Borden
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Posts posted by Borden
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Building on m-ttl's second point, I got my internship that led to my current job because I had worked two summer internships at my smaller museum, and could point to the insane list of things I'd done there simply because they had a permanent staff of six people and having an intern with an art history/academic background meant they could fob things like research, gallery tours, and label writing off onto me and get on with the things they needed to do to keep the lights on and the doors open. Small museums, whether history, science, art, house, industrial, whatever, can act as fantastic intensives in what museum work is. I hated a lot of the stuff I had to do during those internships- I never want to do fish prints with a group of 30 6-year-olds in hundred degree weather again- but boy oh boy was I prepared when I got here.
My internship here was much more focused and narrowly defined, and was brilliant for teaching me all kinds of things that the others hadn't. In my time here it was also clear that I was working with a lot of other kids who had not been prepared, who had been told that their BA from Wherever made them qualified to move up the ranks just by having gone there, or because Uncle Bob has that same Rembrandt print in their hallway at their lake house, and who realized through the internship that they weren't actually interested in this field and re-examined their goals. I've also worked with a lot of kids from Wherever that are brilliant and going places fast, and well-deservedly, but they do it without a sense of entitlement. The big thing is to gain experience so you can either confirm your desire and gain experience, or realize that it's not for you and still have had the experience that can then inform your choices in the future. It's how I look at having TA'd- it was a great experience, but I'm not interested in making a career of teaching in a classroom.
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I work at a major museum in a very busy department, that's where my experience with ill-informed interns comes from. I've heard a number of them say, "Well, I didn't know it was so much reading!" because they hadn't been disillusioned about what it actually takes to put on a show or acquire a work of art, and they left the museum track because they realized it wasn't for them.
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Anyone wanting to work in a museum should work in museums so that A.) they know what it's like and so that B.) when you do have those connections that springboard you into a career, your recommenders will be able to enthuse about how awesome you are at doing the things they need you to do.
This is a HUGE part of it, and I'll add- so you know that it is actually what you want to do! We get a LOT of interns who waltz in from their Ivy League/Small Private School thinking that they're going to rocket to the top and go to fancy openings and curate shows, and then they realize that they're going to be someone's research grunt for a decade and that they actually hate reading and writing at the volume that's required of a curator, and drop out of the field. If you want to be a curator, you have to know what you're getting into, and you have to commit to a long period of grunt work.
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My big take away from two stints at my small local museum is that I never want to work in a place where I have to build my own set pieces and do my own painting again, but I also learned how to install site-specific pieces, do lighting, write labels, and make a pretty cheese tray for opening night. It's valuable experience even if you think it's weird and not helpful at the time (artists, btw, should never be allowed to bring dirt and plants from their backyards into the gallery for their pieces because that's how you get ANTS).
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I've no interest in embracing the microfilm. I use it plenty at work for all those sources and have for several years now and I haaaaaate it. At least NARA is starting to digitize finally.
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Really, really the worst. I know this is unrelated to grad school, but it's all I'm doing at work today and I'm losing my mind.
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I will, but I don't know how applicable what they ask me to do is going to be for other people- I'm going straight into my dissertation so I've already been working on the relevant reading lists and I'm guessing that anything else they have me do is going to be pretty specific. Ugh I should probably read Foucault sooner rather than later. Bleeeeeeh.
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I just emailed my advisors asking what if anything they want me to work on for the next few months so I can get cracking immediately when I arrive, but you also reminded me that I needed to get an Italian reader to refresh because it's been ages since I've had to do anything with it in any meaningful way beyond the odd translation or caption skimming for work. So thanks! Whee more self-assigned homework.
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Oh god I'm going to have to teach my parents how to use skype. Send help.
- m-ttl and BuddingScholar
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I have conveniently not told my family anything yet...partially for this very reason.
I live 2500 miles away so I tend to keep them in the loop more than I necessarily would if I lived at home, just because any sort of decision involves that much more effort to pull off in the practical and to help us all feel like we're involved in each others' lives. On the other hand, it does mean hour-long conversations with my mother on a weekly basis where we rehash why, yes, moving to the UK to do this degree with this person is the best idea even though it's going to make life difficult for a few years, no, this other offer is not as good or as valuable in the long run, no, I do want you to be involved in my life, yes I will miss you, of course I understand how this means I won't see you as much, no I TOTALLY don't plan on marrying while I'm there and having babies and getting a job at the V&A and never coming home where on earth did you get that idea, etc etc etc.
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I agree with m-ttl. I went to state schools that are almost NEVER mentioned on these boards for my BA and my MA, and they both were very insistent about concerns with methodology, historiography, theory, and how these areas interacted with our individual areas of specialty and special problems our areas might face- so I, as a 19th century sculpture person, might interact differently with a Panofskyian sense of iconography than say my Italian baroque friend would, and we'd have different questions of connoisseurship or need for interaction with the object directly versus through reproduction, and issues of materiality or availability or primary documentation. Even my community college 101 classes touched on these kinds of problems at a basic introductory level. If I can get this at a school that never breeches the top twenty list for art history at the BA level, and which more than prepared me compared to students who came from top-tier schools in my MA, why are people putting themselves into debt for this? I get very uncomfortable when these sorts of programs are pushed as the best way into the field when they are inaccessible for large numbers of qualified students due to financial reasons, and no one involved seems to think this is a problem.
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m-ttl, my mother wants me to try that with one of the schools that made me an offer to see if they'll up the ante.
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Now looking back, I wish I had not applied to so many schools. But after last year's disastrous experience, I thought I needed to hedge my bets and applied to 11 schools. Now Williams is the only school missing, and though I have more than redeemed myself from last year's experience, I am still nervous AS HELL. And once I noticed that someone had already been accepted on the board, I felt like I could not handle the wait anymore, kid you not!
I am having to restraint myself to the chair to keep me from emailing them and asking for the result. Hence my writing incessantly here.Anyway, I say all this as an attempt to convince myself that I need to stop worrying and whining, and be happy that excellent programs have already accepted me with funding. And if Williams acceptance does come through, that it would just be the icing on the cake--I must confess a predilection for icing though.
In any case, I am truly glad for your success this time around. As I said before, we had similar experiences last app season and I know exactly how it feels to have had a considerably better outcome this year. Congratulations again!
Thanks! I'm actually about to email my POI-turned-advisor and let her know that I'm officially accepting and see if there's anything they want me to start working on that I haven't already done over the next few months- I am the definition of eager beaver and I've already given myself huge reading lists to get through but if there's anything they want me to start doing officially or unofficially so I can hit the ground running I want to know nowwwww. I had to write out basically a chapter outline of my dissertation for my application so now I really just want to get cracking, since they've basically already unofficially approved my topic and methods.
I'm so glad things seem to be working out for us second-rounders this year! I don't know how you had the intestinal fortitude to do 11 applications, I actually dropped one of my schools that I'd originally planned to apply to because I just couldn't face doing another one. We'll have to have some kind of digital pizza party on April 15 around here!!
- m-ttl and BuddingScholar
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I'm so glad I only applied to four schools this year, I have all of my answers in now (even though one of them is waitlist and I had to email to get that).
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When I accepted an offer the graduate advisor just wrote back "wow.....excellent....." and the ambiguity of these ellipses is freaking me out...but I think it means I should have asked for more money!!
I had one POI last year answer me in one sentence ending with a period and no sign off as an ENCOURAGEMENT to apply after our meeting, like, "Thanks for your interest and please do apply." Least helpful ever.
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Argh! U beat me to it! Kinda relieved it'll be all over soon.
I was literally sending my dad links to funding information for another school when that one came in. Now I'm just going to email my last hold out for closure and be done with it all.
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Woo! First posted Yale reject second year in a row!
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I looked at student housing and found it wanting. 3-days for guests only rules are kind of...arbitrary. But more importantly: $990 for an unfurnished apartment?? It's nuts, given what it is. I think I'm massively spoiled: I pay $500 for a furnished apartment: full kitchen, couch, chair, I share my room with a friend so beds, desks, two closets, private bathroom, nightstands, dressers...
I'm ollieing out to the UK so at least for the first year, dorm life is the way to go- apparently apartment managers will ask for up four months' rent in advance for first time international renters, and since I won't know anyone I'd feel more comfortable in the grad housing for the first couple terms, where there's a built in support system and people who have to be nice to me (and 24 hour art studios in the building and also apparently a fishable lake right out in front of the dorm).
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I'm both hugely allergic to and disliked by cats. Dogs all the way.
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Thanks! I'm over the moon!! One of them was one of my top choices: a PhD w/ full tuition remission, big stipend**, and a curatorial track. The fit is perfect and I'm going to accept (they even said they thought they were perfect for me and I may have blurted that I was glad they agreed with me). No point in going to an MA when the PhD program I want is already on the table.
**It's so silly, but I'm so excited I'll be able to afford a cat! And not have to work two extra jobs on top of being a student. My boss gave me a big hug when I told her.
Kittyyyyyy. I want a dog but I'm going to be living in student housing for a year and I don't think a dog would 1) be allowed 2) do well in a room that's basically one and a half twin beds long and two twin beds wide.
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Whoo hoo. Two offers in a 24 hour window.
Congrats, man!
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Huh, this is interesting to know. I also applied to their PhD and have heard nothing either way. From the results page it seems they can be bad about getting their rejections out in a timely fashion. How do you know the result posted was an American though?*
*Oh, j/k I see that little A now! I never really thought about what that stood for (durduhdur).
I was in really close contact with my POI there last year and this year and bless her heart she was very open about the fact that they only take one international student a year for the phd because of funding. I also got my rejection last year on May 29 so Lorde only knows when we'll here this year.
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I'm American and got into the University of Toronto MA program, is that what you are referring to?
Nah, it's the PhD specifically. According to my POI there Toronto only takes one international PhD a year so I'm wondering who I lost out to, just for my own edification. Congrats on the MA program!
Guidance for an unconventional phd hopeful
in Art History
Posted
Oh god, you're giving me the vapors just thinking about this happening. We aren't even supposed to wear nail polish in case we might have to handle art.