You may or may not know that Peterborough’s Fleming College offers two post-graduate diplomas in Museum related fields. One in Museum Management and Curatorship, and the other in Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management. Every year Fleming releases a new cohort of students into museums across the country and a few (including myself!) have been lucky enough to land here at the Canoe Museum. In fact, it was through my internship with the Fleming Museum Management and Curatorship program that I eventually ended up being hired on here at the Museum.
We are very lucky to have access to this pool of highly interested and engaged volunteers. Each year we end up with a handful of awesome and dedicated Museum studies volunteers who want to explore different areas of Museum life.
This past year you might have come across one or all of Megan’s blog series “Bringing the Canoes to Life”: Canoe for Courting, Nuu-Chah-Nulth whaling canoe and Bluebird Racing Canoe. Megan came to us through the Fleming Museum Management Program and she dedicated two afternoons a week (often times even more!) to help us research our collection, pull together our latest exhibit: A Walk With Kirk, archive photographic materials, and research and write awesome blogs. She also worked with the development department on the Adopt-A-Canoe Program. Megan is currently applying her museum skills on internship at the Waterloo Regional Museum.
This summer we have had three truly talented Museum studies volunteers working their butts off helping us take on a number of projects. Laura, Stephanie and Kate come in every week to help us update our membership database, input data into our collections management system, photograph items for our online store, scan, edit and document our extensive postcard collection, transcribe archival materials, write blogs and take on a host of other tasks and projects. It is so great being able to tap into the enthusiasm of people who are interested and invested in Museum work! To read Laura’s blog post on a class project/collaboration with the Museum click here.
With the summer coming to a close, I want to say a final “Thank you!” and “Good Luck” to these three incredible volunteers. Laura has been volunteering weekly with us for the past two semesters. She has been a total joy to have around the development department (just ask Christina!) and she brings an amazing work ethic to every project she takes on. Laura is about to embark on an awesome Museum-related internship in Ottawa, thanks Laura! You rock!
Stephanie has been a scanning machine since she started out with us in April. She has also been an invaluable member of our Events Staff. Her personality and versatility make her a blast to have around and she’s been a great asset to the curatorial department. Stephanie is heading out to the West Coast on her Fleming internship and we know she is going to be awesome. Thanks Stephanie! You rock!
Kate started with us in April and will be staying on with us until mid-August before taking her scanning, documentation, photoshop and transcription skills east with her to Algonquin College’s Applied Museum Studies program in Ottawa. Kate has been amazing to have around and never flinches when you hand her stacks of postcards to scan (signs of a successful Museum worker). Kate has been committing three mornings a week to the Museum and we can’t thank her enough! You rock Kate!
Best of luck in the fall you three and thanks for all your hard work. We might not say it enough, but we really appreciate your efforts and we’re going to miss having you around the place!
If you’re entering into one of Fleming’s museum-focused programs this fall, or if you think you might be interested in learning more about how a museum works, maybe you should consider volunteering with us! Contact [email protected] to inquire about volunteer positions.