Workplace Student Review
Here is a little blog from Grace who worked with us recently: (Grace is pictured above in the World Stories Gallery, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery)
During the last three months, I have been completing a placement in the World Art section at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. I currently study History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton, and my placement was part of a ‘Behind the Scenes’ module, which focuses on gaining experience working within museums and galleries. World Art was something that I had never really studied before, so I was really intrigued to see what the department was like.
A main task I was working on was scanning and uploading a large collection of photographs from the World Art collection. Through scanning them to create a digitised image, and then uploading them onto the museums database, I was enabling a huge range of images to become accessible to more people, who would now be able to see them, and their corresponding details, through Asset Bank. Although this task took a very long time, it felt good to know that hundreds of photographs from the collection were now not stuck in a box, but out for people to see and access! For a few weeks I was working in Museum Lab, part of Brighton Museum, that enables the public to engage with the curators and staff who are working there, by opening up their working space to the public. It was really interesting to see how many museum visitors really immersed themselves in the practical elements of the museum.
Doing my placement at the museum has benefitted my degree studies greatly; I now have a greater insight into how museums are run, and how important the digitisation of collections, and improving accessibility is. I have also gained a greater appreciation of just how much work is put in by all the museum staff to ensure the museum is a place that is accessible to all. The practical skills I have also gained, such as handling collections, and experience with the museums database, will also prove extremely valuable in the future. Most of all, my placement has made me realise how much I would like to continue working within museums after I have finished my degree.
Grace Roberts, University of Brighton student, Spring 2017.
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I’d like to thank Grace for all her help during the 8 weeks she worked with us in World Art. We were hugely grateful for her time and effort in digitalising a collection that was long overdue. She demonstrated great enthusiasm and picked up learning the systems really quickly. Thank you so much and well done!
Steve Kisko, Collections Assistant, World Art, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.
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