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