Examining the Past, Looking Forward

Jun 2019
10-minute read

Every experience has shaped me in some way or form, but my time with The Humanities Collaborative has not only been an amazing way to end my journey here at The University of Texas at El Paso but also a perfect preparation for my future endeavors.

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This spring semester at the UTEP Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens was all about meetings, new ideas, and new/familiar faces. As I welcomed a new Undergraduate Intern from El Paso Community College—and also my coworker—Saul, I learned how quickly I had become a part of the museum structure. It is not until you are teaching someone what you know that you realize how much you’ve learned. Working with Saul has been such a pleasure; I think it made work a little easier, as what was once a one-person job was now shared between two people. I think I can speak for the both of us when I say we learned so much about the museum and the history of El Paso this semester. I am excited to see what Saul accomplishes in the coming months as he continues to work at the Centennial Museum.

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One of the most exciting projects we started to work on this spring was assisting with new collection storage. That required Saul and me to take inventory of our collections. The Centennial Museum has over 60,000 objects in its collections, so one can easily imagine how much time this took. Of course, we didn’t have enough time to catalog everything, but we did have the good fortune to go through some very interesting things, one of my favorites being the geology section—although I must say I think I have seen my fair share of rocks and minerals—but doing inventory was like going though treasure chest, though we had different intentions, of course. You find something new, something historical, and the object has its own entire story to tell.

Another favorite of mine was going through old photo film, most which had not even been developed, so we were seeing these raw images of excavations from all over the southwest and Mexico. It was probably one of my favorite things to do.  Even though it was very time consuming, doing inventory of our collections allowed me to learn more about my city, the surrounding areas, and its cultures.

Another busy project was exhibit installation. This spring we installed Uncaged Art: Tornillo Children’s Detention Camp and The Border That Does Not Divide: Artists and Art Along La Frontera (done by Dr. Elisabeth Sommers's Museum Studies class, with assistance from museum staff). Working on the Tornillo exhibit led to a lot of issues that needed to be addressed. Since it is such a powerful topic, everyone who was working on the project had to find a way to display the artwork of the detained children while also not losing sight of the main issue at hand. With topics like these one doesn't often realize how much planning goes into the project, and as a museum worker you often ask yourself, "What is our position?" There were so many such questions and problems that we had to solve. But I think one of the most important factors I learned from this project was that museums are open spaces that are meant for discussions like these. They are meant to educate the public in ways that open healthy discussion on topics that may not get attention.

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The issue of framing difficult discussions is a crucial topic for museums, so this year we were fortunate that the Texas Association of Museums Conference was hosted in El Paso. Fortunately, I was able to attend several seminars where I learned about several issues and topics that are important in the museum world, one being framing difficult conversations. As mentioned earlier, museums are a place where taboo subjects or things that often get swept under the rug are suddenly revealed and are put on display for the purpose of discussion. So, the big questions are: how do we display these topics or discussions properly? How do we encourage healthy and intellectual discussions about such topics?

One of the examples we had from the conference was from John Guess, Jr., the Chief Executive Officer from the Houston Museum of African American Culture. He mentioned how the Museum itself is labeled as an African American Museum, but they carry works from artists of all ethnicities, so they have had to adjust their mission to include multi-cultural elements while not losing sight of displaying the issues that minorities and people of color face. This reminded me of another example I worked with this semester, which was the reframing of the description of the Conquistador Mural that the Centennial Museum has in its foyer. The mural depicts conquistadors with indigenous men, but the mural is not an accurate depiction of what may have occurred. I had to research the history of conquistadors in the southwest to understand how to accurately reframe the image description so that all sides of the story are displayed properly. These moments emphasized the fact that museums are seen as safe spaces for representation and discussion, and in these environments, everyone should feel comfortable or at least made to think differently and examine all sides of history.

As you can see, this year has been very eventful thus far at the Centennial Museum. There was always so much going on, but with these experiences in mind, I feel like I’ve been prepared to encounter any situation and be able to get through it. Working in a museum, you're forced to think differently and to view things differently. I’ve been taught to think on my feet and to be an innovator and a quick problem solver. As I graduate this spring not only do I feel prepared from what I have learned these past couple months at the Centennial Museum, but I will forever cherish the memories and things I learned in this amazing environment.

written by Kristina Bennett 
UTEP Undergraduate Research Intern, The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP

(Header image courtesy of Vincent C. Martinez.  All blog images courtesy of Kristina Bennett.)




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