5 Reasons We're Grateful to be in the Museum Field

Above: Old Salem President Frank Vagnone doing his own bit of hands-on learning at the museum. While my position is "Curator," it's for a school not a museum so a lot of daily museum life passes me by. Recently, though, I visited Franklin Vagnone, in Winston Salem, NC. Frank is one of my heroes, a museum thought leader who is generous, truthful, and authentic. For those of you who don't know, Frank is President of Old Salem Museum & Gardens, a position he's held for just about a year. Frank also runs Twisted Preservation his cultural consulting firm, work that takes him around the world, thinking, talking, and quite literally shaking up traditional stand-behind-the-rope sorts of historic house interpretation. (And if you are a historic site person, and haven't read his book, Anarchist's Guide to Historic House Museums you should probably order it. Today.) Anyway, part of the fun of visiting museum colleagues on their home turf is you get to be a tourist with the best of all possible guides: the museum leader. The weather was beautiful, and Old Salem is ridiculously picturesque, but better than all of that there were close to 1,000 school children on site, accompanied by parents, teachers and younger siblings. It was awesome. Surrounded by shouts of "It smells good in here!" and "Look at this!," it reminded me why I got into this business in the beginning. And looking back on being engulfed in nine year olds busy folding laundry and trying to make a rope bed---the barriers in the Old Salem Brother's House are gone---it made me grateful to be a museum person or at least part of the wider museum community. We've talked about some dark stuff on these pages: sexual harassment; workplace bullying; bad boards; and most recently, the trials of searching for a job in a way too crowded field. But at heart, and I can't speak for all of you, it's a field we love. And part of why we love it is that sharing is fun, whether it's sharing knowledge--how did people without electricity read in bed?--or sharing experience--folding a large linen shirt isn't as easy as it looks---or sharing an explanation--like why static electricity makes your hair stand up--or looking for answers: Why do an artist's brush strokes move in one direction and not the other? That joint search for answers, whether it's with excited elementary students or committed and curious adults, is a journey worth taking. So here are my top five reasons to be grateful for being in this field:

I get to work, meet, and speak with some truly fabulous humans, who challenge and change the museum world.
Being in a museum, as opposed to being on the Internet, means being in the presence of something real. That brings its own awesomeness.
Being in the museum world means we're often in the presence of beauty, and it's ours to care for as best we can.
The objects, art, scientific discoveries, even the plants and animals we care for, all have stories, and it's an honor to share stories with the public.
Museums are metaphors for so much else. Each well-worn spinning wheel, each deKooning sketch, each set of medical instruments is a window into another place and moment. We're the bridge, and that's a great place to be. Does this field make you grateful? Why? Joan Baldwin