I’m A Museum Person: Marcus A. Harshaw Jr.

My name is Marcus Harshaw Jr., and I’m A Museum Person

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m the current Manager of Special Exhibits at Cincinnati Museum Center. Prior I worked for the Indiana State Museum in Program Facilitation. I’ve managed staffing and/or programming for great exhibit projects like Speed, Dinosaurs Unearthed, America I AM, The Art of Caring, and Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt. I’ve been involved with museums since 2005.

Why do museums matter to you?

Museums matter to me because they provide the communities they serve so much more than a building full of old stuff. They provide stories, interaction, a place to be inquisitive, a place to learn, a place to enjoy with family and friends, and a place to have fun!

What is your favorite museum memory?

My favorite museum memory is seeing Pompeii: Stories from an Eruption. It is the exhibit that inspired me to get into museum work.

What museum would you love to visit?

The Brooklyn Museum and the British Museum.

What is your dream museum job?

Vice President of Exhibits.

When you think of the perfect exhibit, what is in it?

The right amount of artifacts, great stories, fun interactives, and engaging staff and volunteers.

Who is the funnier museum twitterer…@SUEtheTrex or @NatHistoryWhale?

Out of those two, definitely @SUEtheTrex, but the @ChicagoLions from the Art Institute of Chicago are hilarious too.

What is the most random item you have bought from a museum gift shop?

The toothpaste jar replica from the Titanic: The Exhibition when it was at COSI Columbus. I usually stick to magnets.

To test your museum knowledge, what cities are the following museums in?

• The High Museum of Art - Denver, Colorado. Get it? Mile High, right?
• The Experience Music Project - Nashville, Tennessee. My first guess was Cleveland, but that’s Rock ‘n’ Roll.
• Musee de la Civilasation - Quebec City, Quebec. For some reason this doesn’t sound France-French to me.
• Courtauld Gallery - London, England. I’m just guessing, it’s spelled British-y.
• Kuntskammer - St. Petersburg, Russia. My nickname isn’t Czarshaw for nothing!

You may have heard of the Month at the Museum contest recently held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. What museum would you move into for a month if you could?

I would totally live at the Smithsonian or the Louvre for a month.

Out of all the museums you have visited so far, which one is your favorite?

My favorite! Just one? I love the Field Museum, the Museum of Art in Boston, and the National Constitution Center.

What is the most bizarre museum you have ever visited?

I visited a shoe museum in Southern France. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh can be bizarre in a good way though.

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Thanks to Marcus for sharing his experiences. If you’re interested in participating in the “I’m A Museum Person” series, send us an email at editor@museumist.com, and we’ll get your story up on the site.

I’m A Museum Person: Amanda Fruta

My name is Amanda Fruta, and I’m a Museum Person.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m the smiley Admissions and Membership Coordinator at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. I think art education and public art outreach can change the world, but I get distracted by my passionate mission in life when I get stuck in pile sales at vintage stores or gazing into a kitten’s eyes. I recently rediscovered my love for printmaking after dabbling in a strange collage-assemblage hybrid. In public high school, I had to choose between art and music, so I became a jazz singer for a few years. Since, I’ve returned to my first love – visual art and communication. I’m a commuter and a moonlighter (freelance personal shopping blogger).

Why do museums matter to you?

They allow lights to go on in people’s minds when they are vulnerable to open mindedness. Experiencing art in a collective space offers a special opportunity for discourse of the most important social questions. Most of all, they connect people.

What is your favorite museum memory?

It’s a tie.

1) The rushing moment of realization that I’d been at Barnsdall Art Park before. On my first day of work at age 21, I flashed back to hammering a leather bracelet on the grassy knoll of Olive Hill at the Barnsdall Art Park art festival at age five.

2) Crying at the Guggenheim, NY upon experience the full scale, grandeur, and downright divinity of Kandinsky’s Compositions.

What museum would you love to visit?

All of them? Domestic: Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, and MOMA. International: I WILL see the Uffizi this fall!

What is your dream museum job?

Used to be Head Curator (surprise, surprise), now something like a Public Exhibitions Designer or Traveling Art Critic.

When you think of the perfect exhibit, what is in it?

Something that inspires a profound revelation on a personal level that connects dots I didn’t know could be connected. A wonderfully structured story is always appreciated.

What is the most random item you have bought from a museum gift shop?

A holographic deck of cat cards.

You may have heard of the Month at the Museum contest recently held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. What museum would you move into for a month if you could?

Not exactly a museum, but the Gaudi Casa Batllo would be a dream come true.

Gaudi Casa Batllo. Photo by Alaskan Dude via Flickr.

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Thanks to Amanda for sharing her experiences. If you’re interested in participating in the “I’m A Museum Person” series, send us an email at editor@museumist.com, and we’ll get your story up on the site.

I’m A Museum Person: Kristen Olson

My name is Kristen Olson, and I’m a Museum Person.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I like black licorice and Richard Diebenkorn and I dream of a paperless office. I love people and find them fascinating. (I mean, look at airplanes, post-it notes, yogurt – our brains and what we come up with are nothing short of amazing.) I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and live and work here still. This year I’m learning to ski after many years of snowboarding. What else? I’ve been working in museums for more than 10 years and have my masters in museum education. My favorite color is green. Parties at museums are quite possibly my favorite kind of parties. I work in the education department at the Cantor Arts Center, which is the medium-sized, encyclopedic art museum for Stanford University out here in California.

Why do museums matter to you?

Personally, they make me think in a different way – about myself and about the world around me. (Again with the “people are infinitely fascinating” idea). Our creativity is mirrored in museums. I think we go to museums to see ourselves. Also, they’re complicated. And fun! And diverse.

What is your favorite museum memory?

It was a visit to the Rothko Room at the Tate many years ago. The art alone was beautiful, and I think I can say it was an entryway to my personal comfort with Modern art. BUT! It was truly memorable because a group of 3rd graders came in with their teacher. All the kids spread out around the room (some flopped down on their stomachs) and looked at the art. Some giggled and talked to each other about it. They all looked! And then wrote in their notebooks about it. Nobody looked disengaged. Third graders. I was enchanted. It was magic.

What museum would you love to visit?

The Museum of Jurassic Technology. I heard the curator speak many years ago, and his commitment was outstanding and memorable. The museum is wholly unique.

What is your dream museum job?

I, uh, kind of have it right now. Which is not to say that I’m not looking forward to where I want to grow (head of educational media/technology someday) but I love my job. I straddle the academic and social campus community and in-gallery educational technology land. My title is kind of wacky, but entirely descriptive: “Academic and Educational Technology Liaison.” I work with student and faculty on incorporating art into their scholarship, which is a focus within the interdisciplinary mission. I am also the education tech person, so I bring that voice in during exhibition development.

When you think of the perfect exhibit, what is in it?

Great art, a variety of opportunities to sit down and look at it, good lighting, enough text, space so I don’t feel crowded, and a lot of different ways to learn.

Who is the funnier museum twitterer…@SUEtheTrex or @NatHistoryWhale?

Sue, absolutely. I want to be like her when I’m that age. (Haha) Feisty and funny as all get out.

What is the most random item you have bought from a museum gift shop?

Perhaps not the most random ever, but my two cheeky and favorite things are t-shirts. The first is my “Ya Give Me Shiva” t-shirt from one of my favorite museums, the Minneapolis Institute of Art. (I also did my graduate internship there over one awesome summer.) The second is “I have seen the Gates of Hell” with a picture of Rodin’s sculpture on the back.

To test your museum knowledge…what cities are the following museums in? The High Museum of Art, The Experience Music Project, Musee de la Civilisation, the Courtauld Gallery, and Kuntskammer.

• The High Museum is in Atlanta.
• The EMP is in Seattle.
• Musee de la Civilisation is in…uh…Nice, France?
• The Courtauld Gallery is in London, I think?
• And the Kuntskammer is in Zurich, maybe.

You may have heard of the Month at the Museum contest recently held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. What museum would you move into for a month if you could?

The Met! Years ago and friend and I joked that we were going to save up, rent an apartment across the street, and go every single day. I think living in a museum for a month is such a fun idea. But I would absolutely be afraid of ghosts.

Out of all the museums you have visited so far, which one is your favorite?

Oh! That is too hard. I love museums. Each is unique and has their own specialness. I will say that I had a very profound childhood experience at the Legion of Honor, so it will forever have a special place in my heart. You may find me sitting in the Spanish Ceiling room, just looking up.

What is the most bizarre museum you have ever visited?

In my mom’s hometown, there is a history museum that I would visit when seeing my grandmother. There is a room packed – sometimes three deep – with headless mannequins that are wearing clothes from various time periods, donated by the locals. This in itself is not really bizarre, but it was something out of Twilight Zone to me. I had a recurring nightmare about headless mannequins as a kid because of that room. They still kind of creep me out.

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Thanks to Kristen for sharing her experiences. If you’re interested in participating in the “I’m A Museum Person” series, send us an email at editor@museumist.com, and we’ll get your story up on the site.

I’m A Museum Person: Jessica Baldwin

My name is Jessica Baldwin, and I’m a Museum Person.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am a young museum professional living and working in New York City. I love new-left historical interpretation. I can really sink my teeth into woman’s history (shocked that I’m a woman?). I enjoy reading historical fiction; I just finished My Name is Mary Sutter. I am extremely organized and hope to someday have a paying job working with collections, but for now I am content helping to run the volunteer program at my museum.

Why do museums matter to you?

Museums matter to me because they are community centers and education leaders. Education can be structured or free form and a museum is both for all ages. School children visit with their class, families come for a Saturday and adults can come alone or in groups. A researcher can use a museum as a concentrated source of material. A first date can be had at a museum. A wedding can be hosted at a museum. A person can give back to their community through a museum, whether volunteering, membership, object donation, sitting on the board or making a monetary donation.

What is your favorite museum memory?

Do I have to pick just one? When my parents took the family to Washington, D.C., I told them I had to see the United States Constitution or I might die. I memorized the preamble to be sure the guards – who I imagined to be like the Swiss Guard – would understand my dedication and let me in. Turned out they let everyone in. A place where precious things could be seen by all; a wonderful childhood realization.

What museum would you love to visit?

It’s hard to pick one when I am unaware of so many. I would LOVE to visit the Terracotta Army in China. I know it isn’t a museum, but a person’s need to bring his material life with him to the afterlife is so relatable to collection preservation. Objects weren’t meant to last forever and yet we struggle to keep them for eternity.

What is your dream museum job?

Collection Manager for an American history museum, who focuses on civilian/domestic object collecting.

When you think of the perfect exhibit, what is in it?

This is like the magic wand interview question. A perfect exhibit would be one that’s presentation allows guests to draw their own informed conclusions about the subject matter. It would reach all global community members. despite age, gender, race, etc. It would have an interactive level that would give visitors the opportunity to use more senses than just sight. It would draw acclaim that the museum could use to promote funding. There is so much more, but utopian exhibit dreams don’t always come true.

Who’s the funnier museum Twitterer…@SUEtheTrex or @NatHistoryWhale?

@NatHistoryWhale cracks me up! “They’re forecasting more snow for NYC. Personally, I prefer H2O in liquid form, with a dash of salt and krill.” Have you seen this thing? It’s dusty, blue, huge, and hangs from a ceiling. Imaging what its voice sounds like. Are you laughing yet?

What is the most random item you have bought from a museum gift shop?

I was at the Tenement Museum in NYC seeking to beg the curator for a job when my phone rang. It was the HR department at another museum asking to set up an interview. I was pen-less. The voice on the other end said, “Who doesn’t carry a pen? Kids these days!” I grabbed the first pen I saw in the gift shop…bright yellow with a liquid top where a little checkered NYC cab floated around. I got the job and still have the pen!

You may have heard of the Month at the Museum contest recently held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. What museum would you move into for a month if you could?

I would move into the Palace of Versailles so that I could play Marie Antoinette. Bouncing through the brocade laden halls, lit on the gilded furniture and mostly play common villager in her makeshift mini village. I would move out before the messy business of the guillotine caught up with me.

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Thanks to Jessica for sharing her experiences. If you’re interested in participating in the “I’m A Museum Person” series, send us an email at editor@museumist.com, and we’ll get your story up on the site.

I’m A Museum Person: Barbara Lisbona

My name is Barbara Lisbona, and I’m A Museum Person

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am a designer living in Chile. I am a design, film, art, music and — of course — a museum enthusiast. I am very curious and I love new experiences and to learn new things. My graduation project theme was about giving an identity and creating guides and other materials for a children`s art museum in Chile, called “Artequin.”

Why do museums matter to you?

Being a curious person I have always enjoy visiting all kind of museums. Thanks to the museums we can experience, learn and enjoy things that we could not get by ourselves. Somehow I think represent the concept of democracy.

What is your favorite museum memory?

Staring at a Picasso painting and feeling absolutely thrilled and happy.

What museum would you love to visit?

Guggenheim Bilbao!

What is your dream museum job?

Exhibition Design and Museum Identity.

When you think of the perfect exhibit, what is in it?

The necessary mediums to ensure that the thing exposed meets the objective of the exhibition.

Who is the funnier museum twitterer…@SUEtheTrex or @NatHistoryWhale?

I didn´t know them, but now that I´ve checked them out, I´m going for @SUEtheTrex.

What is the most random item you have bought from a museum gift shop?

Hmmm…let me think, a Guggenheim NY snow bubble?

To test your museum knowledge…put these museums in order from earliest founded to most recently created: The Smithsonian, The British Museum, The Rijksmuseum, The Louvre, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Don’t worry if you don’t know…just make a guess!

Let´s see;

- Louvre

- British Museum

- Rijksmuseum

- MET

- Smithsonian

You may have heard of the Month at the Museum contest recently held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. What museum would you move into for a month if you could?

Maybe the MET, I loved the Japanese Garden and I feel that you definitely need to take your time while you are there to enjoy the exhibits. I guess I would never get bored there!

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Thanks to Barbara for sharing her experiences. If you’re interested in participating in the “I’m A Museum Person” series, send us an email at editor@museumist.com, and we’ll get your story up on the site.

I’m A Museum Person: Restless Curator

National Museum of Ireland. Photo by infomatique via Flickr.

My name is Restless Curator, and I’m A Museum Person.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am currently working the Natural History Museum in Dublin, Ireland as part of the Documentation team. So I spend my day cataloging the collections which include Geology, fossils, taxidermy, specimens in alcohol and dried. My family were always avid museum goers, so I strongly believe my love of museums and heritage could very well be genetic! I originally studied to be a graphic designer but quickly fell in love with the idea of working in museums after deciding to write my thesis on them. This thesis explored ideas of how design in museums can create a sense of a national identity for a nation, specifically looking at Ireland as an example. During this time I started volunteering in the museum which involved cataloging the dry mollusc collection, which meant once my job arose I had the relevant experience. I am now doing a part time masters in which my thesis will explore the idea of institutional memory within museums. Institutional memory is the knowledge that those who work within museums, or any organisation, collect about that institution over time. People who work in museums, their knowledge and their sense of humor about the collections they work with, plays second fiddle to the more academic treatments of museums and collections. I hope to investigate how this accrued knowledge could be collected and communicated to the public and other museums.

They not only tell us about the past but they help us understand the making of the world as we know it. They tell personal, national and international stories that can inform, educate and amuse us. They are fragmentary, a giant puzzle that we shape to explain the world as it is now. In the future the manner in which we assembled that puzzle will be an artifact within it’s own right.

What is your favorite museum memory?

My father was involved in the local county museum when I was a child. My favourite memory was standing on a little set of steps leading to the stage in the old theatre that housed it’s exhibition staring up at the skull of a Giant Irish Deer above me. The vast breadth of it’s antlers were as dizzying then as they are now.

What museum would you love to visit?

Right now I would love to see The Museum of Jurassic Technology, as I believe humor is a key element in involving the public in the majority of collections especially those of eclectic nature!

What is your dream museum job?

Right now, I think I would love to create the role of Display Manager in the Natural History Museum in which I work. For those who don’t know this museum, it is often referred to as a “museum of a museum” – a classic Victorian museum of cabinets which has remained largely untouched for most of it’s 150 plus life span. It’s collections date back to the late 1790s and it still has a very didactic museum feel. The challenge of working with the over all aesthetic of the building whilst courting more modern museum practices of display would be immense but I think it would be full of joy and surprise also.

When you think of the perfect exhibit, what is in it?

This is a tough one! I think it would have to be something that spans a huge amount of time in a glimpse. So something like a fossil Archaeopteryx and a modern bird, or even a very early taxidermied animal shown beside a more modern specimen. They are items that can be appreciated purely for their fascinating beauty or ugliness or can be exhibited with a whole host of information.

Well I’m going to be very biased here and say neither and that @SpotticusNH is the only tweeting specimen for me!

What is the most random item you have bought from a museum gift shop?

I’m drawing a bit of a blank on this one! The most random thing I have ever seen is a Garfield soft toy in with all the more ‘real’ soft toy animals in a Natural History Museum – that was a bit odd!

What is the strangest museum you’ve ever been to or heard of?

The National Leprechaun Museum that opened in Dublin in 2010 is pretty strange, but I have yet to hand over the 10 euro to go inside!

You may have heard of the Month at the Museum contest recently held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. What museum would you move into for a month if you could?

I think it would have to be the Field Museum in Chicago, I know Spotticus quite well – I’d like to meet Sue too!

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Thanks to Restless Curator for sharing her experiences. If you’re interested in participating in the “I’m A Museum Person” series, send us an email at editor@museumist.com, and we’ll get your story up on the site.

I’m A Museum Person: Jennie Carvill

My name is Jennie Carvill, and I’m a Museum Person.

Tell us a little about yourself.
I have a blog (www.MuseumsandStuff.tumblr.com) which I began to try and keep myself in contact with the museums community back home in the UK but has broadened my horizons much further than I first imagined! I started off studying archaeology and then did a masters degree in museum studies. I am currently writing my PhD about museums in Austria. My favourite museums are history museums, especially those with have a difficult story to tell.

Why do museums matter to you?
I believe that museums can make a different to individual lives and communities and society as a whole. I love that museums can be a driving force in reexamining certain periods or attitudes towards history/art/science etc and empowering groups. No two museums are the same, so you you always know you are in for something new when you step into a new museum. Museum studies has also taught me to enjoy even ‘bad’ museums – what makes them boring/inaccessible/whatever?

What is your favorite museum memory?
When I was writing my undergraduate dissertation I visited the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre in Newark. I had already visiting two other Holocaust exhibition in order to write about the events were represented in a British context. After seeing the exhibition, listening to a child survivor of the Holocaust and listening to the questions posed by the schoolchildren, we were shown something about the Rwandan genocide and then about the ongoing situation in Sudan. I was really angry that I hadn’t known anything about it and at the end of the video I heard some of the other school children expressing surprise that something like this was still happening, in their lifetime. I think it was this experience that showed me the potential that museums have and has led me to want to work in the field of social inclusion and attempt to ‘harness the power of history’.

What museum would you love to visit?
I would love to visit the Ellis Island Museum in New York.

What is your dream museum job?

I would love to work in a city history museum or something like like that, developing exhibitions and programming in conjunction with marginalised groups and working to make museums representative of as many people as is humanly possible. Enabling people to have a say in how their stories and histories are told.

When you think of the perfect exhibit, what is in it?
The perfect exhibition is multi-faceted. I should be able to have some flexibility about how much I read and how much I experience. I should learn something new, something so interesting that it comes up a few times in conversation over the next week or so. 

What is the most random item you have bought from a museum gift shop?
I went through a phase of kind of collecting packs of playing cards. Some of my favourite museum-bought ones are a pack with a different Shakespearean insult on each and another with a different, bland grey DDR building on.

You may have heard of the Month at the Museum contest recently held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. What museum would you move into for a month if you could?
The Imperial War Museum in Lambeth. They have great exhibitions and loads to do. They also have a cinema where they show old propaganda films and documentaries, I could sit in their for hours. And at night, I would wait until everyone goes home and then climb on the tanks…

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Thanks to Jennie for sharing her experiences. If you’re interested in participating in the “I’m A Museum Person” series, send us an email at editor@museumist.com, and we’ll get your story up on the site.

I’m A Museum Person: Jenni Fuchs

My name is Jenni Fuchs, and I’m a Museum Person.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m an expat German living in Edinburgh and work for National Museums Scotland as their Audience Research Officer. I also sit on the Board of ICOM’s Committee for Education and Cultural Action, and write a museum blog (http://jennifuchs.tumblr.com). In my free time I’m an enthusiastic amateur photographer.

Out of all the museums you have visited so far, which one if your favourite?

There’s so many to choose from, but one that I particularly adore is the Edo Tokyo Museum in Japan. The building is absolutely massive – they’ve got a full-scale kabuki theatre inside – and there’s lots to explore, with some of the interpretation helpfully being in English. The last time we visited a very friendly elderly gentleman showed us how to make origami sumo fighters!

What is the most bizarre museum you have visited?

It would have to be the Phallological Museum in Húsavik, Iceland, which we visited during our honeymoon no less. As the founder, owner and curator said to us, “Well, what’s a retired teacher to do but open a museum about phalluses? Times are tough, you know.”

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Thanks to Jenni for sharing her experiences. If you’re interested in participating in the “I’m A Museum Person” series, send us an email at editor@museumist.com, and we’ll get your story up on the site.

I’m A Museum Person: Sarah LaVigne

I’m in the last semester for my master’s in American Material Culture through the Winterthur Museum and the University of Delaware. I’m very interested in architectural history, religious history and objects, and collective memory of the past. My thesis is about the revival of vestments in the Episcopal Church from 1870-1920. Doing research at historic churches is always challenging but fun – their sacristies are like little uncurated museums.

They are a tangible, accessible connection to the past that anyone can experience. Objects and buildings help tell stories in ways that books can’t.

It’s too hard to pick just one! In college I spent an amazing day at the Museum of the American Indian with a group of friends. We even sat down and had a discussion about culture and how we can express our own ethnic heritage. Being a costumed interpreter at the Colonial Williamsburg Apothecary my senior year at William and Mary was also very memorable. There was this wonderfully bittersweet moment on my last day when I closed the door behind me just as the fife and drum parade was going by. I’ll never forget my first tour of the Winterthur collections, either. I was completely overwhelmed by the 8 floors of decorative arts!

I’d love to return to the Museum of London now that their new galleries are finished. The Louvre, the Prado, and the Vatican Museums are also on my must-see list.

Any job where I can do research but also interact with the public audience. It would be cool to teach a university course or two on the side to aspiring museum people. I’d love to work at a major historic site like Mount Vernon, helping people consider the history they learned in grade school with new eyes.

There would be lots of interdisciplinary context – a good combination of many types of objects. (The new MFA Boston American Wing is a great example of this.) There would be fun hands-on activities to try and electronic stations that don’t overwhelm with text. There would be a clear narrative and path so that visitors don’t get lost. There would be something I’d never seen before that would make me think about the world in a new way.

My parents are from Chicago, so I have to go with the Field Museum’s T-Rex.  I love that her user name is her museum accession number.

On a high school trip I went to a re-created Canadian First Nations village. Because of the exchange rate and tax exemption the gift shop had really low prices, so we kids went a little nuts. I left with about ten maple sugar lollipops, and a rabbit pelt just because I could.

Photo by Foxtongue via Flickr.

Hmmm, the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum,  the British Museum, the Smithsonian,and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Do I get to sleep in an antique bed like in The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler? I’d pick the Victoria and Albert Museum because you could never run out of things to see, and they have some really fantastic religious artifacts.

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Thanks to Sarah for sharing her experiences. If you’re interested in participating in the “I’m A Museum Person” series, send us an email at editor@museumist.com, and we’ll get your story up on the site.

I’m A Museum Person: Karine Huys

My Name is Karine Huys, and I’m A Museum Person

Tell us a little about yourself.

I currently work as the Coordinator of Volunteer Services at the Indiana State Museum. I have an MPA in Nonprofit Management and an MA in Museum Studies. I love museums and most of my vacationing is centered around museums and exhibits. Science museums are my first choice, but there is very little that I would turn down.

Why do museums matter to you?

The Internet has brought the world to our backdoors, but it’s flat on a screen. Only in a museum can you stand before an articulated dinosaur skeleton and realize the real size. Only in a museum can you stand in front of the Mona Lisa and see the brushstrokes and crackles in the paint with your own eyes (if there are any).

What is your favorite museum memory?

I was tied between 3 so in no particular order the winners are: 1)  the first time I saw “Titanic: the Artifact Exhibition” the case with the perfume vials in it had 3 holes cut in the top and you could stand there and smell the perfume some 90ish years later and up from the sea floor  2) the turning of the page of the Audubon “The Birds of America” book in the library at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.  If I lived in Philly I would go there every Friday afternoon and watch.  3) Walking up to the entrance of “Science Storms” at the Museum of Science and Industry the first time.  That exhibit is awe-inspiring, over-whelming and mind-blowing, I never wanted to leave!

What museum would you love to visit?

The Baseball Hall of Fame.

What is your dream museum job?

My dream museum job would be at the Field Museum in Chicago – nothing in particular, I’d probably take janitor!

When you think of the perfect exhibit, what is in it?

Sensory experiences beyond just the visual.

Who is the funnier museum twitterer…@SUEtheTrex or @NatHistoryWhale?

I’ll have to go with Sue, cause I love dinosaurs!

What is the most random item you have bought from a museum gift shop?

A card that says “I love you more than dinosaur bones.”

To test your museum knowledge…put these museums in order from earliest founded to most recently created: The Smithsonian, The British Museum, The Rijksmuseum, The Louvre, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Don’t worry if you don’t know…just make a guess!

Here goes my best guess!

• The Rijksmuseum
• The Louvre
• The British Museum
• The Smithsonian
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art

You may have heard of the Month at the Museum contest recently held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. What museum would you move into for a month if you could?

I would have loved to be at MSI! But I am originally from the Chicago area, so I’m biased.

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Thanks to Karine for sharing her experience. If you’re interested in participating in the “I’m A Museum Person” series, send us an email at editor@museumist.com, and we’ll get your story up on the site.

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