By Laura G., MMC Intern
When I was younger, my Dad would take my two brothers and I to exciting places in Toronto like the ROM, Casa Loma, the Science Centre and the Zoo. He would also take us to museums closer to home such as Pickering Museum Village, Lynde House, and the Oshawa Museum. I was so fascinated by the history, collections and culture of all these places at such a young age. When I was around 4 or 5 I told my parents that I wanted to be a “Museum Lady,” and it stuck.
I had dreams of becoming a number of things when I grew up such as fashion designer, a pastry chef, and even a marine biologist. Whenever I would tell people these dream careers I would always add “or I want to work in a museum.” I remember telling one of my tenth grade teachers I wanted to be a curator, she told me it was an uncommon career choice and she was surprised I even knew what a curator was. I happened to know what a curator was because while searching for post-secondary choices in a careers class, I stumbled across a program called Museum Management and Curatorship at Fleming College. This is the program that had my interest piqued as I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do. All my education from that point on was focused on taking the Fleming program and working in a museum some day. I took all the history and arts electives in high school. I was accepted into Trent University where I completed a double major in History and Cultural Anthropology. I gained some experience by volunteering at the Peterborough Museum & Archives and Pickering Museum Village. Then, after taking a year off school, I attended Fleming College for their Museum Management and Curatorship (MMC) program.
The program is incredibly well-rounded, I learned all kinds of things I never even thought about, such as how to properly research for an exhibit, how to care for a collection, museum math (not as bad as real math), and so much more. I get to put all that learning to use this summer as I complete my internship at the Oshawa Museum where I’ll be helping with collections management, digitization, developing the upcoming exhibit and many other projects!
Oshawa Museum Blog 