Author: Caillie Kracht
“So, I was thinking of putting the G.I. Joe paraphernalia on the bottom shelf, then definitely the Barbie box set up here…”. I was watching the ULS Archives and Special Collections Elizabeth Nesbitt Collection Curator, Clare Withers, set dolls and the accessories that came with them across different tables for the mock-up of her exhibit. It was only the second week of my internship, and my supervisor, Megan Massanelli (the A&SC Engagement and Outreach Librarian) had brought me in to watch them do a mock-up of a new exhibit going into the Hillman gallery space. This was going to be what I would be doing by the end of the semester—curating my own exhibit of works of art drawn from the archive’s collections.
I wasn’t sure if I should say anything. I was just the random student intern that nobody knew, and I knew nothing about putting up an exhibit display. But I really, really wanted to contribute. I knew I could make the display better.
“Could I possibly make a comment?” I asked, also professing that I didn’t mean to step out of bounds. Megan and Clare immediately encouraged me to suggest anything I wanted, and that they wanted me to have as hands-on of an experience as possible. I asked if it would be a better idea to move the written materials (two Barbie books and some fliers and a play-handbook from the G.I. Joe materials) to their own shelf, where both Barbie and G.I. Joe objects could intermingle and be compared to each other. This also solved the problem of running out of space for both those materials and the other dolls and accessories on the other shelves. We re-shuffled the shelf layouts that Clare and Megan had already put down, and I went on to suggest a specific arrangement for my suggested shelf that would draw out aesthetic connections between objects based on color. “See, this is why we need an art student around!” Megan told me, smiling. I smiled too. This was so exciting.
Over the course of my semester at A&SC, I was able to contribute on lots of occasions to the visual and textual aspects of new displays going up. As I formatted display texts for other employees, I was able to help improve their wording and flow. Megan set me loose on a couple of the giant Excel sheets that curators filled out for their upcoming digital exhibits on the A&SC digital wall display, and I got to work with those curators by clarifying inconsistencies with the required format as well as suggesting ways to re-word sections for better readability and for the non-expert visitor’s understanding. I also created a few social media posts advertising the ULS’s digitized collections, writing engaging and informative captions and choosing images from the digitized archival materials.
By the time I was supposed to begin writing my own item labels and wall texts for the exhibit I was designing with contributions from the Preservation Program Manager, Anais Grateau—Hidden Gems: Art in the Archives—I was nervous, but prepared. I had learned how items labels should be structured (presenting the object before the biographical information) and was equipped to understand how the individual labels would work together as a larger exhibit. I recalled that first mock-up that I was a part of, as well as the subsequent ones that I was encouraged to have an active role in. Getting to have creative oversight was an exciting prospect, but I also knew the team I had been helping and working with all semester would have valuable suggestions that would make my exhibit better. Overall, I had learned how to work both collaboratively and independently in the archival and exhibit spaces, and felt like I had been valued by the A&SC team just as much as I valued the experience I had gotten and the contributions I had been allowed to make.