worldart-brightonmuseums:Volunteer work placement student - helping Brighton Museum with catalogin
worldart-brightonmuseums: Volunteer work placement student - helping Brighton Museum with cataloging and Fashion Cities Africa. During February and March 2016, I had the opportunity to volunteer with the World Art department at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Over these weeks, I developed a deep appreciation for the challenging and engaging work that is required in order to curate, manage, and advance the Museum. Everyone I worked with in the department, as well as the Museum in general, enthusiastically contributed to meeting this challenge. While sorting pictures and listings of thousands of objects in the Museum’s archive, as I was doing for some time, might seem tedious at first, the importance of such work becomes clear when considering the historical context and significance of the presence of seemingly countless African objects in the Museum’s collection. As the World Art department engages this significance through archive work and educational trips to the Black Cultural Archives (Windrush Square, Brixton) for example, the same attention is given to upcoming projects and exhibitions. I was able to get a glimpse into the evolving Museum Lab, geared towards bringing the museum work closer to the audience, allowing for engagement with the process. It also represents a space where otherwise ignored objects will receive attention and serves as an educational purpose. Further, I was lucky enough to help out with setting up the Fashion Cities Africa exhibition, set to open to the public on 30 April 2016. I am hoping to be able to make the trip to Brighton to see the exhibition eventually, but in the meantime, I am grateful to have had a look behind the scenes, and I know that I will appreciate my next Museum visit even more. Samuel Schrade – a student from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. Editor’s note: Spot Samuel above helping to dress the mannequins ready for Fashion Cities Africa - an upcoming exhibition on contemporary African fashion at Brighton Museum. Thank you Samuel for all your assistance. -- source link