Recent Posts

What Museums Can Learn From Hollywood

What Museums Can Learn From Hollywood

For anyone aware of the news, it’s clear that Hollywood has had a big year. Between box office hits, conversations on diversity and representation, and the #MeToo movement, the movie industry has been the center of entertainment news for reasons both good and bad. Museums 

Museums Amidst the “Me Too”

Museums Amidst the “Me Too”

Women have played the role of artistic muse for millennia, serving as the objects of desire, lust, and love in paintings that offer depictions ranging from fully clothed to stark naked portrayals of the female persona. Did these women pose willingly? Maybe. One cannot be 

Interns [Presidio Heritage Program, San Francisco, CA]

Interns [Presidio Heritage Program, San Francisco, CA]

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The Presidio Trust, the National Park Service, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy offer internships for motivated individuals looking for an opportunity to connect to the park while gaining specialized training in various aspects of park management.

​Presidio Trust

​The Presidio Trust offers full-time residential internship opportunities throughout the year. Internships include free housing in the Presidio, a stipend every 2 weeks, extensive training, and professional development. View open internship opportunities on the right.

​Internships are offered in the following areas:

  • Archaeology
  • Art
  • Community Gardens
  • Cultural & Community Events
  • Ecological Restoration
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Heritage Education
  • Heritage Exhibition
  • Heritage Public Programs
  • Hospitality
  • Historic Compliance
  • Integrated Pest Management
  • Marketing & Communications
  • Media Relations
  • Social Media & Content Development
  • Volunteer Engagement
  • Waste Reduction

For more information and to apply, click here.

​National Park Service + Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy

To learn about internships offered through the National Park Service and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy visit the National Park Service’s Volunteer-In-Parks Program and the Parks Conservancy website​.​

Weekly Jobs Roundup!

Weekly Jobs Roundup!

Here’s your weekly roundup of new jobs! Happy Hunting! New England Senate Education Staff [Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United State Senate, Boston, MA] Summer Camp Counselor, Assistant Camp Leader, and Interns [Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, ME] Travelling Programs Education Associate II [Museum of 

Around the Globe: Icelandic Museums

Around the Globe: Icelandic Museums

Did you know Iceland has more museums per capita than either the UK or the US? Fulbright Fellow Hannah Hethmon has made it her mission to share the stories of many of these museums and the professionals that run them. As part of her Fulbright 

Tufts Prison Symposium: Applications of Museum Education

Tufts Prison Symposium: Applications of Museum Education

The Tufts Prison Symposium illuminated the role of education in the prison system. During the two-day program, former inmates described their interactions with correctional officers, clinicians, and educators. They advocated to end a dehumanizing system that perpetuates a hierarchy of power and hinders opportunity for both professional and educational advancement. In the final workshop, Tufts students’ reflected on their experiences tutoring at correctional facilities and their unique responsibility as educators.

Tutors  described an educational approach that meets learners where they are, that cultivates a non-hierarchical relationship, that instills a sense of accomplishment, and that shares ownership over the learning process. Additionally, the tutors discussed the importance of valuing the whole learner and incorporating the learner’s experiences into the educational experience. They affirm that the learners’ ideas are valuable. For museum educators, their teaching experiences sounded extremely familiar. The tutors’ teaching methods parallel those in museums.

Emerging museum education philosophies advocate for shared-authority, encouraging learners to use prior experiences to derive personal meaning from the exhibited content. Gallery teaching focuses on skill development and relationship-building, rather than mastery of content. Teaching techniques such as Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) validate multiple perspectives and generate confidence. VTS uses images to inspire discussion and exploration; educators serve as facilitators, rather than content-providers. In this educational model, educators relinquish agendas and permit learners to direct the conversation.

VTS programs typically include a studio project, during which learners produce art that responds to the images they encountered. The art project serves as a tool to express both knowledge and experience. The general public rarely encounters inmates’ personal narratives. The three students who served on the panel recognized that the prison system purposefully segregates inmates from society, contributing to the dehumanization of prisoners. Museums have a responsibility to reflect the experiences of people in the community. The absence of inmates’ stories contributes to a dominant narrative that presents stories from the perspective of those in power.

Perhaps there is an overlooked opportunity for museums to partner with prisons. Such a partnership would provoke questions concerning complicity in the prison system and institutions of power, yet the initiative could create an educational environment that empowers the learner and expands the people we recognize as part of our community fabric.