In which I explain my long absence and make promises I'll hopefully keep.

Update your calendars: August 21, 2011 marks my triumphant return to blogging. I've recently been longing for an outlet that isn't a) Museos Unite, b) Twitter, or c) my top sekrit Tumblr (which isn't actually secret, just not linked with my name so that it doesn't come up in Google searches for me). Silly Kirsten, don't you remember how you link-squatted your own name on Blogger? And then made 2 entries and never looked at it again?

Well I've remembered now, so perhaps I'll start updating again. First up: an account of last Thursday's tweetup at the American Museum of Natural History. I got to touch a giant squid! (That wasn't the account, that was a teaser.) After that, who knows. I might talk about politics and writing and sexuality and religion and other things you're not supposed to discuss in polite society. Because this isn't polite society; this is the Internet.

An Introduction to the Staten Island Arts Community

Staten Island's arts community may not be huge and it may not be as integrated with the rest of New York City as I would like, but it's vibrant and filled with dedicated people. This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting many of them. I attended the job fair at the conclusion of COAHSI's first Teaching Artist Training Institute, which aims to arm independent teaching artists with the skills and savvy they need to tackle this lovely "new normal" economy of ours.

Some of the organizations represented included:

ARTLAB - A nonprofit art school offering affordable classes in a variety of mediums. I can't wait for them to release their summer schedule; I think I might try my hand at something new!

Sundog Theatre - A performing arts organization that both stages professional productions and coaches children to write and produce their own plays. They hosted a camp at the Conference House last summer, and the production the students wrote and performed was one of the most delightful things I've ever seen. Sundog Theatre was one of the sponsors of the Teaching Artist Training Institute, along with COAHSI and the Center for Arts Education.

The Staten Island Children's Museum - I haven't been here in about 12 years, but I remember it being a wonderland. As someone who loved last year's AAM party at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, I reckon I would still think so. (Looking back, I volunteered here in middle school. Think I should add it to my resume? :P)

Illuminart - One of the newer arts organizations on Staten Island (via Michigan), Illuminart is already making a name for itself with theatrical performances aimed at stopping bullying and raising awareness about social issues.

Staten Island Museum - Staten Island's oldest museum, with art, archaeology, history, and natural history collections spanning Staten Island's 350+ year history. They're conveniently located near the Staten Island Ferry, so if you've been to a museum on Staten Island odds are this is it.

The Conference House - My museum! The Conference House is a 17th century manor house located at the southern tip of Staten Island. Most of our programs focus on 18th century history (the peace conference for which the Conference House is named took place in 1776) but we hope to offer options soon, including conflict resolution and conducting oral history. We were thrilled to be included amongst the organizations tabling at this event.

Universal Temple of the Arts - UTA offers free and inexpensive art programs to low and middle income students and families. They're one of the few Staten Island cultural organizations located right in the community they primarily serve.

The job fair was held at the Noble Maritime Museum which, like ARTLAB and the Staten Island Children's Museum, is located at Snug Harbor Cultural Center. Snug Harbor is a beautiful place that features the Staten Island Botanical Gardens, the New York Chinese Scholar's Garden, and the archives for the Staten Island Museum. Many other cultural organizations rent rehearsal and performance space here. It's not too far from the Ferry (just take the s44 bus) and it's well worth the trip.

And those are just the organizations! There were also a wide range of talented professionals--muralists, actors, photographers, musicians, curators, etc--who had attended the Staten Island Teaching Artists Institute. I had a ball meeting and chatting with them.

It's a little depressing to think of all these fabulously talented people struggling to make a go of it in the current economic climate, but I try to save my jabbering about harsh economic realities for Museos Unite. Overall I found the job fair to be an enlightening experience. Not to play into cliches, but I work in a historic house museum. Most of the people I come in contact with are staunch traditionalists. My museum is also located in a fairly affluent area of Staten Island, so we don't do as much work with at-risk youth as many of these other organizations. "My" Staten Island, which anyone who has met me knows I'm not a huge fan of, is not the only Staten Island. And thank goodness for that! [1]

[1] - Sorry potential employers. Just because this is something you can find on the Internet doesn't mean I'm going to pretend to love something when I don't. I am a young lady of unimpeachable honesty and excellent spade recognition skills. I call it like I see it!

Inaugural Post: Nightlife at the Museum

Although I blog about museum employment issues over at Museos Unite, I've long wanted someplace to compile my other thoughts on museums, culture, writing etc. No brilliant niche ideas were forthcoming, so I've decided to just go ahead and start writing in an eponymous blog.

Yesterday Nina Simon tweeted about a New York Times Article, Nights at the Museum, When Fun Trumps Art by Chloe Veltman. The gist of the article is that more museums are hosting events that are designed to draw in a different (usually younger) crowd, but that don't always fit well with the museum's mission. Does it make sense for museums to hold these events even if they are unrelated to the exhibits (or even the theme) of the museum?

I'm of two minds about it. I remember attending Museum Night Fever with my Museum Studies classmates in early 2008 and being pretty disappointed that most participating museums were little more than event venues for fashion shows, body painting, bars, music, and dancing. Not that I don't love all of those things! (Well, except body painting. I have no strong opinion about it.) But I also love museums, and seeing as we were tourists visiting Brussels especially for the event it wasn't as though the glimpses we caught of museum exhibits were going to convince us to return.

That's a pretty extreme example. I'm sure many attendees of Museum Night Fever were locals, just like many of the attendees at the events mentioned in the NYT--L@TE at the Berkeley Art Museum or After Dark at the Exploratorium--must be. In these cases events serve the dual purposes of getting visitors in the door and introducing them to the museum. They are friendraisers rather than fundraisers, designed to bring people "inside the tent." They are meant to attract a different audience than would normally visit a museum. But how successful is this?

A friend of mine commented to say she sees this at her living history museum, which often holds beer & wine festivals. I know my museum has some tangential events too (Halloween carnivals, clam bakes etc) because there are just so many things you can do with a historic house museum. People only want to attend events commemorating the American Revolution but so many times per year.

Still, you could throw the hippest party with the best DJ and a great bartender, but if you're hosting it at a historic house museum in the boondocks of NYC (me) or a living history museum in a rural area (my friend) that doesn't mean you're actually going to attract a very diverse crowd. Our "on theme" events and our friendraisers attract more or less the same crowd of highly local, intensely patriotic, older visitors. I can't speak for every museum, but I doubt there's much we could to that would appeal to a younger, hipper crowd. They don't live around here, there's no good public transportation to get them here, and we lack multi-use space.

That's not to say that friendraisers aren't a great idea or that I don't believe my museum should hold them. It's just that my experience with these type of events doesn't fully align with the way they're depicted in the article. We might be bringing new people through the door, but those new people fit into the same demographic as our core visitors. In a way this is great because it makes these events very successful; people who attend them almost always return to later, "on theme" events.

I also don't mean to sound like I think it's impossible for house museums to host innovative programming. Without giving away the exact name of the museum I work for, I will say that it is a part of a larger consortium of house museums called the Historic House Trust of New York City. In addition to events hosted by the individual museums (many of which have more accessible locations and larger spaces than we do...I certainly don't speak for all house museums!) they have a group called the Roof Raisers. So far Roof Raisers events have offered food, music, a great location (the Arsenal in Central Park) and the opportunity for advocates of HHT to connect and learn a little bit about historic preservation. I haven't attended one of these gatherings yet, but they sound like they hit all the right notes.

This is veering off into an entry on the pros and cons of historic house museums. I do tend to think that their greatest strength (their sense of place) is also one of their bigger weaknesses, because a historic structure can be limiting in a lot of ways, but that's an entry for another day.

Back to the original article: nightlife in museums. Museos Unite has discussed a similar topic as a part of our Solutions Series, seeking ways to solve the salary crisis. You can read about the Offsite Museum Bar over at M.U. It's a topic we plan to re-visit soon (albeit with a slightly different twist). It would certainly address location difficulties like those my own museum has. A centrally located bar could help bring the programming and expertise of small, far-flung museums to the coveted demographic of young professionals. Would my small, poor house museum own a bar? Unlikely, but holding events and lectures at one isn't a bad idea.

Please forgive this very rambling first entry! I'll try and be more coherent next time.