911±¬ÁÏÍø

Museology alum

Q: Where do you work? What’s your job title, and what do you do?

A: I am the Maker 911±¬ÁÏÍø Specialist at the . I design, develop, coordinate, organize, help facilitate and evaluate the department’s drop-in programs. These programs include a punctual schedule of activities that change about once every two weeks and range pretty broadly in content: from helping guests discover wood burning tools, to exploring the relationship between cross stitch and digital pixel drawings, to using a solar oven (built in-house!) to bake ‘shrinky dinks.’ With every program, my ultimate goal is to invite guests of all ages to encounter new possibilities with materials and tools, as well as create an environment wherein they feel free to play their way into discovery, observation and agency around practices of making.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about the field you’ve chosen?

A: Museums are true crossroads — they merge ideas, places, times, people, objects and fields that might not otherwise have met. Because of this, I think that museums allow us to really broaden the scope of the connections we’re able to make. Museums are also informal learning environments, and I see so much potential for personal development and growth in museums. While not always the case, museum learning can feel less rigid than more formal learning environments, and particularly at this cultural moment, there’s something really powerful about creating agency in learning. I see it is a sincere privilege and honor to do this work and to get to think deeply about how these messages are communicated.

Q: How did your experience at the iSchool prepare you to solve information challenges?

A: To a certain extent, a lot of my work is content delivery. There are choices to make in what is shared with guests, and then many more choices to make on what not to share with guests. My time in the Museology program was so rich with experiences on how to make those choices. The Interpretation and Exhibit Design classes I took helped me think about storytelling and framing. My Evaluation class provided me with the tools to think really deeply about crafting valuable questions. The Learning in Museums class I took structured my understanding of how museumgoers interact in museum spaces as learners. The Museology department was also incredibly supportive of the research project that I co-authored with my cohort member Shylee Wheeler. We wanted to deepen the understanding we currently have about inspiration in art museums — does that inspiration extend into action? Do people feel motivated to go home and make things? Not a lot of research exists on the topic, but I frequently bring the experience of the 180 interviews we conducted to my work and my team at PacSci. It was such a valuable experience in understanding guests’ motivations and mindsets — even if art museums and science centers are incredibly different environments. 

Q: What advice do you have for students interested in a career like yours?

A: Don’t hold back when you feel truly passionate about something. Being able to talk about one subject for hours on end is a huge advantage, and one that usually stems from a passion. Personally, I applied to graduate school because I couldn’t stop thinking about what it meant to make things in community spaces, and how we could develop more accessible entry points to learning how to create. It allowed me to have a kind of razor-sharp focus on what I wanted from my career, and informed every decision I made, from class selection to the internships I applied for. Plus, people really respond to passion and want to work with people who get excited about the work they’re doing.