Lesley Bailie: A Scots Ballad - World Digital Library

More for tomorrow's Burns Day. Original Burns manuscript in his own handwriting. No wonder he was popular with the ladies, writing stuff like this. For more Burns go to http://www.robertburns.org/.
Lesley Bailie: A Scots Ballad - World Digital Library
Upcoming will be my first full virtual exhibit that I'm still working on.

A Toast to Robert Burns Day - January 25

Art Gallery of Alberta apologizes, changes breastfeeding policy

Art Gallery of Alberta apologizes, changes breastfeeding policy

Okay, I'm going to get a bit controversial here.  I saw this story last week on the news in Edmonton and came across it online again today, and I can't resist sharing my (objective and professional) opinion here.  Now, I am not and I don't think anyone who makes the policies at the Art Gallery of Alberta, against public breastfeeding.  As a whole, the professional museum community in Canada are a fairly liberal bunch.  However, keeping food and drink away from exhibits and artifacts is a very important and usually rigorously enforced policy in just about every museum.  Often this is a delicate balance when a museum as a public space is used for various purposes, such as receptions of various kinds, and teas where food is served.  Still, a big effort is made to keep any food away from the artefacts.  This is an extremely important policy to enforce, since as part of the public trust, the museum must protect the objects in their care from damage, which food and drink can easily cause.  Even if the artefacts are not directly damaged, pests of various sorts can be attracted to the areas where they are stored or displayed.  Hopefully, you will never catch a museum worker eating their lunch in a storage room.

Going back to the AGA, if another patron was eating a self-contained piece of food on the same bench as the lady had fed her baby, the same request would have been made, to take it out of the exhibit room.  The management stated they had nothing against the breastfeeding, just not where food was not allowed.  There are benches and chairs outside of each exhibit room where the feeding could have taken place just as easily.  I really hate to say it, but this is a case where public pressure and political correctness has taken over common sense (and professional expertise), and the museum management caved into it for the sake of avoiding bad publicity.  The father of the baby stated that  “There should be no limitations whatsoever at the AGA when it comes to breastfeeding”.  Really?  So how is it that someone with no museum training whatsoever should be dictating exhibition policy?  If the lighting is too dim for his eyesight on a sensitive and valuable painting, should they also turn up the lights for him, thereby causing damage to the artefact?

The response from the AGA, though caving into the demands did begin appropriately defiantly, stating, “As a professional museum dedicated to the preservation and presentation of art, the AGA must maintain policies that ensure the safety of the works of art in our care".  That is where it should have ended, where the museum states their reasoning, while also stating that another area for breastfeeding within the gallery would have been more appropriate, not for modesty or anyone's standards of decorum, but solely for the purposes of preservation of the galleries collection.  Let's not forget that much of the works on display in the galleries are on loan from other institutions and may be extremely valuable, so the gallery has an important trust to ensure they are sent back in the same condition in which they were received.

Is it different if a baby is being bottle fed or if a 5-year old is drinking from a juice box?  Where do you stop relaxing the restrictions?  The answer is that no, it should not be different.  Policies must be enforced consistently and not be altered to avoid being on the wrong side of a sensitive social issue. 

The Internship: The RCR Museum

First, I must apologise for the delay in creating this next posting.  Not only was starting a new job and Christmas a distraction, but there was some procrastination due to the complexity that this subject would involve.  My internship under a great mentor, the director and curator of The Royal Canadian Regiment Museum involved such a wide range of activities that my abilities of succinctness will be stretched to the limit (not only that, but my memory, also) to cover everything I did in my short, but productive time there.

Wolseley Barracks - London ON

I did not actually realise it at the time of my arrival in London ON, but Wolseley Barracks was practically across the road from my first childhood home on Gammage Street and I could easily walk over there on my lunch breaks.  I was given my own office, adjacent to the curator's.  My office included the computer, the only air conditioner in the offices, and the only printer and scanner.

The desk in my office with at least 3 separate projects visible (I could have included a photo of me sitting at the desk, but I think we've all seen enough of me here already.)

Included in my ongoing projects was creating an individual exhibit file for each exhibit space in the gallery.  To do this, I photographed each exhibit, created a catalogue list of each artefact, made up a number with the matte cutter to put in each case, and made up a folder for each one to go in the archives.  Some of the photos I took and photoshopped are used on the museum's website to this day.

The archival folders and the matte cutter

Another project I was given right from the start was to go through a pile of old biographical files that were recently sent down from the Dept. of National Defence.  I was to create an individual folder for each person and assign it an archival file number and enter each one into the computer database.
At the beginning of the internernship I was allowed to create my own display that would be a part of a larger RCR temporary external exhibit at the converted pump house building at a park downtown.  Since I was already assigned a large collection to accession, that of the CO of the barracks during WWII who was also in WWI as a soldier, I took his helmet and field cap and centred the exhibit around those two artefacts.  This exhibit can be seen in a previous entry on this site.

Along with various other side projects and tasks I was asked to perform, my other main project was writing and external and internal survey for the museum.  Along with composing the surveys I had the internal ones set up on a table in the museum lobby with instructions for the attendants for receiving them and for the external surveys, I personally visited shopping malls and walked the streets of downtown London asking people to fill them out.  Finally, when I had the required sample number of surveys filled a wrote up an analysis of the results and bound them in a fancy coil booklet.

A couple of these side projects I was asked to carry out was finding a place to have a security camera repaired and get an estimate.  For this, I had to take the camera there in person, finding the business in a city that was still a bit strange to me.  I was also asked to find someone who would be able to convert a commemorative RCR LP record to mp3 format.  Calling all the local radio stations, I was able to find someone in a nearby town that would do it for us.  On a memorably hot southern Ontario day with my mapquest printout I drove out there and sat in this man's computer room office in his house while he labouriously ran through the record on his computer.

What I saw when I looked up

After my internship ended, I continued to work there as a volunteer and assisted in a Remembrance Day external exhibit.  One of the things I'll remember the most is special things apart from my actual work.  For example, the museum board chairman, a retired general told me that he remembered my grandfather, who I must brag was commandant of the barracks at one point, but also said he was a great man.  I could only agree, but was beyond proud when he said this to me.  I'll also always remember how kindly the museum curator treated me, inviting me to his house a few times for dinner and watching movies.  Even more, he took me out to lunch when we were out around the city for various reasons.  I really was proud to carry out every task and project and assist the curator wherever I could.  I believed this work and with the mentorship of the curator of The RCR Museum, I would be well set on the road to my museum career.