Getting Started

Hello there!  Welcome to my blog "Field Notes".

This is to be my professional blog.  I plan on journaling my search for a career in the museum field, discussing various things pertaining to the museum profession, and reflecting on my experience as it pertains to my future.  I am using this tool as a method of inviting potential employers and colleagues to have a glimpse into what I am as a professional person beyond my resume.

I chose this background, layout, and color scheme because it invokes a desire of discovery within mystery to me.  Quite frankly, it looks like something out of a British mystery.  I like that.  My love of museums dates back to when I was very young.  At one interview, I was asked, "What was the first museum you remember and why did it impact you to want to be a museum professional?"  The interview was for an historic house in upstate New York.  My answer came straight out of It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. 

Rocks.

No, seriously!  The first museum I remember visiting was as a child of about 6 or so.  It was the Burke Museum at the University of Washington while spending time with my Seattle-based extended family.  It was a geologic exhibit that was heavy on geodes.  Being a child of that age, anything that sparkled had my immediate attention.  But, that wasn't why it impacted me such that I remember it decades later.  It was this little section in a dark corridor featuring stones that glow in the dark.  I had never seen such a thing!  This was the very early 80s, so the popularity of anything glow in the dark or neon was on the upswing, and I was the target demographic.  If I had a talent for drawing, I would be able to sketch it still from memory. 

The wonder of that exhibit that such things existed in nature without the use of paint or special effect trickery enhanced my natural sense of wonder.  I have had a love for science ever since. 

Prior to that, I developed a love for the theater and stories.  I remember when The Muppet Show was still in first run episodes.  Alice Cooper was a special guest around the time I was 4.  I remember telling my mother that I wanted to do that when I grew up.  Meaning to tell a story to an audience and gain a reaction.  I love ghost stories.  I always have, especially when the story is based on history.  Growing up in the Great Smokey Mountains, the area was filled with historical ghosts.  Those were the stories we told each other around the camp fire.

I tried my hand at being an actor.  While I do love it, I could never make it as a professional actor.  There are elements of what an actor needs to do off-stage in order to stay relevant that I really don't care for.  I am still, at heart, an actor however.  Because I love to tell a story. 

Ok, so let's marry the love of telling a story, spice it up with some theatrical elements (such as a lighting effect or some background music), solidify that story with an object or three on display and voila!  You have a museum exhibit.

Every object has a story.  It doesn't matter if it is a painting, a sculpture, a musket, or a glow in the dark rock.  The museum professional's job is to convey that story to guests of all ages and backgrounds.  It is a challenge that I accept.  I now have a Masters Degree and 13 years of experience.  If you do not have my resume and would like one, please let me know.  I'd be happy to send it.

Until next time....