Learning the Ropes

     I have officially completed my first exhibition set up! And a joint exhibition, at that. Plus I survived a Scottish hen party. I double deserve some fish and chips, right?

      New Lanark's "A Tale of Two Institutes" exhibition with Lanark Library was already in the works and development was pretty far along by the time I arrived in Scotland so I wasn't involved in much informative panel content or picking the archive pieces to include. However, I was able to write and edit captions and choose the stands, displays and plinths for all the material. The real fun started when we spent more than two work days doing set up at the New Lanark site and in the library's display area. We spent hours scrubbing glue off the case windows, staring at and adjusting arrangements, and cleaning up our giant mess in the archive room. Sounds pretty glamorous, right? I guess it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I've never been so heavily involved in that kind of process and the work is rewarding.

      Overall, the coolest part about this exhibition was the material I handled for the displays. For example, the book I'm arranging in the photo below was published in 1708. That's decades older than the Declaration of Independence, my fellow Americans!

      The best part about being an intern is that I don't have to know how to do everything (even though I pretend to). My boss, Jane, has such a meticulous eye for detail and is a wizard at set ups so to be able to shadow her and hover while she works has taught me a lot. Here are some photos during and post set up.

      Now that I have been here for a few weeks and proven that I am a mildly competent human of acceptable intelligence, I've been tasked with greater responsibilities! I am now working with one of the volunteers to create a new brochure about the production and sale of the wool and textiles made on site in New Lanark. I also get to start the planning and development for the next exhibition "Bowls, Books and Bagpipes" which centers around sports and leisure in New Lanark/South Lanarkshire in celebration of the Commonwealth Games being held in Glasgow this year. I know what you're thinking, "you've only got four weeks left there". Right you are! The rest of my time here will be extremely busy so I will just go to sleep now.



Cheers!

TGT