Museology Graduate with Collections Experience

[KEAhrens]

Headline: Museology Graduate with Collections Experience
Name: Katy Ahrens
Email Address: katy.elise@hotmail.com
Current Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Preferred Job Category: Registrar/Collections Manager

Personal Statement:
Work as a museum professional in an innovative and dynamic museum.

Education:
2008-2010 Master of Arts, Museology, Museology Graduate Program, University of Washington
2002-2005 Bachelor of Arts, History with a concentration in English, cum laude, Washington State University
2004 Study abroad, University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Professional Experience:
06/2009 – present Collections and Archival Intern
Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA
 Processing collections of archive, photograph, and object donations
 Cataloguing, labeling, photographing, and re-housing collections
 Database entry in Argus and Archivist’s Toolkit

10/2009 – 06/2010 Collections Staff
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
 Generating forms for museum gifts
 Handling textiles, costumes, art, and photographs
 Photographing objects for museum’s online digital collection
 Re-housing textiles
 Assisting visitors in the study center
 Assisting on projects as needed

09/2009 – 12/2009 Registrar Intern
Burke Museum of Natural History, Seattle, WA
 Researching and reconciling abandoned loans
 Entering old accessions into Argus database
 Re-housing accession paperwork

07/2009 - 10/2009 Weekend Admissions Clerk
Washington State History Museum, Tacoma, WA
 Tickets, memberships, books, and magazine sales
 Answering questions about museum and surrounding area
 Assisting on projects as needed

06/2009 - 09/2009 Development Intern
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA 98402
 Database entry in Raiser’s Edge
 Assisting in mailings to museum constituents about membership, pledges, and museum sponsored events
 Assisting in creating procedures for art donations in Raiser’s Edge
 Assisting at special events

05/2006 -12/2006 Venue Supervisor
Lynx-net, LLC. Contract work at the Smithsonian Institution; Fairfax, VA
 Integral role in launching functional multi-media guide
 Interviewing, training, and supervising employees
 Creating customer brochure and employee training manual
 Addressing customer service issues
 Monitoring kiosk functions and inventory control
 Providing daily sales reports
 Testing and troubleshooting the multi-media guide software

11/2005-05/2006 Curatorial Intern
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Division of Home and Community Life, Domestic Life Collection; Washington, DC
 Assisting in generating condition reports
 Re-housing museum objects with proper archival materials
 Handling 2 and 3 dimensional objects in the proper way
 Cataloging incoming accessions
 Generating legal accountability payments
 Answering public inquiries on a wide variety of subjects related to the home, CIGNA Firefighting, and Maritime collections
 Researching potential gifts and possible accessions by reviewing collections and identifying similarities or gaps
 Assisting in outgoing loans by giving a description of objects for the exhibit and catalogue

Applicable Skills:
MultiMIMSY; PastPerfect; Archivist’s Toolkit; Argus; Raiser’s Edge; Microsoft Office Suite; Adobe Reader; multiple search engines

Other:
American Association of Museum; Washington State Museum Association