by columnist Madeline Karp, Welcome to Dispatches from the Mid-Atlantic’s new series Meet the Museum! where we interview museum professionals in the Mid-Atlantic region to get a feel for who they are and what they’re up to. Today, we’re talking to the Please Touch Museum’s …
by columnist Madeline Karp Working for a children’s museum, I am all about supporting the hopes and dreams of young children. Kids tell me them all the time. I hear dreams of being an astronaut, a firefighter, a doctor, a professional athlete. I hear dreams …
by columnist Madeline Karp
I have dreams of wearing a big hoop skirt. I’m talking like a BIG, Scarlett O’Hara hoop skirt. Sometimes a corset, or a bustle; on occasion knee britches and a man’s coat from the Revolutionary War, but tailored to fit and flatter a woman’s figure. I’m a fan of the First Virginia and the Second New Jersey Regiment’s coats in particular, in case you want to make me a replica. I have a bit of a love-crush on historical fashion.
And yet, when it comes to modern fashion, I’m less enthusiastic. I kind of hate shopping. I have to put thought and effort into wearing something that isn’t black, gray or navy, and I work hard to make cardigans fit every occasion. I don’t really care about Oscar dresses, What Not To Wear only interests me when I have the flu, and I wasn’t following New York Fashion Week 2013…
Until.
Right after Fashion Week concluded (perhaps as a dovetail, perhaps not), the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened a temporary exhibit entitled Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity. Fresh from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the exhibit combines Impressionist artwork with period textiles to demonstrate the interplay between fashion and art in late nineteenth century France.
So often my fashion-conscious friends will try to explain to me how modern fashion is art and I’ll smile politely and nod, but privately disagree – wearing a raw meat dress strikes me as sickening and shamelessly political instead of artistic. But, with this exhibit, I finally see what they’re talking about.
Placed throughout eight parlors, Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity displays period costume alongside famous works by Renoir, Degas and Monet. According to curator Susan Alyson Stein, one of the exhibit’s big ideas is that modern fashion came of age in nineteenth century France, during a time when art was also experiencing an aesthetic revolution. The late 1800’s in France represent a time of tumult on so many levels – historians, art historians and fashionistas would be remiss to ignore the connections and influences each had on the others.
One display case boasts incredibly detailed corsets and slippers. Monet’s painting of his wife Camille in a green and black striped dress is displayed next to a similar period dress from England. Vitrines are arranged to look like Parisian shop windows. The mixed mediums ensure a wide audience.
Maybe it’s because I love Impressionism, hoop skirts, and the French Revolution, but I’m seriously trying not to drool and dream of springtime, as I stare at the pictures of big poofy dresses and paintings of water lilies and picnics on a scenic lake shore.
Impression, Fashion and Modernity runs at the Met until May 27. After that, it will be at the Art Institute of Chicago. …Road trip anyone?
To read more about the exhibition and see some drool-worthy pictures check out these websites:
by columnist Madeline Karp For those of you not up on your children’s authors, this weekend marked the 99th birthday of beloved children’s author, poet and illustrator Theodor Geisel a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. The Please Touch Museum celebrated by reading Dr. Seuss’s best-loved books at story …
I love novels. I hope to publish one someday. I read them constantly. I use the margins to write notes cheering characters on, or chastising them for behaving badly. I give novels to friends. I organize them on shelves first alphabetically, then when that gets …
by columnist Madeline Karp
Lately, a series of weird things have been happening at my museum. A short while back, Philadelphia had massive wind and rainstorms. In a matter of two weeks, we experienced no less than two power failures and a flood. It sounds drastic to call them disasters, but had the museum staff been unprepared to handle the situation, there certainly could have been disastrous consequences.
Given our recent roller coaster ride, I thought this might be a good moment to go over good museum practice. In case of emergency…what should you do??
1. Know your museum’s emergency preparedness plan.
Do you know where your department meets for a head count in case of a fire drill? How about where visitors should go in case of a power failure?
Knowing where to go and what to do in case of an emergency helps maintain calm among visitors and employees. When the power went out at the Please Touch Museum, all of the museum staff ushered visitors into the main hall. Parents and children remained calm, because the staff was calm. Yes, something was amiss, but there was no need to panic. Everyone knew where to go and what to do. During the flood, operations managers and cleaning staff knew the most efficient ways to eliminate the water and the smell. The museum opened for business as usual, with only a few extra “Wet Floor” signs hinting that something had happened.
CHECK: Does your museum have an emergency preparedness plan or handbook?
2. Have back up programming.
What do you do when your lecturer suddenly gets sick? Or when your museum experiences a power failure? Having a back up plan can keep you from having to cancel events.
Instead of kicking people out, the PTM staff jumped into action. No, visitors couldn’t see the theater show during the power outage, but they could attend an interactive story time in the main hall! Using costumes and puppets, Education, Visitor Services and Community Outreach staff worked together to put on educational programming that connected stories, puppets, games and songs to appropriate learning standards. Children learned about the parts of bugs and played with various bug puppets, and were read stories about sharing and making friends. Visitors had so much fun playing this way, there was a little disappointed groan when the lights came back on a short while later.
CHECK: Do you have back up programs? Having an emergency program (and a battery powered microphone kit) up your sleeve never hurts!
3. Practice good stewardship – Keep things off the floor!
Floods happen for a variety of reasons. Ours was thanks to heavy rain and a blocked sewer system. Museum staffers came in to over a foot of water in the some parts of the basement, and a less-than-pleasant smell.
The Community Outreach department had a program later that day. Thankfully, because they stored their supplies off the floor, none of their materials were wet or damaged. But several file boxes left on the floor were water damaged. It is always easier to save supplies damaged by water than those damaged by fire; however, storing your files, collections and program aids correctly can prevent any damage at all.
CHECK: Are your supplies and collections stored according to good stewardship practices? Need a refresher? (It’s okay, we all do sometimes.) Check out AAM’s guide to good collections stewardship here.
4. Know who to call and when.
A visitor falls down the stairs and injures herself. Someone’s Nalgene explodes, spilling water all over the floor. A researcher accidentally tears a priceless document in the reading room. Who do you call?
At the children’s museum, we experience a lot of spills, involving both liquids and people. It’s important to know when to call in the cleaning crew, the supervisor or even an ambulance.
CHECK: Do you know who to call and when? If not, familiarize yourself with your museum’s First Aid policies and emergency cleaning procedures.
5. Teamwork is everything.
When something goes awry, it’s stressful for EVERYONE. In case of emergency, keep calm, and lend a helping hand wherever you can. I’m so proud of the way my colleagues handled themselves these past few weeks. Just when we thought nothing else could go wrong – the power would go out again. Sticking together and helping each other has really made us a stronger team.
And while our forays into emergency preparedness have been exciting (dare I say…fun?) let’s keep our fingers crossed that our dance with disaster is over for a little while.
Has your museum experienced a disaster? What did you do? Which policies helped? Which needed work? Share your stories with me in the comments!
