This week, I did a little bit of everything! The big gala to commemorate the museum’s opening is on Saturday and boy, oh boy, is everyone stressed. The museum opens on Tuesday and there are still construction workers around!
On Tuesday, I mostly still worked on cataloguing the Candy Shop collections. I’m up to 2011.7.225! But I’m also noticing I did all the easily categorized items first, so now all the items I’m working on take a longer time to catalogue, especially when trying to find the appropriate Lexicon classification. It looks like Chris has another intern working on the same project last week, as well, and I can tell we have different ways of doing things because I spent a good amount of time cleaning up after this intern. There were a lot of misspellings in the records and he spelled “Permanent Exhibit” like “Perminent Exibit.” Hmmmmm…
In addition to working on my normal project, I also helped Chris and Bethany (the curator) set up the exhibits. I did a lot of cleaning, which wasn’t the most fun project, but I’m an intern and it’s part of the gig, right? The exhibit it coming together nicely. Since the museum is just opening, and is kind of under a 2-year plan to become fully functional, the exhibit purposely looks like it’s under construction, to show the public how the museum came together. Remember, NHM used to be a tiny cultural center that occupied a single floor in an office building. It has a LOT of work to do in the next few years, but the building and collections are seriously impressive.
I’m also getting to know the other staff a little better. The museum staff is very small and most of it has been hired in the last 2 or 3 months. Toula and Stephanie are the higher-ups who work in the administrative offices. Then there is Naomi, who is the membership coordinator. Hannah, who is really awesome, is the office assistant and does a little bit of everything. Elise is the education coordinator, and once the museum opens, will be in charge of coordinating educational activities for children and adults. Bethany is the curator and then Chris is the Collections Manager/Registrar. Everyone is incredibly nice, but stressed, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know them. Chris, Hannah & I have become a little group. We eat lunch together and joke around and stuff, which makes me feel appreciated and part of the small staff. It’s really nice!
I’m anxious to get back to work next week to see how the Gala went. 750 people RSVP’d and it’s taking place at a huge venue in Millennium Park, so it should be quite the production!
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