of the assistants and as the assistant
to the
curator. I am interested in finding a museum position in the
Phoenix,
Arizona area or Portland, Maine area. is there anyone who could
give me
some guidance in this matter?
Amy
=================
Oct 11, 2001
Amy,
A year ago I answered a question rather like yours. I'm
printing it again below, in its entirety, in hopes it might be of some
use. Good luck.
-Jim
>>Hello
everyone.
>>I am finishing my masters thesis in October. Recently, I
applied for a
>job
>>at a museum and did not even get an interview. I would like to
know if anyone has advice on how to get my foot in the door. Over and
over again
>I
>>have heard that you have to know somebody. However, I do not
want to get
>a
>>job this way. Does anyone have advice? Thank you
>>Christian Trabue
>>[log in to unmask]
===========
"...>There is a regular check list of suggestions on this list
which has
>included:
>1) volunteering in your local museum to get personally known and
build experience..."
(From Roger Smith)
===========
Sept 7, 2000
Christian,
I believe Roger has given you some good ideas, of which I only copied
the one above.
I heartily second the suggestion you volunteer at a museum where you
are considering applying for a paid position. There are several
reasons:
1) You will meet and get to know the people you will be working with,
and
2) They will get to know you as well. If you are pleasant and
competent it will be noticed.
3) After a while you may find that, egads, you wouldn't work there if
they paid you :-). You may not like the people, the work, or some
little thing you don't know yet even exists. You may even discover
that the museum field is not for you. It happened to me once (not in
the museum field), much to my surprise.
4) You will know the ins and outs of the place and hopefully will be
able to learn something about the workings of several departments.
Perhaps one dept. will appeal to you more than the others. (Granted, a
job in that dept. may not open up, but if you're in another job in the
museum when one does, maybe you can transfer into it.)
5) When you say you don't want a job just because you know someone, I
think you're saying you don't want the job because you're the bosses
son (or some such). Right? Volunteering is another way to know someone
- a highly honorable way. The director will know you and your work.
Obviously I can't speak for anyone else, but if I was the director and
had a job opening, the first place I'd look would be to the people I
knew both as a person and as a worker. Of course you have to make it
known that if a position opens up, you would like to be considered for
the job. It wouldn't do at all for them to think you loved working the
midnight to 8am shift at Sleezie's Fast Foods.
Here's another suggestion. Look around for some project that no one
there can do, and learn how to do it well. You may become a very
highly valued member of the volunteer staff. And you can bet it will
look good in the director's eyes.
For example, now that I'm retired I volunteer at two museums, the
Moffett Field Museum and the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto,
Calif. Because in my previous profession - 25 years as a full-time
dealer in historical newspapers - I have done a fair amount of
deacidification and encapsulation work at Moffett Field, as well a
setting up a rather extensive display of old newspapers dealing with
dirigibles and flight. At the moment I'm the only one there able to do
those things.
In addition, Moffett Field had an old and incomplete dogtag-making
machine that no one could work. I restored it from the parts of an old
typewriter and taught myself how to work it. Then I hunted all over
creation trying to find a supply of dogtag blanks. But it paid off. At
the 1999 Air Show at Moffett myself and two other volunteers I trained
made (and sold at a good profit for the Museum) over 400
dogtags.
And, at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, Calif., earlier
this year we had a .50-caliber machine-gun on display and someone
messed with it. I was the only one around who knew how to put it
together again. It was a little thing, perhaps, but little things add
up.
So volunteer and make your self highly valuable to the museum. All
else being equal, I'd say you would have a whale of an advantage over
someone else applying for the job you want.
Hope this has been of some help.
-Jim