I wish I had something better for conversation starting here besides just the very sad fact that so many museums and galleries closing or downsizing. There are so many lost jobs.

Hello all! I am a recent graduate in history and museum studies and I recently got my first fulltime job at a museum. It is a children's museum that is focused on STEM and the Director of Operations has been helping me further develop skills, and her most recent task has been for me to put together an exhibition proposal for a new food truck theme (we have a little play food truck for kids and we swap out the props in it every four months or so). I was doing some research on how to put together a good research proposal and I think the outline I have so far is decent but I'm wondering if anyone here has some good tips for me to really make this proposal shine. I'm not writing a grant, I'm just proposing an exhibit to the Executive Director and if she likes it she will find funding for it. I want to go above and beyond! (they all want me to use chatgpt so I want to make this HUMAN WRITTEN proposal as good as HUMANLY possible)

I am a Registrar reviewing our policies regarding security and access.

Who at your institution has access to locked storage areas?

Who at your institution physically handles collection objects?

Before I get things started, I am pretty heated right about now. So, take that as you will. As we all know, hiring is stuck in the mud right now. Not enough jobs to go around and way too many applicants. But a few weeks ago, I thought I had found my way to a new, permanent job.

For the last three years I have been working seasonal, federal museum jobs ever since I graduated from my master's program. I have about four years of experience now primarily in collections and curation. I've loved all of the places I worked at and interned at, but man I am sick of working temporary jobs. I have great experience! Multiple internships at world class institutions, multiple years of federal service, good contacts throughout the industry, surely this was my turn, right?

Two jobs were posted at institutions where I had contacts in. The first one was to be a permanent registrar requiring 3-5 years of experience. Sounds like me! I emailed one of my friends who is a manager at this institution, and they sent a referral to HR. I even had a to fill out a form acknowledging I had received this referral. I never got an interview, just am auto-rejection email a month later. It's a shame, but I'll move on.

The second position is what really has made me blow a gasket. This job was again, to be permanent registrar at a world-famous museum. My in: I had interned at this museum! In the very department that was hiring out for this role. I took out all the stops and received three referrals for the position. This included a referral from my old internship manager and two coworkers who were happy to help. I really thought that I would at least get an interview. Wishful thinking.

I just received a rejection email in my inbox 20 minutes ago and I am just about ready to lose it. What's the point of networking if I can't even get an interview with how much time I invest into networking? Frankly, I feel like an enormous failure and wish I had not chosen this field sometimes, despite how much I may love it. Rant over. Thanks for reading.

Hi all! My museum correctly has so system for getting photo releases when we have photoshoots that we use for marketing. We put up a sign letting people know, and a system for allowing them to opt out. However, we’d like to start using releases for anything that goes into paid advertising or anything with minors. We have a release form but are struggling with logistics. I’d love to hear from anyone else who deals with this.

Who hands out releases? How do you upload or store them? How do you match release to person or photo?

I'm currently applying to administrative assistant/executive assistant roles outside the field, and while all my past roles have had administrative duties, I'm currently a registrar for a gallery. I've altered my resume to play up my admin work, but I'm wondering if I should remove my master's degree, particularly for jobs that emphasize a high school or bachelor's degree. Has anyone had any luck with removing degrees to get a job?

I'm looking for written onboarding procedures for museum volunteers. Right now my museum does a basic intro/orientation then just kind of throws volunteers to the wolves (find what you like to do and start doing it!). We need to ease their transition into the system.

Thanks!

Hello! I am sorry if this isn’t the right place to ask but I figured i would come right to my inspirations.

So my partner works outside and in rivers a lot and he finds old pieces of pottery sometimes and brings them home and I want to find a way to display them on the wall so they look like they’re floating, or maybe there is a little metal holding it from the bottom.

Is there anywhere to get this online? I tried searching but it looks like what the museums use is super custom. Any advice is so appreciated!

I love visiting museums and would like to meet other adults who enjoy them too! Looking for a museum buddy or small group interested in exploring museums throughout Pennsylvania, taking road trips to other states, and even traveling abroad to visit museums in different countries when feasible. Genuine people only, please no bots, spam, or scams. Anyone interested?

Toledo Ohio.

Would like thoughts on how to improve the museum. It’s already pretty good and most people are surprised by how good it is since Most people don’t appreciate the mail enough. I think the whole thing could be even better though.

1. I need to see the mail sorter machine in action. The museum is literally attached to a post office. Make a glass window so people can look in and see what a typical day looks like.
   
2. Make your own postcard or letter and you get one stamp to send - kids don’t know how to write letters anymore and this could change a generation of mail writers
   
3. A little exhibit on chain mail. I used to be in some cool ones growing up where we would send stickers to the next person in the chain.
   
4. Postcards through the years exhibit. There is a museum in Antibes France dedicated to the postcard and it is actually extremely interesting.
   
5. Vintage mail bags through the years and also try to lift a mail bag (they’re heavy when full) and also examples of mail routes that mailmen walk daily.

Steel from the World Trade Center has spread to every corner of the U.S. When the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approached, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey gave away more than 1,800 pieces of steel saved from Ground Zero, and communities in all 50 states built them into memorials. A few were designed by famous architects, but most were welded by volunteers.

In this episode, artist and researcher Sam Holleran describes how archivists hand-picked the most "charismatic" pieces of bent steel from the pile at Ground Zero, why firefighters became the keepers of 9/11 memory, and what these 1,800 memorials might mean once the towers have been gone longer than they stood.

Hello! I want to pivot into the GLAM space. i am trying to figure out if it is necessary to go back to school for my masters, i am trying to look for internships in philly not seeing much. I saw the ica just dropped a fellowship that im going to apply to but any tips or recommendations ??

-im 25

-i have undergrad in communication studies from temple

-i work retail currently and alot of my past experience is in marketing, music/working at venues, customer service

-i have event programming experience independtly

Grant reporting asks for attendance and I’ve realized ours is basically an estimate someone made up years ago and everyone kept using. Clicker at the desk on busy days, nothing otherwise.

How’s everyone else handling this? Is there an actual standard or are we all guessing?

Just wanted to share that I got a job after only 3 months post-grad! I got my MLIS back in May and have been on the job hunt for about a year. Hopefully this will give somebody else hope for their seemingly endless job search.

I will be the first cataloger at a local history museum to help them become accredited! Thank you networking!! Best of luck to anyone else searching!

Hi all! New to this subreddit, as I'm an environmental education professional who is now tasked with a what amounts to a historic house museum role, and have a question about dealing with rodent remnants.

The context: our park recently took over a historic house museum that had been operated by a university, but which sat vacant for the last 6 years. I'm consulting with lots of folks on this (state agency folks, other local partners), and have done some collections care and management courses, but figured I'd through this out to the masses to get some advice.

Situation: The museum is actually a reconstruction of an 1822 structure that had nearly completely fallen down. The reconstruction is from the 60s, using some original building materials, but is not itself a historic structure. Within the museum are many artifacts - some on loan, some now "ours", few if any pieces original/significant to the place, most period, but not all. In the six years that the building sat unused there was a significant mouse infestation. Mice have eaten woolens, shredded papers, nested, and urinated and defecated and made significant stains on windowsills, etc.

My questions: If I need to bag and isolate things with rodent contamination for a period of time, how to do that with larger things like furniture?

If I'm to "wet clean" to disinfect (non collection) surfaces (floors, windowsills) so as to not make contamination airborne, what's the best product to use on finished and/or painted wood? I'm not too concerned bc those surfaces are not historic, but I don't want to ruin anything, yet do want to disinfect and get rid of stains. It seems bleach is a no go, lysol is a maybe, hydrogen peroxide or vinegar possible but iffy -- nothing seems great. Thoughts?

What about after collection items were isolated? What about cleaning/wiping down a period wooden table, for example? I realize threat of virus is reduced by the isolation, but that doesn't solve the fact it was defecated and urinated upon. Perhaps treat like mold on furniture and do vinegar, being careful to dry?

What about textiles that were severely compromised and have little historic value -- please tell me I can deaccession and dispose of these...(FWIW my agency has no collections policy, we're trying to do the absolute best job we can but there is no official policy. we'll make a site level one but I'm on day 3 of this, ha ha)

Hey

War schonmal jemand im discovery museum in Kerkrade? Kann man da auch als Deutscher hin mit Kinder oder macht das wegen der Sprache keinen Sinn?

Bin gespannt auf eure Erfahrungen.

LG

Please let me know if this isn't the right place to ask this, but I've been mulling this over for weeks and am totally stumped. I'm in grad school and taking a class about managing museum collections. Our final project is to create an online exhibition in Omeka based on a real museum's collections. I chose the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in NYC and my exhibition will explore immigrant cuisine, from private kitchens to the restaurants that have shaped how and what Americans eat. It's going to focus on the stories of NYC immigrants between 1880 and 1920, but also tie into the immigrants of today and connect the families/meals of the past to the present.

There's one problem: I cannot figure out a title for my project. Part of the requirement is to have a catchy title. I thought of doing something with "the American melting pot," but my professor said that that implies all the cultures are blending together when my exhibition focuses on distinct cultures/families and their influence on American cuisine. She suggested something like "A Seat at the Table: Immigrant Cuisine in New York City, 1880-1920," but in my research I've come across a surprising number of similar exhibitions with some variation of that title, and I want mine to stand out. Even though it's not a real exhibit, I still want to act as if it is.

If anyone has any title ideas, they would be most welcome. If this post is inappropriate for this sub, I am sorry and will delete it. Thanks in advance!

I recently lost a staffing discrimination grievance with my museum union against the local science museum, and I’m at a loss about what will happen with career now.

I won’t go into too much detail about the discrimination, but I was on contract at the museum, fantastic at my job, and then when a permanent position in my department opened up, management engineered the selection process to make it basically impossible for me to score enough points in the interview to pass (for example, they used different interview questions for me than for every other candidate, and phrased them deceptively so that it wasn’t clear what kind of answer they wanted). The union did an investigation and concluded they 100% discriminated against me, but because I can’t prove it was motivated specifically by me being disabled, there’s nothing they can do.

If I were in any other industry, I’d go for a job at a competing organization and hope they treat me better, but with only one science museum in town, there’s nowhere else to go without giving up on my dream that I’ve been working towards for a decade. One day I might be able to move to another city, but for now I have to stay close to my team of doctors due to the aforementioned disability.

I’ve since learned the department I was in has a reputation for this sort of thing, and I’m hoping to be able to get another job with a different team at the museum. But there’s lots of collaboration between departments, so I’ll have to work with the people who discriminated against me no matter what, and I now know that no one at the museum will protect me from this kind of thing happening again.

Has anyone else found themselves in this sort of a situation? Were you ever able to feel comfortable and confident working amongst the people who mistreated you or were you basically forced to switch cities/industries?

Feeling a lot of grief and uncertainty about my career right now, any advice or solidarity is appreciated ♥️

https://anthonyamore.substack.com/p/two-major-museum-heists-prove-europols?r=9g7jw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

I’m an intern at a small art museum and have been tasked with curating a wall-case, and am doing a mini show of glassware shaped like animals. The pieces are all individually very nice, however during the installation planning I am realizing that a case full of clear glass pieces might look painfully dull all-together, and there’s little to no budget or time to order things like colorful shelving or mounts. There are a small handful of milk-glass pieces and 2 colorful ones, but I fear it won’t be enough to make it visually diverse. Any suggestions for diy solutions to spruce it up?

Apologies if this isn't the right place to post this. I am wondering how exhibition curators go about attaining loans works which are privately owned for exhibitions.

For example, if the museum wants to do a retrospective on a certain artist but are wanting to have additional works outside of their collection on loan, how would this logistically work? Would they try to track down the owners of specific pieces to try to negotiate directly? Would they be restricted to people who are publicly listed as owning an artwork? Are there external people who can help to figure out who owns a certain piece if it isn't immediately obvious? Or would they draw from people the institution has existing relationships with?

I can find a lot online about this process for borrowing from other institutions, but am wondering more about the initial logistics rather than how the agreements work etc.

Sharing this because small museums keep ending up with one person who suddenly owns a federal grant they did not apply for, usually because the person who did apply moved on. If that is you, here is the stuff in the award letter that matters and that nobody tends to walk you through.

An IMLS award is not one deadline. It carries a set of obligations that live in different places in the paperwork:

- Interim performance reports and a final performance report, on the funder's schedule, not your fiscal year

- Financial reporting, usually the SF-425 federal financial report

- A period of performance with hard start and end dates, and costs outside that window are not allowable

- Cost share or match if your award has it, which has to be documented as you go, not reconstructed at the end

- A closeout package due after the end date, commonly within 120 days

- Records retention, generally three years after closeout

The two that catch people out are the period of performance and the match. Spending a few days after the end date, or failing to document match as it happens, are the findings that show up in an audit, and they are almost always avoidable if someone is just watching the dates.

The practical fix is boring but it works. Make a list where each row is one obligation, not one grant, with a due date and an owner. A single award has five to fifteen of these, so a one row per grant list falls apart fast. One row per obligation lets you answer what is due next month, which is really the only question that matters day to day.

I built a free workbook set up exactly this way if you want a starting structure instead of building it from scratch. No signup, no email. https://www.grantwellhq.com/guides/grant-tracking-spreadsheet

Full disclosure, I build software in this area so I am not a neutral party, but the workbook is free and the checklist above holds whether you use it or not. Happy to answer questions about any of the obligation types.

I'm a university student studying history and planning to go into the museum curation/collections management field. Anyone here able to answer some questions for an interview assignment I have? I can message the questions to answer. Anybody able to, please lmk!