A cabinet of curiosities greets MSP09 students at the UM Exhibit Museum of Natural History.

This was quite a year!

The launch of our new undergraduate minor exceeded everyone’s expectations. Museums and Society, the introduction to museum studies, attracted 70 students, and by the end of the first semester, more than 30 students had declared the minor. So great was the interest, that we had to add a second section of Contemporary Issues in Museums, the second of our core undergraduate courses, during the winter semester. As we enter our second year, there is a great deal of excitement about the minor— it seems we once again will have a bumper crop of students enrolled in the intro course.

The LSA theme year, Meaningful Objects: Museums in the Academy, was a brilliant success. A rich array of special courses, lectures, and events situated in and around the university’s museums were offered. In addition to our usual offering of lectures and brown bags, the Museum Studies Program organized a special colloquium, Translating

The banner produced for the 2009-10 LSA theme year, that considered the work of museums and other institutions maintaining cultural collections at the University of Michigan and beyond.

No.7, 2010

Knowledge: Global Perspectives on Museum and Community. The series of lectures and workshops brought scholars from South Africa, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and of course the US, to UM to explore contemporary strategies for museum and community partnership being pursued in various parts of the world. Over the course of the year the series attracted well over 500 people. We are currently editing the papers for publication as an anthology.

Nancy Murray, our Unit Administrator, retired in January. We wish her well as she pursues a number of her interests, including painting and photography. We were fortunate to hire Amy Smola as our new Unit Administrator, who comes to us with sixteen years of experience working in the university’s health system. In October of last year, with the launch of the new undergraduate minor, we were able to hire Heather Piegza as our new Student Services Specialist. A graduate of UM, she has also completed a masters degree in museum studies at George Washington University, and has worked in various capacities at the Smithsonian Institution. Our little staff is growing!

After six years of serving us well, we finally outgrew our website and we have completely rethought its design. Working with the talented staff at Ciesa Design, we built a new site that will be launched in October. The new site utilizes a state-of-the-art content management system that will make maintaining the site a breeze. In addition to offering information about our graduate and undergraduate programs, the site will publicize upcoming public events. Current and past issues of SPACES (the MSP newsletter) and Working Papers in Museum Studies will be available for download. The site also will serve as an archive for past events, including streaming video recordings of many of our lectures.

As if all this were not enough to keep me busy, this past year I served as the Interim Co-Director of the UM Museum of Art. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, but at the end of June, I was very happy to turn the reins over to Joe Rosa, UMMA’s new Director. The MSP continues to enjoy a very fruitful relationship with the museum. Access to the museum’s resources—classrooms, auditorium, and meeting spaces—has been wonderful. There is nothing quite like taking a break by simply stepping out of one’s office into one of the museum’s galleries . . . viewing art is good for the soul!

It’ll be hard to top this past year. We’re looking forward to continuing to develop the undergraduate program and have a terrific line-up of public events. That said, we’d be perfectly happy if things were just a little quieter after a very busy, though undeniably successful, year.

Ray SilvermanDirector, Museum Studies Program

Newsletter Editor Bradley L. Taylor

Newsletter DesignChris VanWyckCiesaDesign

StaffDirector Raymond Silverman

Associate Director Bradley L. Taylor

Unit Administrator Amy Smola

Student Services SpecialistHeather Piegza

Museum Studies ProgramCharles H. Sawyer Center for Museum StudiesUM Museum of Art525 South State StreetAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1354

Office phone: 734-936-6678Fax: 734-786-0064 www.ummsp.lsa.umich.eduummsp@umich.edu

Regents of the University of MichiganJulia Donovan Darlow, Ann ArborLaurence B. Deitch, Bingham FarmsDenise Ilitch, Bingham FarmsOlivia P. Maynard, GoodrichAndrea Fischer Newman, Ann ArborAndrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe ParkS. Martin Taylor, Grosse Pointe FarmsKatherine E. White, Ann ArborMary Sue Coleman, ex officio

About Our Logo

The MSP mark is derived from an ideogram created by the Akan peoples of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. The name of the design, nkyinkyin, may be translated “twistings” and embodies ideas of change, resilience, adaptability, and creativity.

Museum Practice Program Mainstay Jo Lau Retires

Arriving at the University of Michigan as a transfer student in 1968, Jo planned to complete her degree in the History of Art department. Little did she know that at the UM she would meet her future husband and find a 40-year career with the UMMA and the MPP. As a student Jo worked at the Graduate Library and in the Mosher-Jordan residence hall library, her first experiences in the library world. After completing her bachelor’s degree, Jo went on to complete her master’s in Library Science. It was during this period that she was hired by UMMA Director Charles Sawyer as his personal secretary. A primary responsibility of this position was to coordinate the MPP, a program launched by Charles Sawyer in 1963. At the time Jo came on board, the MPP was a two-year master’s degree program. The first year was dedicated to coursework, followed by a year of practical experience in a museum setting. The program curriculum included a museum history and theory course each term. In addition, there were courses on connoisseurship and specific museum practice applications such as lighting and exhibit design. Each year the students participated in the creation of a significant exhibition focused on a yearlong project whose content was set by the faculty. The students developed the exhibition, which was usually mounted at UMMA and published in catalogue form.

As the secretary to the museum director, Jo was the student liaison to Rackham and maintained student records, financial aid applications, course audits and grade reports for the MPP. She also facilitated student internships with host museums and processed countless grant applications in support of the program. The academic and funding model began to show some strain in the 1990s and by 1998 when James Steward arrived as the new Director of UMMA, the MPP was suffering from inadequate funding and direction. The program was terminated in 2000. After it folded, Jo continued to assist the director and also worked in development and on MPP regrouping efforts, including the re-launch of the program and the eventual hiring of Ray Silverman as the Director of the new Museum Studies Program.

During our lunch interview, we asked Jo several questions about her years at UMMA and her special role in the life of the Museum Practice Program.

How have museums changed over your career? Many Michigan students in the 70s and early 80s felt like intruders in the museum, that the museum was not welcoming or friendly. Happily this has changed and the atmosphere is much more user-oriented and inviting. Part of this change is due to the advent of the docent program, which was launched in 1975 and created structured, well-informed tours of the collections.

Have the students changed? The students seem more practically minded now. They seem to know better what they want from their studies and are better at managing their career goals.

Any message for all of your fans in the museum practice community? I encourage all alumni to keep in touch with the program and to let us know how you are doing. You’re part of a premier program and it’s a privilege. Stay in touch!

Will museums play a role in your retirement? I am looking forward to seeing Chihuly: A New Eden at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. I also plan to see the Tiffany lamp show, Tiffany Lamps: Articles of Utility, Objects of Art, at the Flint Institute of Arts this summer. Recently I’ve been to the new Blanton Museum at U-T Austin and I always enjoy the MoMA in New York City.

What art works will you miss at UMMA? I could cite numerous objects in UMMA’s wonderful collection but I have a particular fondness for the Tiffany pieces from the Havemeyer House now presented so appealingly in UMMA’s new European and American Decorative Arts Gallery on the second floor of the museum. These wonderful pieces include Tiffany doors, windows and lamps.

Any special retirement plans? In addition to home improvement and gardening projects, I’m looking forward to spending more time with my husband David, my sons Christopher and James, and my daughter Abby. I’m especially pleased that retirement will give me ample opportunity to be a doting grandmother to my young grandson, Henry. While David and I are active in three car clubs and enjoy attending car shows in our classic 1960 Thunderbird, entertaining in our home theater with its red velvet motorized curtain is also sure to be on the agenda.

Thank you, Jo! All the best in your retirement!

Museum Practice Program mainstay Jo Lau announced he retirement after almost 40 years at the University.

[Ed.: “What will Michigan do without her?” Such has been the reaction to news of Jo Lau’s retirement. As a staff member at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) for (almost) 40 years, Jo was a constant presence in the lives of students in the Museum Practice Program (MPP) and she even played a role in the launch of the Museum Studies Program—a trusted and friendly presence recalled with affection by students, staff, and faculty alike. Jo recently met us for lunch at Dominick’s, where she shared memories of her time with the Museum Practice Program.]

Visits to Regional MuseumsThroughout the academic year, MSP students travel with faculty to visit area museums. MSP faculty work with these museums to identify an itinerary for the visits, which frequently includes time spent with museum professionals learning about their areas of expertise and discussing the application of theory in real world situations. Site visits, which usually last for a half-day, succeed due to the very sincere commitment of our museum partners to the education of future professionals. We are pleased to acknowledge the contribution made by this year’s site visit sponsors.

Fall

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

Detroit Institute of Arts

The Henry Ford

University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural History

University of Michigan Kelsey Museum of Classical Archaeology

Director of Learning and Interpretation, Jennifer Czajkowski, talking with MSP09 grad students about the Splendor by the Hour Dining Table during a site visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts.

MSP09 grad students meeting with Director Amy Harris during their site visit to the UM Exhibit Museum of Natural History.

Winter

American Museum of Magic

Cranbrook Institute of Science

Detroit Zoo

New Product Works

University of Michigan Detroit Observatory

University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens

On May 16, 2009 the Art Institute opened its new 264,000 square foot, north-facing wing. The Modern Wing was built to satisfy a need for more gallery space, to increase physical access for the public, and as a way to integrate the museum into the existing urban landscape. Prior to the expansion, the Art Institute’s world-renowned collections of modern and contemporary art could only be displayed in part, and free public access spaces were limited or non-existent. Additionally, the success of Millennium Park as a gathering place for both tourists and locals encouraged the museum to reach out to new audiences by physically connecting the new wing to the park with the Nichols Bridgeway.

I was one of eight interns chosen to be part of the first cohort to work in the Modern Wing. The education department is comprised of four divisions: Student, Teacher, Family, and Adult Programs. We were based primarily in the Student Programs divisions and were responsible for researching and conducting tours for groups of all ages. Giving tours provided an important opportunity for me to bridge the gap between theory and practice. I explored new ways of communicating and worked hard to facilitate meaningful encounters between visitors and works of modern and contemporary art.

Giving tours to Spanish-speaking families was especially rewarding. When I was first approached by the outreach coordinator to help her usher these groups around the museum, I was a bit apprehensive. Although I grew up in the border town of El Paso, Texas, and speak Spanish regularly with my family, I was afraid that my “borderlingo-Spanglish”

A Letter from Chicago [Ed.: Each year a number of MSP students scatter to different corners of the museum world to complete their practicum requirements. Occasionally we like to share news of their work in progress. The following letter comes from MSP07 student Monica Huerta, a PhD student in the History of Art, who wrote from the Art Institute of Chicago.]

Growing up in the 1980s the only artwork in my house was a landscape painting my mother had purchased at J.C. Penney. The picture hung in the living room just above our beige couch. I remember standing in front of it and pretending to discuss its aesthetic to an imaginary audience of art connoisseurs. As gracefully as a ten year old can, I would gesticulate towards the image of soft and misty snow-capped mountains, dappled evergreens, and slick reflective body of water, all rendered in the quick-study techniques made popular by Bob Ross.

For me the allure of art has always been its secret language of cryptograms and chromatic nuances. The irony of wanting to explain a J.C. Penney painting to art connoisseurs and the reality of facilitating a discussion in front of Jackson Pollock’s Greyed Rainbow (1953) demonstrate the important role public institutions play in promoting access to a broader and more general public. I’ve learned that making art accessible is the most important job an art historian has. During my twelve-week internship in the education department at the Art Institute of Chicago, I participated and observed as the museum embarked on a dramatically new course designed to make it a more visitor-centered institution.

would not suffice in explaining the nuances of an Impressionist painting or the complexities of abstract expressionism. The tours, I must confess, were not my most shining moments as an art historian, but I managed to communicate a few intelligent points and comprehensively answer questions. Most importantly, I asked for people’s response to the works. I inquired about what art meant to them and where their ideas about it had come from. In the end, although I may have botched a few verb conjugations, I’d like to believe that the tours helped to give the families access to a world full of visual languages and art historical concepts they were previously not privy to.

As a recent graduate of the Museum Studies Program, I now look back on my internship as a time of learning and exploration. Working behind the scenes, I learned about the day-to-day activities of running a large education department and the challenges, both logistical and philosophical, that the staff works hard to overcome. Stepping outside of my comfort zone, the university classroom, I was able to explore new ways of communicating with publics in an effort to make their visits to the museum instructional and enjoyable. I am very grateful to have had the chance to work with the education staff at the Art Institute of Chicago and to have been a part of their efforts in making the Modern Wing an inviting and exciting place.

Monica Huerta (MSP07) led Spanish language tours in the new Contemporary Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago as part of her graduate practicum.

A Letter from Cobblestone Farm

[Ed.: Internships for undergraduate students arise in many places. While many students elect to pursue internships over the summer months when they are back home, a number choose to work during the school year with university and local museums. Kathryn Huss, an undergraduate anthropology major, ended up completing two internshipsin the same term! Undergraduates are expected to work 9 hours/week on their internships during the regular academic term. In addition to their work for the museum, they write a series of reflective papers and participate in occasional group meetings to talk about the experience. In addition to the story recounted below, Kathryn also worked at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology. Her experience at Cobblestone Farm is representative of the real contribution undergraduate students can make in local community museums.]

MSP minor Kathryn Huss (History of Art ‘10) continues her work at Ann Arbor’s Cobblestone Farm as a member of the Board of Directors.

Since January I have been working at Cobblestone Farm, a historic farmhouse completed in 1844. In 1972, the house was purchased by the City of Ann Arbor and later the Cobblestone Farm Association was created to help preserve the historic site. Inside the house is a large collection of furniture and other household items from the Civil War era. The house used to be open for tours everyday but because of the lack of volunteers, tours are now by appointment only. Several people from the Association visit every Monday to work for part of the day.

Unfortunately the collection records were never kept up to date. The first donations were accepted without any documentation. Ten years later when a volunteer tried to identify and accession everything, most of the accession records were peppered with question marks, notes that say “missing?” or which question the identity of the donor. Most items in the collection are not labeled with their accession number, have no accession number, or have multiple accession numbers. When I first started, I thought I would just be describing objects, taking

a photo, and loading it onto a computer like I did in my MUSEUMS 301 class. Instead, for the past six months I have been sorting through files and going through the house trying to identify everything. I have been trying to make sense of forty years of incomplete records.

The problem with past attempts to straighten out collection records is that no one finished what they started. I have every intention of finishing. My internship officially ended in May when I graduated but the Association is more than happy that I chose to stay. Keeping an accurate, detailed collection record is important because researchers can track where the object came from, what it was used for, and it also helps the Cobblestone Farm Association keep track of everything. Objects in the collection should be easy to identify and locate. This prevents loss and theft and also helps them remember what they have. I remember one day I was going through the books and found a book from the 1700s, when all the other books were from the 1800s. When I asked my supervisor about it, she was shocked because she never knew a book that old existed in the collection.

My goal is to have the entire collection recorded in a computer database. It will take time and patience but I will eventually finish. Maybe the Association can find another intern to help me! In any case, the experience has been rewarding and I look forward to future opportunities…especially since the Association recently invited me to be on their Board of Directors! The collection records may give me horrible headaches every day I am there, but it has given me a unique experience that should look wonderful on my resume.

Who knew that such an incredible experience would be found right down the road from the university? I guess classrooms can be found anywhere if you’re open to the opportunity.

Renowned Emory University anthropologist Ivan Karp did double duty this year, serving as the concluding speaker in the yearlong Translating Knowledge colloquium and participating as this year’s MSP Visiting Scholar. Karp’s presentation, “Museums and Their Communities or Communities and Their Museums,” which served as the 2010 Whitesell Lecture, took on the task of drawing conclusions and making final observations from the ten lectures offered as part of the Translating Knowledge series. MSP Director Raymond Silverman observed that Karp was uniquely qualified for this particular work: “Over the last twenty years, Ivan Karp has edited three extremely important anthologies that have critically examined the role of museums in society. His reputation as a scholar and his experience in and with museums made him an obvious choice for this task. I was thrilled when he agreed to come to Michigan as the MSP Visiting Scholar.”

Karp’s responsibilities as Visiting Scholar immersed him in the life of the Museum Studies Program for a week in March, where his focus was working with the current cohort of graduate students. His week began by teaching the evening proseminar class, continued with a series of meetings in which he critiqued this year’s student capstone projects, and was peppered with opportunities for students to meet with him to discuss research interests or career plans. Karp’s schedule also involved meetings with faculty colleagues and members of the professional museum community. He was the honored guest at a dinner hosted by the Bentley Historical Library and the Museum Studies Program after which he delivered the fourth annual Whitesell Lecture in the Museum of Art’s Helmut Stern Auditorium.

As might be expected, Karp’s schedule was also filled with visits to museums, both on the Michigan campus and further

afield. The final day of his visit took him to such disparate institutions as the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Detroit), and the Heidelberg Project where he met with artist/creator Tyree Guyton. Karp made special mention of the richness of the museum culture in Michigan during his drive back to campus.

The MSP Visiting Scholar Program, now in its fourth year, brings outstanding scholars and practitioners to campus for a week each spring to work with students and faculty, become part of the campus community, and deliver a public lecture at the end of the week. Karp was preceded on campus by Harold Skramstad, Elaine Heumann Gurian, and Sharon Macdonald.

2011 will see the arrival of Andrew McClellan of Tufts University as the Museum Studies Program Visiting Scholar.

Visiting Scholar Draws Yearlong Colloquium to a Successful Conclusion

Ivan Karp, National Endowment for the Humanities Professor at Emory University and MSP 2010 Visiting Scholar, talking with staff members during his visit to the Heidelberg Project in Detroit.

2009/10 Public Programs

Museum Studies ColloquiumTranslating Knowledge: Global Perspectives on Museum and Community

What happens to the meaning, the knowledge, associated with an object as it moves from its community of origin to the museum? What role can the community play in this process of translation and transformation? The 2009/10 Translating Knowledge colloquium considered strategies for engaging communities in the complex processes of interpreting and presenting their histories and cultures in the museum. This yearlong series of lectures and workshops featured ten international scholars whose work offers new models for confronting the social and political challenges of ownership and representation in museums and other cultural institutions. The papers are being edited for publication by MSP Director Raymond Silverman.

New Publication Series Showcases Emerging Scholarship MSP Director Raymond A. Silverman recently announced the launch of the University of Michigan Working Papers in Museum Studies series, an exciting endeavor that will contribute significantly to the current dialogue about museums: “In addition to our graduate and undergraduate programs, the MSP fosters new scholarship in the field of museums studies—the primary venue for this has been our colloquia and lecture series. Our working papers series is affording us an opportunity to develop what began here as public presentations into scholarly publications. The high quality of scholarship available in our first group of papers is very impressive and we hope these will set the standard for future contributions.”

Since the inception of the Museum Studies Program in 2002, nearly 100 individuals have participated in public lectures, colloquia, symposia, conferences, workshops, and seminars sponsored by the program. The initial releases in the Working Papers in Museum Studies series offer a representative sampling of those participants: academics, museum directors, independent scholars, and graduate students with research interests focused both here and abroad.

Additional titles will be released in the near future. Silverman concludes, “It’s difficult to overstate the importance of these papers. This significantly extends our ability to reach out to the rest of the museum studies community and share some of the thinking that emerges from our programs. This will be a terrific complement to the video recordings we’ve made available for years now on our website.”

Titles published as part of the initial release include the following:

An Agenda for American Museums in the 21st Century

Harold Skramstad, President Emeritus, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village

Virtual Experiments: Reflections on the Museum in the Virtual Realm

Alice Goff, MSP07, University of California, Berkeley

Museums, Histories, and the Dilemmas of Change on Post-Apartheid South Africa

Leslie Witz, University of the Western Cape

Civilizing the Guam Museum

Christine Taitano DeLisle, MSP05, University of Michigan

Wanting to Be Third on Your Block

Elaine Heumann Gurian, Senior Museum Consultant

All papers in the working papers series have been e-published and are available on the Museum Studies Program website as well as through the University of Michigan Libraries portal known as DeepBlue.

September 29-30

Writing Local Community Histories in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Reflections on Current Practices and Imagining New Possibilities

Noor Nieftagodien, Senior Lecturer, History Department, and Senior Researcher, National Research Foundation Program in Local Histories, Present Realities, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa

October 13-14

Networks or Entanglements? Museums and Native American Knowledges

Gwyneira Isaac, Assistant Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University

November 17-18, 2009

Challenging Museum Sustainability: Governance, Community Participation and the Fickle Political Climate in Southern Luzon (Philippines) Towns

Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador, Lecturer, Anthropology, Non-Western Aesthetics, Museum Studies and Cultural Heritage Management, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines

December 8-9

Open Access versus the Culture of Protocols

Howard Morphy, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Research School of Humanities, Australian National University

January 12-13

Locating Culture with/in a Ghanaian Community

Raymond Silverman, Professor of History of Art and Afroamerican & African Studies, Director of the Museum Studies Program and Interim Co-Director of the UM Museum of Art, University of Michigan

January 26-27 (Rescheduled to January 2011)

Ko Tawa: Where Are the Glass Cabinets?

Paul Tapsell, Chair in Māori Studies and Dean of Te Tumu, the School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand

February 9-10

Communities and Museums: Equal Partners?

Sheila Watson, Lecturer, Department of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, United Kingdom

February 22-23

Growing Cultural Knowledge with Museum Collections

Sven Haakanson, Jr., Executive Director, Alutiiq Museum, Alaska

March 9-10

Indigenous Ontologies, Digital Futures: Plural Provenances and the Challenge of Collaborative Museum Documentation

Aaron Glass, Fellow, Bard Graduate Center and American Museum of Natural History, New York City

Winter 2010 Whitesell Lecture March 30-31

Museums and Their Communities or Communities and Their Museums

Ivan Karp, National Endowment for the Humanities Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Public Scholarship in the Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts, Emory University

UM Exhibit Museum of Natural History Director, Amy Harris, meeting with MSP09 students in the rotunda of the Ruthven Building.

2009/10 Public Programs

Issues in Museum Studies

In addition to the yearlong Translating Knowledge colloquium, the winter term saw a wide-ranging mix of public lectures in the Issues in Museum Studies series. This series featured a broad assortment of museum related topics, both practical and theoretical, with presentation topics ranging from the state of curatorial decision making and the role of online communities in contemporary museums to the architectural impact of museum planning both on the scale of exhibit design and that of urban renewal. Three of the lectures presented the research of recipients of the MSP’s Fellowship for Doctoral Research in Museums (FDRM).

March 11

Planning Museum Spaces: Gallery Layouts, Exhibition Narratives, and Space-Use

Ipek Kaynar Rohloff (MSP04), PhD, Architecture, UM; FDRM recipient

March 15

A Good Fit: The Fowler Museum at UCLA and Its Commitment to Academia and the Community

Betsy Quick, Director of Education, UCLA Fowler Museum, Los Angeles

March 17

The Social Museum: Online Community-building and the Future of Museums

Matthew Fisher, Founder and President, Night Kitchen Interactive, Philadelphia

March 23

Curatorial Decision Making in Times of Change

Betti-Sue Hertz, Director, Visual Arts, Yerba Buena Center for Art, San Francisco

April 1

Urban Reimaging and Cultural Development: The Cases of the Tate Museums in London, Liverpool, & St. Ives

Deirdre L. C. Hennebury (MSP04), PhD candidate, Architecture, UM; FDRM recipient

April 8

Collecting Classical Artifacts at the University of Michigan

Hima Mallampati (MSP05), PhD candidate, Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology and Archaeology, UM; FDRM recipient

UCLA Fowler Museum Director of Education, Betsy Quick, listening to Museum of Art docent presentation at a workshop she led during her visit to UM.

Brown Bags

The 2009/10 brown bag series was an unqualified success with thoughtful and probing presentations and excellent attendance. We were especially pleased with the undergraduate faces at these events and are already relishing these additional voices in our Museum Studies community. Developed entirely by students from their practical engagement and research experiences, the brown bag topics add variety and a delightfully informal side to our public events. Program assistant and doctoral candidate Deirdre Hennebury has coordinated this effort now for several years. As she passes the reins for the 2010/11 series, she would like to thank all of the students who participated as presenters and made the brown bag series such a compelling part of the program.

18 September

“Techiman, Where Culture Is Chief”: Reflections on Culture and Community in a Ghanaian Town

Techiman Research Group (Jennifer Beyer, Anne Compton, Henrike Florusbosch, Ricky Punzalan and Ray Silverman)

23 October

How to Re-create an 1860s German-American Lager-Beer Saloon: A Summer at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Aimee VonBokel (MSP08, PhD student, American Culture and Museum Studies)

5 November

Access: Who Should Have It and Why Should We Give It to Them?

Monica Huerta (MSP07, PhD candidate, History of Art and Museum Studies)

4 December

Let the Walls of History Speak: Constructing European Heritage through the Restoration of Neamt Fortress, Romania

Luciana Aenasoaie (MSP08, PhD student, Anthropology and History and Museum Studies)

22 January

Wrapping Things Up at the Charles Wright Museum of African American History

Kelly Kirby (MSP05, PhD student, Anthropology and Museum Studies)

19 February

Creating an Audio Tour on the Development of Writing in the Ancient Near East

Christine Efta (MSP08, PhD student, Near Eastern Studies and Museum Studies)

25 March

The Empty Vessel Makes the Loudest Sound: New Museology and the Promise of the Non-Collecting Art Institution

Andrea McDonnell (MSP08, PhD student, Communication Studies and Museum Studies)

9 April

These Apples Still Bear Fruit: The Apple Heritage Museum

J. Amadeaus Scott (MSP08, MFA student, Art & Design and Museum Studies)

MSP05After receiving her PhD in January 2010, Heloise Finch-Boyer completed a three-month research internship at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England under the guidance of the Curator of the History of Cartography. She is hoping that her work there and the positive support and feedback she has received from curators will lead to a postdoctoral research project about historical cartography in the Indian Ocean at the museum next year.

Kelly Kirby has had multiple commitments at UM this year while completing her practicum, delivering a brown bag, and passing her preliminary exams. In addition to advising undergraduates in the Anthropology Department, Kelly coordinated the online calendar and mailings for the LS&A Museum Theme Year. With Sarah Gothie, she organized the Museum Studies focused Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop and the graduate student conference Thinking About “Things”: Interdisciplinary Futures in Material Culture. In April, Kelly submitted a chapter for an edited book project on dress and social action in Africa, to be published by the University of Chicago Press.

MSP06Alison Byrnes relocated to Bangalore, India on a two-year contract at the Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology. She teaches first-year students in art and design and liberal arts to all levels of undergraduates. The school is working on collaborating on several large-scale museum projects, including the Nehru Planetarium and a proposal for a new art museum in a heritage area, with which Alison is also involved. She has also had several opportunities to show her paintings in Bangalore and Mumbai. Alison first visited the school where she now works as part of a study trip provided by her practicum experience at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

MSP07This spring Lindsay Stern started a new position as the Education Coordinator at the Center for Photography at Woodstock in Woodstock, N.Y. Lindsay is responsible for coordinating workshops, lectures, and managing the internship programs. Since the Center has a small staff, she is looking forward to being involved with many additional projects including exhibitions and the residency program. Lindsay continues to show her artwork around the U.S. Of particular note was a solo show in August 2009 at the Art Hospital in Bloomington, Indiana. Upcoming is a small group show called Hungry? at the Eclipse Gallery in Algoma, Wisconsin, where her work will be displayed until late June 2010.

Kudos... a collection of updates on the activities and many successes of Museum Studies Program students, past and present…

Graduate Students

MSP03In fall 2009, Henrike Florusbosch was the Graduate Student Instructor for MUSEUMS 301, the new introductory course for the Undergraduate Minor in Museum Studies. Thanks to her considerable talents as a teacher, the launch of the course was a great success.

MSP04In early 2009, Michael André completed a translation of the English text of the dual-language catalogue Henry van de Velde. Metallkunst/Works in Metal, which was published by Seemann Verlag, Leipzig. It is the first in a planned six-volume catalogue raisonné of the work of the versatile Belgian designer Henry van de Velde, an artist notable also as the founder of the Weimar Arts and Crafts School, the direct forerunner of the Bauhaus School. Michael was recruited for the project in 2007 by former colleagues at the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, where he completed his MSP practicum in 2005. The Klassik Stiftung Weimar houses many of van de Velde’s works. Michael was pleased to continue working with people he got to know during his time in Weimar, and looks forward to future participation with the project.

Erica Lehrer is an assistant professor in the History and Sociology/Anthropology Departments at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. In December 2009, Erica Lehrer and Prof. Hannah Smotrich of the UM School of Art + Design participated in the group gallery show Ethnographic Terminalia at the Ice Box at Crane Arts. In February, Erica gave the keynote lecture for the McGill University Anthropology Graduate Student Association conference, “Elaborating the ‘Social’ in Social Science: Curating Ethnography as Public Scholarship.” With UMMSP student Monica Patterson (MSP07) as a co-applicant, Erica recently received a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant for the project “Image, Text, Sound & Technology in the Aftermath of Violence.” Erica has two forthcoming articles: “Can There be a Conciliatory Heritage?” in the International Journal of Heritage Studies and “Curating Jews: Reflections on the Practice of Heritage” in AJS Perspectives.

MSP08J. Amadeaus Scott completed her MFA this spring. In addition to her work on the Ann Arbor Apple Census that she curated as part of her MFA thesis, Amadeaus gave multiple presentations and published a paper “These Branches Still Bear Fruit…” [Repast XXV (2009), no.3] focusing on the Apple Heritage Museum and her collection of apple-related artifacts.

MSP09One of Joe Cialdella’s ceramic sculptures was accepted to the West Michigan Area Show at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. In addition, Joe won an award for a paper he presented on urban agriculture in Detroit at the New England American Studies Association in October 2009. He also presented on a similar topic at the Portland Center for the Public Humanities conference at the end of May.

Undergraduate StudentsLauren Altschuler won a four-month internship at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Lauren’s internship will be with the Guggenheim’s Education Department, where she is working in Adult and Academic Programs.

Capstone Projects

As the capstone project of the proseminar sequence, students are assigned to participate as a member of a team charged with addressing a challenge faced by a local museum. A specific project is assigned to each group and teams work with MSP faculty and museum staff to find the best solution to their challenge. Past projects have yielded proposals for exhibitions, centered on best practices research, and provided marketing analyses for museums. A final presentation is made at the end of the term to members of both the university and museum communities. In addition, student groups travel to host institutions to make formal presentations on these projects to relevant in-house staff. We are grateful to the many professionals who supported our students through their collaboration on this year’s capstone projects.

Reframing Museum Typology: The Past and Future of the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum Clara Cahill, Joe Cialdella, Elizabeth Vandermark Partner: Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum Liaison/Mentor: Nancy Villa Bryk

Harmonious Spaces: Freer’s Aesthetics of Display and Alumni Memorial Hall Sarah Gothie, Mei-chen Pan, Anna Wieck Partner: Charles Lang Freer House Liaison/Mentor: William S. Colburn

Private Collection, Public Aspirations: Raising the Profile of the Mott-Warsh Collection Kristine Ronan, Emma Wolman Partner: Mott-Warsh Collection Liaison/Mentor: Camille Brewer

The University of Michigan Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Celebration Andrew Gurstelle, Kate Jarvis, Neha Paliwal, Alison Vacca Partner: Bentley Historical Library Liaison/mentor: Fran Blouin

MSP09 grad students Anna Wieck, Mei-chen Pan, and Sarah Gothie presenting on their Capstone Project at the Charles L. Freer House in Detroit.

Recently Completed

Center for Legislative Archives, Washington, D.C.As an intern at the Center for Legislative Archives, Marc Levitt (MSP08) performed a broad range of tasks related to the Archives and its exhibits in the Capitol Visitor Center. In addition to assisting staff researchers and creating enhanced record descriptions, Marc researched and wrote labels for the rotating exhibits. These thematic presentations use original artifacts, videos, and architectural models to illustrate the story of Congress and the Capitol.

Charles Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MIKelly Kirby (MSP 05) worked extensively with the Charles Wright Museum’s textile collection, where her focus was on researching, cataloging and re-housing textiles, quilts, and clothing—including wedding gowns, preachers’ robes, formal attire, army uniforms, Pullman porter uniforms, jackets, tablecloths, t-shirts, Ku Klux Klan robes, hats, shoes, and so on. In many cases, this meant accessioning the objects for the first time! Kelly also participated in a collaborative educational outreach project between the Charles Wright Museum and Pewabic Pottery, utilizing the museum’s collection (including three textile pieces which Kelly selected) to teach local elementary and middle school children about art and meaning-making.

Chicago History Museum, Chicago, ILDuring the summer of 2009, Tiffany Chao (MSP 08) joined the staff of the Chicago History Museum to aid in the development, design, and project planning of the new Chinatown Theater Project. The exhibit My Chinatown offered a multimedia theater experience, designed to present the sights, sounds, and stories of Chicago’s historic Chinatown neighborhood. Tiffany was able to participate in prototype development and testing of the theater experience, to manage digital resources (photography, audio files, and video) for the project, and to work collaboratively with the exhibition team on the translation of oral histories and the design of the exhibit.

Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MIBeatriz Zengotitabengoa (MSP07) pursued her practicum in the Department of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Under the supervision of the chief curator, Bea researched, wrote, and edited portions of the permanent collections database. Updating the TMS system required the scanning and digitizing of slides and other archived exhibits materials to allow them to be a more beneficial resource for the department. In addition, Bea edited catalogue essays for the special exhibition, Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500-Present.

Fort Douglas Museum, Salt Lake City, UTDonald Buaku (MSP 06) worked for three months at the Fort Douglas Museum, a United States Army fort and military museum on the campus of the University of Utah. At the time, the museum was undergoing a major renovation and extension building project. The architecture company Donald works for had been awarded the contract, giving him a unique insight into the planning and design process. While there, Donald was able to assist with a mapping project to record the footprint of all the man-made structures that had existed on the site of Fort Douglas from 1862 to the present, as well as to observe the variety of visitor responses to the emotionally laden war-related objects in the museum’s collection.

Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, MIAndrea McDonnell (MSP08) spent her practicum at the Gallery Project in Ann Arbor, an independent contemporary art gallery run by artist volunteers. While at the gallery, Andrea assisted in the planning, hanging and removal of three spring/summer shows (Visual Storytelling, Race, and Shrines and Altars). The exhibit development process involved negotiating contracts, researching art pieces, and developing liaisons with contributing artists. Andrea also supported the gallery in executing public programming and promotional events related to the exhibits.

Graduate Student Practica

Each year many MSP graduate students who have completed the 601/602 proseminar sequence on museum history and theory begin work on their practicum requirement, the final step to achieving certification in Museum Studies. Students work with MSP faculty and staff to identify a location for their practicum and to propose a course of study.

Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New York CityThe Lower East Side Tenement Museum uses a former tenement house as a frame to examine the immigrant experience on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. During her practicum at the museum, Aimee VonBokel (MSP08) worked on a new design concept, which focuses on John Schneider and his family and the German lager-beer saloon they operated in the basement of the building between 1865 and 1886. In addition, Aimee developed a walking tour pamphlet that incorporated visual aids, quotes, and historical information.

Museum of History and Archaeology, Neamt, RomaniaLuciana Aenasoaie (MSP08) spent her practicum in the converted castle that now holds the Museum of History and Archaeology in Neamt, Romania. Since Romania’s accession to the European Union in 2007, heritage restoration projects have become central to the reconstruction of local, national, and transnational history. During her tenure, Luciana assisted in the reorganization and cataloguing of the museum warehouse and also conducted tours and workshops. Her primary project was to assist the museum in constructing clearer didactic guidelines for their education department.

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, UKFrom January through March 2010, Heloise Finch-Boyer (MSP 05) began work to develop a digital sea charts collections policy for the National Maritime Museum, surveying other UK institutions to assess what has already proven a workable solution for a variety of digital storage needs. She also conducted research on the transition from paper to digital sea chart making to provide material for future exhibitions, and to explore how digital artifacts differ from 3D or physical objects in museological contexts. Her research was so helpful to the Maritime Museum, she was awarded a paid internship to continue her work!

Oriental Institute Museum, ChicagoChristine Efta’s (MSP08) primary responsibility at the Oriental Institute Museum was to develop an audio tour to navigate visitors through the existing galleries. Specifically, her task was to tell the story of the invention of writing by highlighting museum objects and displays as didactic elements in a semi-chronological narrative. Using archival photographs and excavation records from Khorsabad, Christine developed the tour to also include the story of writing’s spread and subsequent use in the Ancient Near East.

MSP07 grad student, Bea Zengotitabengoa, and Curator for Africa, Nii Quarcoopome, who served as Bea’s mentor during her internship at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Once students have connected with a museum, they finalize a three-month full-time schedule of activities keyed to the student’s area of interest and expertise and the museum’s institutional needs. The MSP provides financial support to students so that they can pursue meaningful opportunities. As the list below shows, students end up both around the globe and in our own back yard. Students frequently tell us that the practicum is the most significant part of the program.

The Undergraduate Minor at One YearThe first year of the new undergraduate minor in museum studies was a success by any measure. The 18 credit minor consists of three components—the core classes MUSEUMS 301 and 401, a museum-based internship (MUSEUMS 409), and three elective courses chosen from a list of offerings. Enrollment figures in the core introductory classes surpassed original estimates; the new curriculum was well received by students; and undergraduates finally had access to content and experiential opportunities that had been long awaited. Faculty eagerly participated as guest presenters in MUSEUMS 301 and 401 and staff at collecting institutions across campus provided many more than the number of internship opportunities needed for students. The minor has re-energized relationships with public goods units across campus and has shown great potential for enhanced relationships with the Ruthven exhibit and research museums in particular.

Roughly half the students enrolled in MUSEUMS classes in the first year have announced their intent to pursue the minor. This represents an amazingly diverse group of students from disciplines rarely encountered in the MSP graduate program, ranging from expected majors like Anthropology and the History of Art to students in Public Policy or Industrial and Operational Engineering. The variety of student backgrounds and interests was also reflected in the fourteen semester-long internships that were completed during the winter 2010 term. Students work with a museum or collecting institution of their choosing to complete an internship shaped in consultation with museum studies faculty and staff. Most of these internships took place in campus museums and involved student participation in several museum related activities.

Undergraduate Internships University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural HistoryKathryn Huss (Anthropology) worked with the museum’s marketing team to create mailing lists for targeted visitor groups including day care centers, hotels, charter schools, summer camps, and senior centers. In addition, she posted museum events each month in various publications and online resources; created spreadsheets of evaluation summaries for several school and summer programs; created a perpetual calendar for the marketing team as well as for the general staff team. She also drafted ways in which the museum could improve their relationships within the university community and increase its activity level with university undergraduates.

University of Michigan Kelsey Museum of ArchaeologyAllison Ripley (Ancient Civilizations and Biblical Studies) worked to make the museum more accessible and engaging for children. Her two main projects for the semester were to create a touch screen exhibit on the Egyptian god, Bes, to be placed near the museum’s entrance, and to determine the most captivating artifacts to fill the exhibit drawers in the Near Eastern exhibit.

University of Michigan Map LibraryAmy Albanese (Classical Archaeology) and Teplyn Fournier (Modern Greek and History of Art, BA, 2010) located and compiled potential materials for an upcoming exhibit focusing on the Mediterranean. Concentrating their search for relevant maps and atlases at the Special Collections Library and the Clements Library, they developed a digital spreadsheet on which they noted every piece that was examined. They photographed as many relevant pieces as possible and compiled notes and photographs in an annotated bibliography intended for future use by the exhibition’s planners.

University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology Katherine Carlton (Anthropology) digitized the Great Lakes Basket Collection to include in a database that can be accessed by indigenous groups from around the Great Lakes geographical area. Theoretically, these individuals will be able post their own stories or comments on the artifacts’ digital pages so that information on the collection is supplemented with cultural context. In this way, the museum and indigenous source communities become collaborators in building and sharing knowledge. By taking over twenty photos of each object in the 200-piece collection, Katherine helped facilitate easier access to the collection.

Marisa Szpytman (Near Eastern Civilizations) was involved in continuing the cataloguing of artifacts from the summer 2009 Bloom Mound excavations conducted by Professor John Speth in New Mexico. She specifically worked on cataloguing all of the animal bones in the collection as well as organizing the collection by species. The work she completed with this collection will make the bones more easily accessible for Professor Speth as he creates his site report and, in addition, will aid students who wish to study this material in the future.

University of Michigan Museum of ArtLauren Altschuler (History of Art) and Sara Olds (History of Art) interviewed the public in order to collect data on the interactive DialogTable in the museum to support future changes to the table. This process allowed them to interact with the museum public and to understand what people expect from museums. This first-hand interaction was imperative to how they now regard museum/visitor interactions. Working with the DialogTable introduced them to the ways in which the museum uses recent technology to enhance relations with the visiting public.

Kathleen Munn (History) assisted with a variety of public events including staffing all of the Museum Theme Year lectures and many of the School of Music, Theater and Dance concerts. She also helped organize the paperwork for the Education Department’s programs and events from the past several years.

Students in the inaugural class of MUSEUMS 301 participating in the formal “opening” of their Digital Curation Project exhibitions.

University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology Alexandra Briske (American Culture) entered data from 3,000 index cards of collection-based information into the museum’s collections database, while also photographing old labels and different specimens from the collection. She also created three-dimensional models of fossils from the collection for potential publication in an upcoming re-release of a book on Michigan river basin fossils.

University of Michigan School of EducationTeplyn Fournier (Modern Greek and History of Art) created supplemental kits to be distributed to Michigan middle school teachers to assist in the implementation of the new world history curriculum requirements. As the world history curriculum for sixth through eighth grades involves human history from roughly the dawn of time through 650CE, she was responsible for locating physical artifacts and artwork to support fundamental concepts. In particular, she used the extensive resources located in the University’s Exhibit Museum of Natural History and Museum of Anthropology and created four graphic organizers, additional activities, and hands-on materials to be included in the kits.

University of Michigan Sindecuse Museum of DentistryAmber Ostaszewski (History of Art) participated in researching, cataloging, scanning, and accessioning items into the collection. She helped conduct research on the collection during the process of updating the exhibits and added over 100 artifacts into the museum’s database. She learned how to import images into the database and will continue working at the museum helping to create digital images of archival documents that will appear within the database records.

MSP minor Marisa Szpytman (Near Eastern Civilizations) cared for artifacts from New Mexico’s Bloom Mound excavations at the Museum of Anthropology.

Faculty MentorAcknowledgmentsAt the end of such a successful initial year, we want to publically acknowledge the campus internship mentors who made our undergraduate internship experiences possible.

Bob Bain , Associate Professor, School of Education

Lisa Borgsdorf, Manager of Public Programs and Campus Engagement, UM Museum of Art

Mary DeYoe, Education Program Coordinator, UM Museum of Art

Amy Harris, Director, UM Exhibit Museum of Natural History

Karl Longstreth, Map Librarian, University Libraries

Dan Madaj, Administrative Specialist, UM Exhibit Museum of Natural History

Dan Miller, Collections Manager, UM Museum of Paleontology

Karen O’Brien, Collections Manager, UM Museum of Anthropology

Shannon O’Dell, Curator and Director, UM Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry

Margaret Root, Professor, Department of History of Art; Curator, UM Kelsey Museum of Archaeology

Carla Sinopoli, Professor, Department of Anthropology; Director, UM Museum of Anthropology

George Taylor, Director, Cobblestone Farm

Jeff Wilson, Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences; Assistant Curator, UM Museum of Paleontology

My First Job: A Summer of Magic[Ed: With this article, we inaugurate a new feature intended to follow the stories of those students who seek to enter the museum profession. Katherine Carlton completed the Undergraduate Minor in Museum Studies in winter 2010. Over the summer, she worked at the American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan, where she was able to apply her museum studies education to the day-to-day challenges of caring for and interpreting one of the nation’s great collections of magic. Katherine’s account of her first job follows.]

Growing up in the small town of Marshall, Michigan, I never could have imagined that my very first job out of college would be back in the town I was so determined to get out of as a kid. I had always dreamed that my future beyond school lay in a big city or a foreign country, not in the small, local museum I had visited on middle school trips. While I appreciated the opportunity to return to and work in the historic town responsible for first sparking my interest in museums, and while I was intrigued by the idea of working in a magic museum, I was sure that the summer held no great adventures. Little did I know that in the course of three months I would not only become both a spirit medium and a “magnetic lady,” but also that I would spend every single day of my summer transported to the mysterious, fantastical, and breathtaking world of magic.

When I arrived at the American Museum of Magic for my first day of work, the museum director and only full time staff member, Jeff Taylor, showed me where I would be spending most of my time. He took me to the basement of the museum’s collections building, the building I had known as a child as the Marshall Public Library, and showed me the stacks of magic posters he said it would be my job to catalog. Already feeling strange that I would be spending my days in the room I vividly remembered as the children’s section of the public library, I was also intimidated by the idea of cataloging thousands of posters related to a topic I knew almost nothing about. It had been years since I had been to the museum and the only magician I could name off the top of my head was Houdini. Making my way through the stacks, I saw names and

titles like “Sorcar, the World’s Greatest Magician,” “Zat Zam, Chief of the Indian Jugglers,” and “Rapp, the Small Town Showman” and wondered if I was in over my head.

Fortunately, it was decided that in addition to cataloging the museum’s poster collection I would also spend two days a week working the front desk and giving tours. The idea of leading public tours was at first even more terrifying given my lack of knowledge on the subject, but luckily Denny Laub, a museum board member and magic historian, diligently trained me on the material. Soon I knew the rich history of the art of magic and fascinating stories of the magicians themselves. I learned that Sorcar, for instance, would perform the “sawing the lady in half” routine with what looked like squirting blood and guts for dramatic effect, Zat Zam, Chief of the Indian Jugglers, was famous for his knife-throwing routine in which he used his wife as his assistant/target, and Augustus Rapp, the Small Town Showman, toured the country with a magic show produced from the contents of only one small suitcase. As I learned the stories associated with each of these individuals, cataloging the posters was almost like seeing the magic firsthand, and each poster gave me more and more insight into the rich and incredible history of the art.

Early in the summer I developed a great enthusiasm for going into work every day, something I imagine is both highly coveted and extremely rare in a first job. My enthusiasm only increased mid-summer when Denny Laub asked if I would be interested in assisting him

with some of the public lectures he was doing that summer. For the first lecture, titled “Mind Readers, Mesmerists, and Magnetic Ladies,” he asked if I would be interested in becoming a magnetic lady to offer demonstrations at the end of his talk. The first magnetic lady was a teenage girl from Georgia named Lulu Hurst, who performed in the late 1800s. She was coined the Georgia Magnet after convincing her ever-growing audience that she had superhuman strength. The 90-pound girl would throw men more than twice her size around the stage and infuriate them when she would balance on one foot and could not be pushed over. To supplement Denny’s lecture on, among other things, magnetic ladies, I became the Michigan Magnet. With Denny’s training and Jeff Taylor’s assistance in the practice sessions, I was able to effectively demonstrate portions of Lulu Hurst’s act during the lecture and hopefully impressed a few audience members with my “magnetism.”

Not wanting the fun to stop there, I asked Denny and Jeff if I could also assist in the next installment of the lecture series, titled “Magicians among the Spirits.” Denny was lecturing on the often-contentious relationship between magicians and spirit mediums as well as the history of spirit conjuring and séances within the art of magic. Retiring my Michigan Magnet act for the time being, I instead became a spirit medium. During the lecture, an audience member tied my hands behind my back. I then sat in a chair next to a table full of musical instruments and was put into a hypnotic trance by Denny. A black spirit curtain was held in front of me, and we

MSP minor Katherine Carlton (Anthropology) interned at the American Museum of Magic where she led tours, catalogued artifacts, and performed as a “magnetic lady.”

then attempted to contact the spirit of a deceased magician named Henry Slade. When Denny called upon Slade, the musical instruments began to be played and flew through the air, but when the curtain was taken down seconds later I was still in a hypnotic trance with my hands tied securely behind my back. The lecture’s enthusiastic audience loved the demonstration and I had more fun than I ever thought was possible in the basement of a museum’s collections building.

The summer ended far too quickly. I feel that I made lasting friendships with both Jeff Taylor and Denny Laub and saying goodbye was difficult. But it was also difficult leaving the magic behind. I had developed a great affection for the art and after viewing thousands of magicians’ posters felt a certain attachment to all of the performers, as if they too were my friends. In the end, my time spent at the American Museum of Magic was everything one could hope for in a first job. I learned valuable skills and museum techniques that will greatly benefit me in my future, made lifelong friendships, and had fun every single day. I will continue to look back fondly on my time there, and will always have a love for the art of magic.

[Ed.: Katherine Carlton will spend the coming year in an internship at the NAGPRA Offices in Washington, D.C., before beginning law school with a focus on repatriation law in 2011. If the law career never takes off, Katherine’s friends at the museum will be glad to have their magnetic lady back.]

Charles H. Sawyer Center for Museum StudiesUniversity of Michigan Museum of Art525 South State StreetAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1354

Fall 2010 Admissions

Gina KonstantopoulosNear Eastern Studies, PhD

Katherine LarsonIPCAA, PhD

Kathryn (KT) LoweInformation, MSI

Ashley MillerHistory of Art, PhD

Megan BankaConservation Biology, MA

Rachel (Reed) Esslinger-PayetArt & Design, MFA

Elizabeth HarmonAmerican Culture, PhD

John KannenbergArt & Design, MFA

Emma SachsIPCAA, PhD

Joanna SteeleInformation, PhD