Week Ten: August 14th, 2018 marked the last Tuesday outingof the first ever Citi-sponsored Brooklyn

Week Ten: August 14th, 2018 marked the last Tuesday outingof the first ever Citi-sponsored Brooklyn Museum Summer Fellowship program. Theday started at 10am at The Brooklyn Roasting Company in Building 92 on BrooklynNavy Yard. Or rather, it was supposed to start at ten. This wouldn’thave been an official New York adventure if my group hadn’t ended up lost atleast once. Things got a little tricky when the subway suddenly decided tobecome a 5 instead of a 2. I have learned that that is just the New York way. However,thanks to my city-savvy friend and fellow intern, we arrived at our destinationalbeit a little behind schedule.Building 92 is an industrial building with alarge rusted orange sign in the front. It is surrounded by a gravel moat withcarefully curated flecks of orange scattered throughout. This place was ourstarting point. Inside, pleasantly surrounded by the aroma of coffee, we metCarli Beseau who would later give us a tour of the galleries in Building 92 andother parts of the Navy Yard. From the cafe, we departed to the Terrace Room onthe fourth floor to meet with Elizabeth McGorty: the archivist and recordsmanager for Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC). She talkedabout the importance of archives which harkened back to the questions posed tous at the beginning of this internship: What are the purposes of archivesand how do they relate to museums?According to Ms. McGorty, archives “collect,preserve, and make available records of enduring value.” At the Brooklyn NavyYard, the archives house Corporate Records like architectural plans, ManuscriptCollections like digitized photos, Special Collections like recorded oralhistories, and Museum Collections showcased in the exhibits. Before we went tosee these exhibitions, we had the chance to look at a few items pulled from thearchives. One item in particular was an undated ID badge for a female Navy YardWorker. There was something special about seeing something handled by someonein the past with a life of her own. In some ways, it allowed connections to bemade that were not previously possible. I don’t know who she was exactly, but Iknow at one point she lived. She breathed. She existed on the planet I nowinhabit. At least in that, we are alike.Ms. Beseau led us to the first floor gallery;the first thought to enter my mind was nautical. Should I have beensurprised that the first word to come to mind at a Navy Yard related to shipsin water? The first thing I noticed was the large image of the USS Wyoming.Staring down the front of this massive ship made me wonder if it was scaled tosize. There was a cannon in the middle of the room that complemented theundulating timeline depicting the events that occurred “From Wallabout Bay toToday’s Yard.” The dates mimicked the pattern of waves as they brought us fromthe past to the present. Ms. Beseau raised the question “How do you look andmove forward when so much of your identity is in the past?” Ponder that for asecond.The next room was filled with products andpictures of people who make them at the Brooklyn Navy Yard today. Ms. Beseauthen took us on an outdoor walking tour on the way to the dry docks wherecranes from World War II still operate. History was ingrained in the BrooklynNavy Yard. “So much of its identity resided in the past.” However, I believe somuch lives in the future as well. Inevitably one day, the future becomes thepast. I wonder what will get archived for the years to come.One bacon, egg, and cheese later (anotherlearned New York way) we were back on the road headed for our home base: theBrooklyn Museum. Upon arrival we met with Kate Lupo, the Executive Assistant tothe Director of the Brooklyn Museum. Kate Lupo gave us an incredibly helpfulworkshop on how to ace our interviews within the first three minutes. This isher website where you can find more information on how you, too, can land yourdream job.After that, we met with Monica Marino to talkabout questions we asked in the beginning of the internship. Questions like:“What is the process of creating and completing special exhibitions?” Thesequestions that couldn’t be answered at first were now resolved showing how muchwe learned during this internship in our departments as well as from eachother. We also addressed some of the frustrations we had at the beginningincluding the fact that there is usually not enough context provided to thinkcritically about art; or that there needs to be more resources to dive into themeaning of works of art. While these frustrations have not all been settled, wehave been able to critically ponder them as a group and think of ways to solvethem. This internship has opened a lot of our eyes to the advantages anddisadvantages of how museum institutions operate. This is necessary because ourgeneration will be the ones leading them into the future. I cannot wait to seethe evolution. To read more from individual interns on their experience intheir respective department, visit our blog.Posted by Naimah Jangha -- source link
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