Emma was an Education and Curatorial Assistant for Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum during Spring 2025.
Briefly explain what you did and the result of your internship.
Most of my time at this internship has been spent assisting our Director of Education with creating workshops for children to participate in with their classes on school trips. However I have also had time to assist in helping with the museum's social media accounts, create a blog for the museum website, and revamp a section of the museum as a children's workshop. I have also had the opportunity to comb though the museum's collection store, where all of the items not kept on display are held and have found a piece of skin from the murderer William Burke within our collection which we have been in contact with another museum about that owns a book made of his skin. I have also done research upon the origins of this skin and of a Native American scalp that I also found along with it, which we have found to belong to the person who was likely the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll. I have also had a real hands-on experience in helping teach these children and have been part of these workshops to figure out how to fix them into being truly engaging as well as fun for them. The workshop has so far left two very happy teachers, each with classes of over 20 that have thoroughly enjoyed their time at the museum.
What did you learn on your internship that you were not expecting to learn?
I learned that working in a museum is very different on a day-to-day basis. Your whole day plan can change at the drop of the hat, if someone comes in trying to donate an item, if you have an unexpectedly dead squirrel in your costumes (definitely not a real example ;)). I also have developed great time management skills, having to figure out how to roll with the punches of these unexpected happenings around the museum and still finish my work at the end of the day. I have also learned more about how to engage with children and how to make activities more accessible to them as I had never thought about all of the language and height differences so acutely before.
How have your future plans changed because of what you learned from your internship experience?
I wasn't sure if I would like museum work before this internship, although it was still my plan to go into museum work of some-kind. But now, I have learned that I really want to do this for the rest of my life and that being in this sort of job is engaging as you have so many different things to attend to, without feeling overwhelming, especially if you have as great of co-workers as I do here. I have also learned that it is pretty important for me to at least get a master's degree, especially if I want to work abroad ever, so it has become my mission to get a master's degree in Museum Studies.
Please share how your experience led to personal inspiration or insightful revelation.
A couple years ago, I worked as a summer camp counselor in California. I had a great time working there and enjoyed working with such inquisitive and energetic children. Since it has been a couple of years since I worked there, I thought maybe I had lost my ability to make a connection with children and was nervous about my ability to be a good group leader for the workshop I had been revamping. However, with my supervisor Kirstie's help I realized that it was like riding a bike, I picked up on it very quickly. Soon I was having lots of fun helping the kids go around the museum on their scavenger hunt. It made me realize that I think I would enjoy this kind of work full time, and that working with people who are so fascinated by everything is really the greatest thing you can find in a job.
Would you recommend this internship to other students?
Definitely! I had so much fun learning about museum work and being able to accomplish so many different things. If you want to learn more about time-management, what working in a small museum is like, and how to interact with others (whether that be children or adults) better, than it is a great opportunity.
Is there anything else you would like to say regarding your internship?
I have had the greatest time on this internship that I didn't think was possible. I had been nervous by stories I had been told of supervisors not really caring about their intern's progress or being stuck doing category work all day. However, I feel as if I have really come to be a team member at the Smith and will heavily miss my coworkers when I leave. It has been some of the greatest months of my life and I can't wait to actually make this my career.
