Each week the Brooklyn Museum Summer Interns and Fellows participate in full-day educational program

Each week the Brooklyn Museum Summer Interns and Fellows participate in full-day educational programs that explore the roles of museums through on-site visits and field trips to other institutions around the city. Look out for our weekly posts where we’ll share what we’re doing and learning in the program.Week Two: A lot of emphasis is placed on the front end of museums but what about the happenings that go on behind the walls? On the second floor, past the Arts of Korea introductory wall text, through the double doors, into a really cold holding space for casings with coded entry, and through another set of double doors lies the Brooklyn Museum’s Libraries and Archives. We had the privilege of meeting Molly Seegers, the Brooklyn Museum Archivist. Since she’s the sole archivist, she’s extremely busy, so this was a huge deal for us.Molly shared the Brooklyn Museum’s roots which extend back to 1823! Its narrative begins in a pub where the founder, Augustus Graham, voiced the need for a library. Some years later, what was initially known as the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library developed into the Brooklyn Museum that we all know and love. She also shared records of the Brooklyn Museum Community Gallery and shed light on the Brooklyn Museum Art School. This resonated with me considering that a couple of the artists featured in the exhibition that I’m working on, Soul of Nation, were educated at the BKM Art School. Following that, we got a peak at some of the 7th grade writings of poet Walt Whitman who was fortunate enough to study in the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library. The in-house excursion to the archives and library was extremely insightful especially because it helped inform all of our museum practices. The visit also helped us answer our running question, “What role do archives play within museum settings?” I didn’t know how much work went into archives. I found that the visit to the archives gave me a glimpse of the not so pretty, but equally interesting work of archivists. They’re scholars, detectives, and unsung heroes of museum settings whose tireless work enables our cultural institutions to preserve and present the complexities of history.Posted by Autumn HarrisEdited by: Ariel Kaufman -- source link

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