My internship at the Historical Society of Western Virginia/ O. Winston Link Museum has not been your average internship in the common sense. Early on in the semester I made the decision to move home because being alone on campus, in the world of COVID was just not the right fit for me. My mentor and curator at the museum, Ashley Webb, was very understanding of my decision and we both agreed that I could participate in a hybrid internship because I believed that a remote internship is not as rewarding as being there in person. I was willing to come to Roanoke practically every other weekend starting in October to fulfill my intern duties, but at home I still had internship work to do. Throughout the semester I have been researching the Saponi Indians, the group that resided here in the Roanoke Valley pre-contact with the European settlers. Through this research I have been redesigning the Native American exhibit within the museum to complete in person during my last long weekend at the museum.
I found that the redesigning process is much different than what I have been doing in this internship and even in my past internships. When redesigning the exhibit I had to come up with a concept that could easily be understood by the visitors and clearly be described through labels. I also wanted an interactive part of the exhibit because a lot of people will interact more with an exhibit if they can touch something pertaining to it. You also want to research objects so that you are providing visitors with accurate historical information and usage of the objects. To plan out the design- I had to draw it up using accurate measurements of the case and see where I would want to place things within the case to really see it visually altogether. I am very excited to see how the actual case turns out, but I am expecting to come across some challenges in the design and having to switch things around.
Below is a picture of my drawing of the exhibit case that I hope to bring to life in the museum with notes around that describe the objects- their catalog numbers and other ideas. (I drew it on my iPad using the Procreate App).
