Blog Post I

Hi everyone! My name is Katharine MacLaren (Kate for short), and I am a fourth year Museum Studies student. I started out in the undecided program at RIT, with my varied interests leading me to classes like Intro to Criminal Justice, Spanish, Cultural Anthropology, and four biology classes. I discovered Museum Studies when I took Intro to Public History the spring of my freshman year, and I really enjoyed the class. By the time I was a sophomore, I was toggling between Biology and Museum Studies as potential majors. I ultimately chose Museum Studies because it provides direction but does not limit the paths I might take in that direction. I can work at a natural history museum, science museum, art gallery, living history museum or historic house, and there are opportunities to specialize in many different things. It was a career field that I knew welcomed my diverse interests and skill sets.

Given my background in biology and exposure to STEM concepts, I am interested in natural history museums. I am also intrigued by architecture and historic preservation. This past summer, I interned at the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, Connecticut and was fortunate enough to explore the estate while cleaning and completing projects. I have inserted a picture of the beautiful 1901 Colonial Revival home down below.

In addition to the internship, my other museum-related experience includes: working at the Cary Graphic Arts Collection and the RIT Archives, and volunteering in the archives at the Litchfield Historical Society in Connecticut. With the majority of my work thus far focusing on archives, I would like to learn and gain experience in exhibition design and collections management in the future. Lastly, I love to write and study language, so I hope to make use of those two passions wherever I end up.

I look forward to this semester!

1st post

For our first assignment, we were asked to write a paragraph on our interests and experience in the field of Museum Studies and post it to ritmuse.blogspot.com so here it goes.
Unlike most of my classmates who establish their interest in the museum studies field and then pursue their education, I was put in to the field as a necessity of my ever changing job. After being assigned part-time to the RIT Archive Collections, I discovered that I really enjoyed the work, and decided to get the education required for a degree in Museum Studies so that I would have a better understanding of what I was doing and why I was doing it.
My first assignment in the archives involved packing up 87 boxes of materials in the basement at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at RIT and moving them to the archives. Since then, other students and staff members have had the task of going through the boxes and organizing and sorting the materials.
I've been able to expand the types of projects that I've worked on for the archives in the years following that first project. Currently, I'm in charge of the social media for the archives as well as capturing RIT websites using a platform called Archive-It. Be sure to follow us on Facebook (RIT Archive Collections) and on Twitter (@ritarchives).

(Photo taken by me in celebration of Museum Selfie Day 2017- I'm on the far left next to Becky Simmons (RIT Archivist), Jody Sidlauskus (center- RIT Assistant Archivist) along with some of our student employees)

Theses posted to institutional repository!

Point your browser here to read some of our finest theses from this past year: http://scholarworks.rit.edu/museumstudies/ 

From this page, you can click on each thesis to read or download. And, you can also view theses from previous years.

Our Museum Studies/Public History program was begun in 2008, with our first graduates in 2011. We began depositing theses in 2014-15 when I joined the faculty of the program and developed our thesis course. Please feel free to take a peek at what our students have been up to!

More info on our program here.

Happy reading!

A Bittersweet Ending

Thesis has been quite the journey and I'm happy it is over. I am proud of my work and I believe it came out better than I expected. I remember freaking out at the beginning not knowing what I was doing or how to even write a thesis. I truly appreciate and am thankful for my advisors who helped me through it all. To top off my thesis, I was able to volunteer for the Nitrate Picture Show at the Eastman Museum and sneak in to view the films. It felt super official having my own "staff" badge. I am excited to start my next journey in graduate school surrounded by film.

May the Fourth Be With You

(Above: Myself and Dr. Decker at Senior Thesis Poster Sessions, where we all present the culmination of our work in an abbreviated format.  May 2018).

Wow.

I did that. 

(Above: Me and my friend Tristen standing in front of my poster for my senior thesis). 

I feel so awesome I barely have the words. This has been an incredible journey. And I'm so thankful to all those who have helped me to complete it. Thank you Cam, for introducing me to the Public Market. Thank you Dr. Carroll and Dr. Brown for guiding me through this process; it wasn't easy, but it was made bearable (and at time enjoyable even) because of you. Thank you to my senior thesis classmates and co-workers at the Cary Graphic Archives for being so supportive during this year long journey. And thank you Dr. Decker for providing a well-structured and creative environment for us to create the best theses that we possibly could. It's been wild, you guys, and I'm grateful that I got to spend the time that I did with all of you.

(Above: Me and my friends during my first visit to the Rochester Public Market).

-K.T. Jackson

Artpark's summer season is almost here, but...

...my journey with Artpark has been brought to a close for now. I am very happy with how the poster session turned out. It was interesting to share this work with both people who have never heard of Artpark as well as others who have. There are even those who grew up visiting Artpark! Regardless, many are surprised to learn of Artpark's rich history just as I was when I first learned of it. I would like to visit Artpark again, but visiting Artpark today is not anything quite like it was during the years of my study. I was never alive during any of the years of Artpark's artist residency program. Artpark grew and changed, just like my thesis and I throughout the year.

I would like to thank my wonderful advisors and everyone else who helped make this thesis possible. I am so grateful for your support. The future is uncertain but I am so glad and thankful I found this program, for I consider becoming a MUSE student as one of the best decisions I ever made. I wish my fellow graduates and professors the best. 

Wow, it's done, hurrah...

Requisite "Wow, it's done, hurrah" aside, the only remaining part of the thesis process to talk about briefly is yesterday's poster session, which I thought went rather well. It was a good experience to get to talk about and share my work with those outside of my immediate thesis cohort (research methods and thesis professors, advisors, and my peers in the class), and to receive their reactions and questions, which I hope I was able to answer to their satisfaction. There was also something very satisfying about seeing my finished poster (and those of my classmates, which I know they worked so hard on) printed and pinned to a wall, as if seeing it in hardcopy made the end of this process somehow more real than the email that confirmed my thesis has been approved. 

To everyone who helped me with this thesis journey, I would like to thank you.  Your efforts helped me more than you can ever know and were immensely appreciated. I wish all of you and the rest of my thesis class the best in your future endeavors. 

I Guess This Is It?

I feel like I don't really have much to say. At this point, I am done with classes, but have still been running back and forth to campus every day for other responsibilities, so I haven't had the bitter-sweet thought yet that "this is the last time I'll be here for a while..." Maybe it'll hit me after the 12th, but I also feel like I've been at this for eight (generally long) years, so I am ready. Scared in some ways, of course, but also very, very ready.

Love you all. Thanks for helping me find my place in this weird world.