Thursday, 25 June 2015

Visitor Experience Ambassador Musings


The last 2 months I have spent as a guest experience ambassador have been an incredible experience. I have had the opportunity to work on various projects that involved all staff here and help plan events, work with tours, develop a way to use technology in some Parkwood tours, and much more.

The Victory Garden Party turned out to be a huge success and had a great turn-out! It was great to see everyone take on the 1940s look and learn about the local involvement in WWII. Thanks to everyone who helped and was involved!!!

Recently I’ve been working with Alyssa on some housekeeping duties that are rather not too common such as trekking to the third floor and cleaning the skylights. For those afraid of heights, it may not be the most ideal job! Also, I’ve taken on the task of sorting out our archives and searching for information for Samantha. Having the opportunity to go through the archives was incredible as I was able to look into parts of Parkwood that I have not seen before.


 
Next time you come to visit Parkwood, ask for a garden tour too! One of my projects was integrating tablets in the garden tour, and very soon we will have these tablets with some of the guides to use as a tool to show archival images of the gardens. I'm excited to start hearing feedback about the use of the tablets on tours! Fingers crossed that they are a success!

Although my time with this particular position is almost officially over, I still plan to work on some of my ideas and continue with some of my "projects" for Parkwood.
 
Curatorial Comments: working so closely with Alanna over these last 8 weeks has been a joy. Her enthusiasm for Parkwood, and historic research is inspiring. All too often, one can become complacent about Parkwood, due to maintenance woes, or grant writing. Having keen interns like Alanna and John, who find the treasures in the most interesting places, has invigorated not only myself, but the other "oldies" on staff.

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