Thursday, December 08, 2005

Swiss Army Curator


Recently it hit me how long I've been at the museum, and that it may be time to be saying adios. I've threatened this before, but now I'm finding myself eyeballing museum job descriptions for things completely out of my realm of expertise like "historic area wagon master." In fact I'm probably getting out of the museum business period.
I used to find it exciting , and a boon for my attention deficient brain, to be in a small place where I did a little of everything. I would swagger out to meet someone from a back room where I was building an exhibit all by myself. "Yes, I'm the curator. Can I help you?" brushing sawdust off my pants like Indiana Jones with a circular saw. However, the institution's been short more than a few bucks in the budget for over a year now, and we're down a lot of people. I'm not above screwing in lightbulbs and cleaning trash up, and I've had some good conversation ammunition with stories like singlehandedly catching a bird inside the historic house. Still, my job duty diversification is starting to get a little ridiculous. Recently, hanging out in the employee lounge with some tour guides, we made a list of the job roles I fill for a sign on my door: "Director of Collections and Programs, Historian, Librarian, Tour Guide, Exhibit Designer and Builder, Graphic Designer, Building Maintenance Manager, Preservation Coordinator, Chief of Security, Head Table and Chair Choreographer, Mouse and Bug Liaison, Lead Smell and Sound Inspector, Graffiti Removal Technician, Flag Trivia Consultant, Gardener, Goon."
Finally, this morning I was handed the pre-treated hardwood floorboards that just about broke this camel's back. I was told we were receiving two carefully wrapped, 5 by 5 foot pallets of donated flooring for our 2nd floor gallery, to be gently placed by forklift in our back room. Instead, the truck arrived at 8:30 a.m. with about 40, 8 foot long boxes filled with wood that had to be individually carried into the museum.
Delivery guy: You're the only guy here to move these in?
Me: Yes, right now I'm the lone male working here who hasn't had hernia surgery in the last 6 months.
Delivery guy: Don't you have any volunteers?
Me: Not that I can call right now. I thought these were supposed to be pallets you could move in with a forklift.
Delivery guy: Nope. Y'know, you're wearing a suit. You're going to carry stuff in that?
Me: I have an interview this afternoon.
Delivery guy: I don't blame you.

2 Comments:

At 10:29 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What do you want to do if you get out of the museum business? Are you thinking about going into floorboard carrying fulltime?

 
At 12:38 PM, Blogger Eric said...

I'd like to put my grant administration skills to work at a non-profit. I won't work at the National Rifle Association or the Heritage Foundation. That's about how much I've narrowed my job search down. I have a little research to do.

 

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