I’ve always enjoyed museums. I love history and art, so museums are right up my alley. I guess it’s a good thing since I now work in a museum. Before I started working full-time at my current museum, I don’t think I’d really ever thought about what went into the exhibits that you see in museums. Most museums have permanent exhibits that rarely change, but most also have changing exhibits. Those changing exhibits are a lot of work, something I had realized before I started helping install them.

What I really never realized is how much planning goes into creating an exhibit. Once you have a topic, then there is a lot of research to be done on both the topic and the objects to be put on display. Then the labels telling visitors about what is on display have to be written. Sometimes, those labels are what we call tombstone labels: object name, material, collection number, and how the museum acquired the object. Other labels are longer, interpretive labels which tell a fuller story of the object. These labels can be the most fascinating, but a lot of work goes into writing and researching them.

Until the current exhibit that we are installing, which will open early next month, I had only conducted minor research, written interpretive labels, and assisted with the installation. While our upcoming exhibit is mostly art and contains only a few interpretive labels, there is still a lot of work that goes into planning. Most of that work has fallen on me because the topic of the art in the exhibit is very similar to my dissertation research. Also, our other curator had left and our new one did not start until two and a half weeks ago. So, I’ve been planning paint colors for the gallery, choosing artwork to be featured and the frames for that artwork, and designing the layout of the exhibit. All of that has been in the planning stage for months. Now, comes the harder part: putting it all together.

Last week, we decided what paintings would go where, and yesterday we began hanging the artwork. By the way, there is a lot of math involved in hanging artwork, something I’m not good at. Thankfully, our new curator is. She is very precise, and she knows what she’s doing. It’s now all coming together, and it’s nice to see what had been in my head for months now in reality. There is still a lot to do, but we seem to be mostly on schedule, as long as we don’t get another 11.5” of snow that prevents most people from making it in to work. (knock on wood)

If you’ve never thought before about the installation process for the exhibits when you visit a museum, look around the exhibit and try to understand just how much hard work went into installing the exhibit that you are admiring. There are a lot of jobs out there that we don’t often appreciate how much work goes into them, which is why I am always as kind as I can be to waitstaff at a restaurant. I know they are working hard. This is alao why I hate the saying, “Those who can do, those who can’t teach.”

Teachers do far more work than most people think. A good teacher is always trying to anticipate their students needs and are constantly planning for their classes, and while most people think that teachers work from 8 am to 3 pm, the average person (and student) doesn’t realize that a teacher’s day begins well before they head to school and continues long after they get home. Most teachers get a one hour planning period each day, and while you can grade papers and prepare assignments during that hour, an hour is nowhere near long enough. Teachers often work well into the night getting everything done, and they often do it with low pay.

In other words, look around you today and realize just how much work the people around you are doing so that your day is a bit more enjoyable. Be considerate to others and appreciate all the people around you.

I am so tired.

I have spent most of my workday helping to settle in our new curator. She seems to be settling in nicely. Plus, we are installing a new exhibit. While I am enjoying most of what I’m doing right now at work, it doesn’t make it any less tiring. Today though will be a break from all of that as I have webinars all day. This is not something I am looking forward to doing. Over the course of this pandemic, I have learned just how much I hate webinars. There are only two positives to webinars: 1) you can attend lectures and workshops that you would not have normally been able to attend because they are so far away, and 2) you can actually do other work when you have to attend one even though you’re not interested in it because no one can see you, especially if you don’t turn on your webcam.

My evenings have been pretty busy too as I help a dear friend navigate some online applications. I really think that online applications with overly cautious cybersecurity make many things too complicated. Far too often, all of the things that are supposed to make our lives easier end up being way too complicated. It seems like the more technologically advanced we become as a society, the more complicated life seems to be. Wasn’t technology supposed to simplify life, not make it more difficult? It can be very frustrating. I’d do anything for this friend, so I don’t mind in the least helping. I just wish this was easier for her.

I’m attending a virtual conference this week, and it is just as boring as you can imagine. The conference is one I have to attend for work, but few of the sessions even remotely interest me. So, yesterday I was preparing to listen to one of the sessions when they began to introduce it and say that it would begin with breakout sessions to discuss how we deal with this particular topic at our museum. I’d tuned in hoping to hear about how we could implement what they were supposed to be discussing, and they wanted me to talk about how I did something that I was there to learn how to do. I was not in the mood. I had no desire to be part of a group discussion when I knew very little about the topic, and I was in no mood to be interactive with anyone. So, I logged out of the session and decided to read some articles I’d planned on reading. One in particular I found fascinating and wanted to share it in my blog post today.

I began to write my post intending to finish it and email it to myself. I did finish writing the post, but then I got distracted and forgot to send it to myself. I’ll post it tomorrow. It’s on my office computer and I did not have access to it from home to post today. In other words, stay tuned.

The eventful part of today s that my boss is supposed to announce his decision on who we will be hiring for our open curator position. I will be very happy if he follows my advice and hires the person I recommended. If he doesn’t, not only will I be very hurt but also disappointed. In my opinion, there was really only one choice, but other people had other opinions. The committee was deadlocked 2-2 with my boss having to make the final decision. If he goes against my recommendation, I feel like he does not value my opinion, and he better have a damn good excuse for choosing anyone other than the person I suggested, since my chosen candidate is clearly more qualified, something he admitted last week. I just have to wait and see.

The boring busy part of today and this whole week is that I have a virtual conference to attend on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Honestly, is there anything more boring than a virtual conference? Academic and professional conferences are rarely exciting and only mildly interesting if you are one of the people presenting. They are only made exciting by getting to travel somewhere and meeting and mingling with people in person. None of that is actually possible during a virtual conference. They will have “cocktail” hours and virtual hangouts, but it is not the same. At a virtual conference, you get to sit at a computer screen and listen to other people talk about topics that you thought might be interesting according to the description given in the conference program that always turn out to be completely different from what you expected.

The other busy part of my day will be a class I will be teaching this afternoon. I always really enjoy teaching classes, especially classes where I get to show off objects from the museum’s collection. I usually prefer to use ten or more objects when I teach, unless there is an object or a few objects that have an interesting story to tell, because then, I have enough to talk about. However, the collection this professor is interested in is a small one of about four objects, and they don’t tell a very compelling story. However, I’ll figure out something to say to make it interesting.

Yesterday, the job search committee I’m on met for what was supposed to be a final discussion of the candidates for the job. It turned out to be more contentious than it should have been, and when it was over I had a massive headache. Two people want a candidate that during the interview process it became clear she was only half qualified for the position. It was clear to me, my boss, and one other committee member, so I can’t understand why the other two committee members can’t see that. On the other hand, there is one candidate that is fully qualified for the position that I and one other committee member were championing. My boss who admits one is more suited for the job than the other won’t make a decision because he’s “on the fence” and doesn’t want to make the final decision. Just grow a pair and make the right decision! If he’s not going to or can’t make the final decision, then listen to the one person on the committee who this person will work with the most: me. So, no decision was made, and my boss is going to call references (something I think should have already been done). He will report back to us what the references say, and we’ll go from there. This process should not be this difficult, and it’s only difficult because my boss has been so incompetent during the process. One candidate was not a good fit, and two of them seemed like they’d fit more in with our group. Of the two, one is clearly more qualified than the other. Why is this being made so difficult? The choice is clear.

The last of our job candidates for the other curator position will be at the museum today. So far, this candidate has been at the top of the list for all of us on the search committee. Now, we will see if he lives up to our expectations in person. He seems perfect for the position from everything we’ve seen so far. My only concern is that he may be overqualified for the position. I guess there could be worse things in a job candidate. One of the members of the search committee calls him the unicorn, a rare but perfect fit. We’ll see. 

One thing that will really interests me is how he will be dressed. I’ve always thought it was a little easier for a woman to be able to wear a dress or pants suit that is not over dressy but not too casual either. A man usually has two options: business or casual. Although, I guess business casual is an option, but I don’t think I’ve ever fully understood business casual. He could wear a suit that’s not too formal, and that could work. However, in my opinion, if he were to be too casual, like my boss often is, I would not feel that he was taking us serious enough. However, there can be a nice in between. I think the outfit above would be right on the line of being too casual, but I would find it acceptable, although the pants the guy above is wearing are a little too casual in my opinion.

While today’s candidate may be the unicorn of the group, I think the first one we interviewed in person was the Goldilocks of the bunch. She seemed to have the right amount of qualifications and experience without having too much, but I may be the only one who thinks that way. However, I did spend the most time with her and got a chance to get to know her better. I also think I could work really well with her. She was intelligent, funny, and very LGBTQ+ friendly. I find it a major plus that she loves drag shows. I feel like she’s a woman I could work with easily and collaborate with.

The second candidate was nice and very friendly, but I don’t believe she has the right experience. There are two parts to this job, and while she is very qualified in one area, I could not get a sense that she had enough qualifications in the other area. Some of my colleagues seem poised to overlook that. Plus, after her interview, she had no questions for us. The first candidate had a lot of questions for us that were well thought out. I never have many questions after an interview, but I always try to have some. I’ve found that if you don’t have questions, it leaves a bad impression. There are always some good standard questions that could be used for interviews no matter the job. It just shows interest, or that’s what I’ve always been told.

This whole process makes me very nervous. First of all, I think my boss has handled the whole job search and interview process very ineptly and unprofessionally. He just doesn’t know what he’s doing, and while I can often steer him in the right direction, he has not been following my advice on any of this. Second, I will be working very closely with this person, or at least I should be if they do their job correctly as a team member. I want someone I will be very comfortable with and will get along with easily. I tend to work better with women than men, but there have been a few exceptions to that rule. This whole process just fills me with anxiety.