Field Trips

Remember when you were in school and how exciting it was when the class got to go on a field trip? One of the great things about my job is that not only do I to get to host several field trips every year, but I am also still able to go on on field trips. The only difference is that field trips are now called "professional development days." During professional development days, we visit museums in the area and learn about how and why these museums do what they do and see if we can use this information in our institution. This is pretty much like professional development days for anyone else, however given the nature of what we do, our trips are always to museums.

Last week, the entire staff of the Banneker-Douglass Museum went on a professional development day trip to two museums in Washington, DC - the Newseum and the National Museum of American History. We went to the Newseum to look at their temporary exhibit G-Men and Journalists in order to get ideas for two exhibitions we will install in 2010 on law enforcement themes. While there, we received a great tour of the museum from Patty Rhule, a Project Editor at the Newseum and one of the writers for the G-Men exhibit. She walked us through the exhibit pointing out some of the key artifacts and giving us an insider perspective on how the exhibit was put together. I would definitely encourage people to go check this exhibition out. It is on temporary display at the museum through the end of 2009.

While at the National Museum of American History, the staff saw the The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise in the National Museum of African American History and Culture Gallery on the second floor of the museum. The tour was led by exhibition co-curators Michelle Delaney, associate curator of the Photographic History Collection at the National Museum of American History and Paul Gardullo of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This exhibition was a collaborative effort between two museums to display images of black Washington, DC during the 20th century from the Skurlock Studio. After the tour, the BDM staff met with Deborra Richardson, David Haberstich, and Vanessa Broussard Simmons from the Archives Center at the museum and talked about the exhibition and how they process their collections. This exhibit will be on display at the National Museum of American History through 28 February 2010.

Quite a field trip, er, professional development day, if I do say so myself.