When I was little, I was disappointed when Christmas ended. However, Boxing Day was always listed on Dec 26th on every calendar I saw. I knew it was recognized in the UK and Canada, but I never gave much thought about it until I watched the holiday rom-com “Boxing Day” on Netflix a few years ago. (I don’t care much for holiday rom-coms, but this one was pretty good ...

This year I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Mountain Plains Museum Association Conference in Omaha, Nebraska as a scholarship recipient. This year’s conference theme was “Crossroads and Connections,” highlighting Omaha’s history as part of the Oregon Trail and the important connections museums make between the past, present, the future, and between people. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday filled up with sessions.

We present to you, the final post of Doug Daye's museum careers series! Doug Daye Development Coordinator (or Advancement Director) The development coordinator oversees the fundraising efforts of the museum. This includes membership programs, special events, grant writing, major gifts, and planned giving programs. They must keep in constant contact with individual donors, businesses, government agencies, and charities, all of whom help provide funding for the museum.

Our museum careers series continues with Doug Day providing more insightful information! Doug Day Archivist Similar to curators, archivists also see to the arrangement and exhibition of the collection. They work with technicians and conservators to ensure historical items are maintained. While a curator works with historical objects (ex., sculptures, textiles, paintings, etc.), archivists mainly handle records and documents. These may include photographs, letters, publications, manuscripts, films, and other materials of historical and cultural value.

Doug Daye is back with more insightful information regarding careers in museums! Conservator Conservators are directly involved with caring for the collection’s art and artifacts by performing restoration and preventative care. They work to repair damage to paintings, murals, textiles, rare books, and other cultural items. They may utilize special scientific tools to detect deterioration, figure out creative solutions to clean fragile objects, and even mix paint to reproduce historically accurate finishes on pieces of art.

After a "brief" hiatus, Doug Daye is back to tell us more about jobs in museums! We get many visitors who are not aware of the various job positions in museums. Of course, the number of job positions may vary depending on the size and budget of the museum. Large museums have a substantial number of staff who work in different departments.