A Blank Canvas: Creating Museum Exhibits

People often ask us where we get the objects we have on display during special exhibits like our current exhibit The Evolution of Recorded Sound. It is always an adventure when we use mainly loaned objects instead of items we have in our collection for an exhibit. It is like starting with a blank canvas and searching out the perfect colors and texture to create the masterpiece you have in your head. 

Most of the time, we simply put an article in the papers, advertise on our website and Facebook page, and use word of mouth to search out objects.  We rely on the kindness of strangers to make our vision come alive.  It is never as simple as getting a phone call and picking up an item for loan though.  It is a process of hearing the story behind the object, learning about its life and where it has been and how it came to be with its current owner.

We also meet some interesting people along the way. One gentleman was still in his pajamas, drinking his morning coffee, when we showed up at our designated time of 11:00 am. We have been offered all kinds of beverages, food, and garden produce. We have been taken on tours of basements, attics and outbuildings.  But without fail, we have been welcomed into every home with enthusiasm and made to feel like family. It is our great responsibility to take care of the treasures that are put in our custody, and it is a privilege to share the story of these objects.

So Long, Farewell, auf Wiedersehen, Adieu!

For the past four years I have acted as the Outreach Coordinator for the Gaston County Museum of Art and History. At the start of the New Year I will be embarking on a new adventure with another regional institution. In light of this, I thought it would be apropos to take a moment and reflect on my time here.

If there was one thing that made this experience truly stand out it has been the wonderful people who worked along side of me at the Gaston Museum. The staff here is relatively small and unfortunately the vast majority are part-time.  This by no means indicates that they don’t work hard, but rather that they find ways to cram a lot of work into a very small period of time. It’s always incredible to see a finished product, after watching incredibly talented individuals invest so much of themselves into the project. The curatorial staff has produced amazing installations out of seemingly nothing and the administrative staff has worn the burden of keeping this wonderful resource open, often without subjecting the rest of us to rumors of doomsday! Because I’ve worked beside of them so very closely throughout the previous years, the education staff at the museum will always mean so very much to me. Not having some of these individuals around on a constant basis is going to be almost as big a change as the new job!

Today’s museums often have to rely upon local volunteers to round out the staff and hopefully assist with tasks that are beyond their means. This museum has been no different. We have been blessed with many wonderful individuals that have assisted in ways too numerous to count. Because my principle function was the development and implementation of school-aged programming, I had to often rely on a bevy of talented people who were willing to give their time simply to make the experiences better. 

I’m proud to say that through my four years, I’ve not only made very good acquaintances, I’ve made friends, both at the museum and in the community.

Thank you all,

Robert Bemis

You've Got Mail!

Alas, this shall be my final blog post. My year as an intern at the Gaston County Museum is over, and it’s time to pass the torch to another emerging museum professional. Internships are invaluable in gaining experience for jobs. This internship has been with a superb group of people, and I would recommend it to anyone.

My final project as an intern has been cataloging a collection of letters from the 1950s from a large family that lived in Gaston County. Letters are exciting to museum professionals and historians because they are honest writings about day to day activities. They can have beautiful quotes and provide opinions about the events of the times. This collection is mainly letters to one brother from his brothers and sisters in the area.

The letters also remind us that human life is often mundane. The content is often writing of the weather (it used to snow here a LOT – feet and feet of snow in Mount Holly), updates on the health and deaths of various family and friends (nearly one death per letter), making plans for visiting (how could you plan a trip by letter? If someone writes that they will be at the train station in two days you had better be sure you show up), and sharing various other information. Every once in a while the different writers will reference larger world events such as communism or various political persons like Kennedy.

What is interesting to ponder is who will read the communications we send? All of our written communication is in electronic devices. Many emails are kept on the internet but only available as long as there is access to the email account. They won’t get passed along from generation to generation. No one else will be able to read them except for those who print their emails. This digital age is going to be difficult to archive because our text messages die with our phone batteries. Our ability to communicate has tripled with email and text but the likelihood of preserving it has dropped tremendously. I recommend taking the time to send a hand written note or letter to your friends that you usually message. Maybe that letter will become precious and stay with that person for a life time, and a museum can read it one day and truly know what life was like in the 2000s.

Volunteers! We want YOU! 

During this holiday season many people in the community look for a way to give back. Many want to meet new people, try something new, or enrich the place you live. Here at the Gaston County Museum we try to build community within our walls and beyond. We have volunteer opportunities for every aspect of the museum from the gift shop, to education, to the museum collection. Without our volunteer force we'd be unable to reach the wide audience we currently see- and we are constantly looking to extend that reach! If you are looking for something to do for an hour, or 2, or 4 a week (or month!) consider volunteering at our museum. Not only does our site need you, the volunteers, but we also ask what the museum can do for you. Volunteering opens up incredible avenues of communication and opportunity not to mention the unique behind-the-scenes look at how a museum runs.

If you're interested in volunteering at the museum, please call Elaine Jackson and (704)922-7681, x100, or email elaine.jackson@gastongov.com. We have needs for greeting, gift shop, education department, and curatorial department.

     -Thank you!-

Keeping History Relevant: Museum Programming

Here at the Gaston County Museum we offer over 15 different on and off-site programs for people of all ages. One of the greatest challenges our education staff faces is how to keep the programs relevant for the different age groups we see while still keeping the material new and interesting. Not only do we see school groups but we do off-site programs at adult day-cares, lectures, family reunions, and basically anywhere we’re asked to go.

Homeschool Living History Day

As the education intern at the Gaston County Museum one of the greatest lessons I’m continuing to learn is how to develop programs and talk to these different age groups. With pre-schoolers I’ve learned to create a structured program with me sitting on the ground and talking to them from their perspective and doing an activity that stimulates their senses and motor skills. At an adult daycare outreach, on the other hand, the audience has no problem sitting and listening to you talk but the program is much better if the lecture is based on something familiar to them so afterwards we can open up for discussion- or even just a walk down memory lane.

4th Grade Program

But what about all those ages in between? Our museum sees 1st through 12th graders as well, all of which have different state standards to follow, are at different points in their curriculum, and have varying interest levels in history period.  Luckily, I’ve observed that one of the things this museum staff does best is adapt their program to their audience.  One instance of this occurred during my second week at the museum during a “From Citizen to Soldier” on-site program for 10^th graders. This program is usually advertised for 3^rd, 4^th, and 8^th graders but can be changed to fit other grade-levels. On this particular day instead of sticking specifically to the program outline, the staff, after learning about what the class was studying at the time, adapted their program to focus on that and cut back on other, less relevant, parts of the program. This taught me not only the importance of reading your audience but being knowledgeable enough about the subject that you CAN change the program when necessary!

This issue of relevancy is not unique to our museum or even museums in general. What does make the museum unique is the staff’s ability to take the history at the site and create a program that is going to be meaningful to whatever audience we see.