images from the Gallery's collection

MAG Homepage

Main menu:

Site search

Categories

Archive

RSS Feeds RSS Feed

Volunteer Experience at the Memorial Art Gallery (part 3 of 3)

Here is the last in the series of essays written by our visiting intern, Andrea. In in case you missed the first two posts, here is a link the first, and a link to the second post.

The final stage in my learning process was, of course, my personal experience. Smile and keep a good attitude: two important concepts that I needed to achieve throughout my volunteer experience, and two attitudes that helped me in my personal development. The first time I had to smile was outside the museum while I was receiving the new and young students. It was freezing outside, but it was my job to give a big smile to all of these kids and their parents. I thought it was something unnecessary to do, however after several smiles I knew that smiling was changing everyone’s mood. Yes, it is true, I smile to the students, they smile to their professor, which smile to the staff, and they smile back to me. A good mood is actually the best tool to make everything work. All of these made me think that it was important to give my best face and try to help as much as I could because part of volunteering is helping other people.

Creative Workshop class

Smiles from the Creative Workshop

While my days at the MAG were mostly fun, I have to admit that it was not a bed of roses. There was something else that I needed to learn, this was to tolerate. Sometimes kids were being kids; they get distracted easily, they are loud and hard to control. For someone like me, whose native language is not English, it was hard to find the best words to say in order to calm them down, but, even when I did, the kids had a hard time understanding my accent. Communication was a barrier, but it should never stop anyone from doing what they like the most, so I just kept on working.

It has been two months since this wonderful experience, and I still learning from it. I think about the things I did but also about the things I did not. Next time, no matter where I am, I will have more initiative and I will always be on time. The main lesson of my experience was that the most important part of a museum is its people: visitors, members, staff, professors, and students, everyone who is interested in art. I wish Mexicans museums were more like the MAG, where everyone is welcomed to become part of it.

Gallery Council

Write a comment