Hello! I'm a Museum+Momma! This is my first blog post ever, and I'm really excited to start this adventure. Here's a little background about me and why I decided to start this blog.
I love museums. I've been working in museums, in one capacity or another since college (2003ish). I have worked at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (while studying art history at the University of Iowa) and the Renwick Gallery and Luce Foundation Center for American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. I graduated from the George Washington University in 2008 with a masters degree in museum studies. I joined the staff at the Society of the Cincinnati, which maintains its headquarters, museum, and library at Anderson House in June 2008 as their museum collections manager. In March 2011, my husband and I welcomed our first child, Diggory, into our lives, and I made the very difficult decision to become a stay-at-home mom. (Incidentally, I'm not completely out of the museum world. I founded Keen Consulting and Services, Inc. in the winter of 2010, and I am available to work on small and large museum, gallery, and private collections projects. More about Keen later.)
I love being a mom, but I want to keep up my close ties with the museum world. Over the past ten months, it's become just a little to easy to stay at home just a little too much. So, I decided, why can't I set a goal (a New Year's resolution, if you will) to go to one museum every week for the whole year? Voila! Museum+Momma. I'll use this blog to document our sojourns. And I say "our" because I am totally going to drag Diggory around with me. I'll make comments about all sorts of things, anything that comes to mind. Maybe my thoughts on collections management, conservation, exhibit design, interpretation, and where the best places are to change a diaper. See where I'm going with this?
If you follow this blog, let me know what you want me to write about and where you think I should go! And if you've had a great (or maybe not so great) museum experience, with or without a little one, let me know! I'd love to hear what you think too! Happy museuming!
Hi, this is awesome. Can't wait to read about your adventures and would love to join you on a few if we can schedule that. My wish list to visit right now is the Celtic horde at the National Geographic museum. I know, one of the few in DC that costs money.
ReplyDeleteFor suggestions, will you also scope out the best places one could breastfeed? Like, upper floor of National History in little visited Gem section or a garden at the Sackler.
-Jennifer and Rose
I like the places to breastfeed idea, and keep us informed of activities for kids. I know freer shackled does a lot.
ReplyDeleteKate
I don't have kids yet and I've never been to DC, but I love the idea of learning these things ahead of time! I'm interested in hearing what you have to say! I foresee being the kind of mom who drags her kids to museums too, so this is going to be really helpful.
ReplyDeleteP.S. This is Katie from high school!