Tales of a Museum Intern – Prt. II

One of the most interesting things to me about museum work is its constant blend of intellectual work with physical labor.

There’s the conceptual work of creating new exhibits with their new stories to tell, but there’s also the purely manual — and highly necessary — work of pulling nails out of the walls when a temporary exhibit is over. As I learned how to take screws out of the gallery walls, it struck me that museum work may be one of the few professions that can boast of touching every aspect of the human experience: the physical, mental, and even sometimes the emotional and spiritual.

The other day I helped tear down the local theater exhibit, one of the more colorful and free-spirited exhibits I’ve ever seen. As many of you already know, Wenatchee has a thriving drama scene. Whenever a local production takes place, many members of our community contribute their talents to make impressively sophisticated props and costumes. Our exhibit showed everything from Short Shakespearean costumes to Wenatchee High School play bills. In case you missed the exhibit, here’s a taste of the creativity we showcased and celebrated. 

Today we took down all these wild props to prepare for an exciting new event that we have coming up: a national doll exhibit. Right now we are in the process of accepting contributions from both collectors and artists, so it’s sure to be an eclectic and fascinating display. Stay tuned for dates and details!

About the author:

Jacqueline DeJong graduated from Whitworth University in 2012 with a BA in English.

Now she’s interning at the Wenatchee Valley Museum while she dreams and plans for her future.