I spent the majority of my time these past two weeks working on my proposal for my educational program. For the most part, designing this is like working on a lesson plan for a classroom, however there are some things that are different. I have to work with what the museum already has in their permanent collection and base my choices off of that. The museum currently has educational programs for students that range from grades 1 through 6. I’ve been tasked with creating a program for older children, and based on the collection at the museum I’ve chosen 7th and 8th grade classes. The focus, currently, is on Industrialization and the changing industries with carriages. A lot of my research and inspiration has come from the pieces that are at the museum and the curatorial staff’s collection of information.
The education programs currently being utilized, and the one I’m creating, are geared towards supplemental educational opportunities for schools during the year. The programs work with the curriculum that is already being implemented, and give school kids a chance to learn outside of the classroom. My favorite example of this is the Wagon’s West program that is done at the LIM; where students learn about westward expansion in the United States. During this program they’re allowed to handle replicated items to pack a reproduction of a prairie schooner, giving them more than a brief lecture and information that they would normally get in school. It’s an unique experience to remember, rather than classroom based education which is an everyday experience. It’s also during this internship that I learned this topic of westward expansion has been more and more glossed over in the everyday classroom, as the amount of information in the NYS curriculum that students are supposed to learn grows.
Despite this focus on my own program, I was able to work an event for the Museum. They had a night event, from 6 to 8 where they gave free admission to the Prohibition exhibit to all attendees. They had a local brewery, Port Jefferson Brewery and a local pizza place at the event. Samples of beer were free, but pizza and cans of beers were available for purchase. The alcohol worked with the prohibition theme, and attracted a younger demographic. This is key because one goal of the museum, is to appeal to a generational gap. Typically, the guests at the museum are children 8 and below, and people above the age of 45, the museum wants to bridge the gap and no longer ‘have a missing generation.’ During this event, I sold beer and answered any questions the patrons had on the exhibit. I had been on the curators tour, as mentioned in a previous blog post, so despite not seeing it for a while I had a good understanding of the exhibit. I really enjoyed doing this event because it gave me a chance to see a museum’s public event in motion, as typically the programs that I’ve seen were scheduled and educational with an angle. This was the public coming to view the exhibit because of their interest (and the combination of the food and drink).
Along with the event, I’ve began to spend more time helping set up, work with, and even observing ‘In The Moment’ at the museum. The ‘In The Moment’ program works with people that are suffering from Alzheimers and Dementia. Generally, the layout for the program is that a group of people with the affliction visit the museum’s exhibits and are led in discussion (with open ended questions) on the topic. Some talk about memories that the objects invoke, or ask questions. They’re accompanied by two educators from the museum (one paid educator and one volunteer, normally) and their loved ones or caregivers. After this visit the group comes back to the museum (maybe one to two weeks later, for a second visit) and does a project relating to the exhibit. They’re given pictures of specific objects in the exhibit, to jog their memory if they’ve forgotten, and do an art project of some sort. The group that I had the chance to observe had gone on a tour of the Leiber exhibit (the husband and wife exhibit; with his multiple art projects and her handbag collection), so the group was able to decorate wooden frames and little ornaments with small fake jewels. The outing is meant to be a fun experience for the individuals with Alzheimers or Dementia that come, but also act as a social outing. The group is encouraged to talk and work with the people around them. At the end of this program, they got to take home their art work, a small polaroid picture of them with their creation, and a envelope with 4 or 5 photos of things from the exhibit. The picture of objects from the exhibits are labeled with a title, a date (from when the object is from), and sometimes a creator. During this week I had the time to do some administrative work and part of my internship was printing, labeling, and putting together these envelopes. I really enjoyed working with this group today, as they were all sweet and enjoyed the project. They all seemed to find various things to focus on, and find different details and notice different things. However, it was a sobering experience as I’ve never worked with anyone who has Alzheimers or Dementia.
The picture below is one from the envelope’s that are given out in ‘In The Moment.’ This is from the Prohibition exhibit. These will be used in a program on the 21st of June, which I will be attending. The label on the back says ‘Ford Model T Touring Car 1927.’ For the exhibit, the car was driven by it’s owner down the LIE and into the building through garage doors.
