MAKING A MUSEUM: Materializing Regimes of Value with the NYC Department of Sanitation

Hello, my name is Kelly Rangel and I'm a first year graduate student at NYU in the Department of Museum Studies. I was raised in St. Louis, MO, where my immediate family still resides, and I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006 with a B.A. in Art History. My past museum experience have been internships with the St. Louis Art Museum, the Blanton Museum of Art (on the University of Texas campus), and a couple of smaller art galleries in Austin. I'm particularly interested in modern and contemporary art and would like to work in museum education after I complete my graduate studies. The reason I chose to take this course was because the project sounded intriguing and the potential that it has to become a basis for a museum someday makes it that much more exciting.

Alex Starace is an M.A. candidate in Museum Studies, expected graduation 2008. He has interned at a variety of museums, including The Museum of Russian Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass. He currently works at NYU Archives and as a freelance writer. When not haunting New York's unending roster of museums, he enjoys reading fiction, frequenting bars, and watching overly intellectual movies.

Katie Blankenship is a graduate student in the Draper Masters program at New York University. She received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz in cultural anthropology. After graduating from UCSC, Katie has conducted independent research in the fields of ethnomusicology and art history. Since moving to New York, Katie has been working at the Park South Gallery in Carnegie Hall and pursuing her own musical interests. She looks forward to working with the New York Department of Sanitation and is thankful for the opportunity to get to know the men and women that make up the DSNY.

Hi, I’m Elaine Jackson. This is my second year in the Draper Program for Interdisciplinary Humanities at NYU. I grew up in Aberdeen, South Dakota and graduated from Brigham Young University in 2003 with a B.A. in Humanities/History and a minor in Art History and Curatorial Studies. I’ve had some (limited) museum experience working at an Ottoman art exhibit during my undergrad, but I’d like more museum experience and am interested in working for a museum. I chose this course because of my museum interest, and also because of my interest in the subject matter: the Department of Sanitation of New York, which developed through reading a really interesting book over the summer (Rats, by Hudson Valley author Robert Sullivan – link below.) Sullivan’s interest in the Department of Sanitation intrigued me, and his observations furthered my interest in this course.

http://www.amazon.com/Rats-Observations-History-Unwanted-Inhabitants/dp/1582344779/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8827416-9318319?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190048027&sr=1-1

I am a first year museum studies student with an interest in administration. I graduated from California State University, Chico in May 2007 with a BA degree in anthropology. During the summer of 2006 I interned with Cedar Grove: The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskil, New York. I am very excited to be living in this city and know that there is no better way to appreciate the atmosphere and people than understanding the complexities and dedication of the department of sanitation.

Hello, I am Casey Lynn, a proud Baltimorean and current NYU graduate student. I am in my second year at NYU in the Draper Interdisciplinary Program in Humanities and Social Thought. I hold a BS from Syracuse University, where I majored in graphic design. Before beginning my graduate studies, I worked in PR, marketing and event planning. I currently work part-time as a graphic designer. Recently, I worked with WNYC radio on a public history project concerning neighborhood identity in New York City. I am interested in learning more about exhibit design and archiving, and I look forward to working with the Department of Sanitation on this exciting project.

I am Jackie, a current "second year" Museum Studies MA student. Since March 2007, I have been working in the development department of the Queens Museum of Art, assisting with fundraising efforts for the Museum's first-ever capital campaign. Though my academic background has primarily been in the performing arts, I am a visual artist myself and have a soft spot for the visual arts. However, my love of culture in general has drawn me to the realm of museums and what invaluable resources they can be to communities large and small. Prior to working at the Queens Musuem, I spent 3+ years working for the NYC Region of Teach For America, a non-profit education organization dedicated to achieving equality in educational opportunity for all children. My deep love of both education and the arts will (hopefully) lead me to ultimately pursue a path in the world of public education that daily takes place in museums. I graduated from Georgetown University in 2001 with a BA in English and History, and a minor in Theater. I have been a performer throughout high school and college, and someday hope to make my second stage debut. I dabble in figure drawing, waterclolor and printmaking, and have received several years of formal training at the Art Students League of New York after college. Originally raised on the other side of the Hudson River (e.g. NJ), I now reside in the wonderful community of Astoria, Queens.

My name is Monica Salas and I am a graduate student in Museum Studies at New York University. I received a BA in Anthropology from Universidad de las Americas-Puebla, Mexico. My career interest is in the field of museums, specifically in the conservation and interpretation of archaeological and ethnographical objects. I am also interested in the politics of cultural production, appropriation and consumption in modern Mexico. Currently, I am working on a research project concerning the development of a community-based museum in Oaxaca. I am also completing a credit internship at the AMNH, where I work with the Collections Management personnel.

Maria Jose Gomez Castillo [MG] is an M.A. candidate in Museum Studies in New York University. She grew up in Mexico City, where she got a major in Hispanic Literature and a minor in translation (English--Spanish). After having published a few short stories in diverse magazines and compilations, she started writing for museums. She was content editor and later content-development-manager for the Interactive Museum of Economics in Mexico City (2004-2006), and then she moved to NYC. This summer, she interned in the Cisneros Collection, where she did research about Latin American artists shown in the "The Geometry of Hope" exhibition at Grey Art Gallery. Among her interests are writing for education, exhibition development, label-writing, and less academic stuff.

Lindsey is a second year graduate student in the Museum Studies program at NYU. Her interest are in education and the arts. She has a B.A. in Art History and English from Rice University in Houston, TX. During her undergraduate work, Lindsey studied Art History and Museum Studies in Florence, Italy. Since moving to New York in 2006, Lindsey has taught toddlers in a Montessori setting. After graduation she hopes to gain more experience in museum education practices and theory in New York City .

I have a joint appointment teaching in the NYU anthropology department and the Program in Museum Studies which perfectly maps onto my own research and training. I'm an anthropologist who has worked for all of my academic and professional life in Museums. After working on projects at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Natural History Museum in London, and Kettles Yard Gallery in Cambridge, I undertook phd research at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and National Museum (http://www.vanuatuculture.org). Since completing my dissertation, my research and writing have focused on the ways in which museums change people's understandings of the importance of objects in their everyday lives. I focus particularly on issues around intellectual and cultural property, contemporary arts within museums, and the social life of museums within communities. My special area of curatorial practice is photography and I have worked on a number of photographic collections, for instance in Cambridge, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I am particularly interested in how photographs carry meanings with them as they travel and are reproduced in multiple contexts and in the effects of digitisation within museums on the power of images and objects.

Taking oral histories about historic photographs in Atchin, Vanuatu, July 2006.

At NYU I teach classes on issues of Materiality, Cultural Property and Museums, Anthropology and Museums.

I am in my second semester at Draper although I am only studying part-time. My daytime persona involves bushwacking my way through the corporate IT world (though you wouldn't know if from my less-than-stellar blogging skills). I am an NYC native though I spent a few years of high school studying in Israel. For my undergraduate degree I majored in Individualized Studies at NYU, concentrating in Journalism and Liberal Arts and was able to study in both Florence and Prague. Recently I've returned from a three-year stint in Seoul, South Korea teaching English as a foreign language to adults. I am interested in anthropology, urban culture and linguistics. I am fluent in Hebrew and speak passable Korean. I am very excited to be a part of this class as it presents a chance to get to know the city I love a little better, as well as pay tribute to the people who make help make it all happen.