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For the millionth time, I'm trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing with my life. Something that's come to mind many times over the past few years is working in a museum, ideally with old clothing or costumes. I love reading about historical fashion, (particularly in the 1800s and earlier,) and have literally poked around on the Met museum website, looking at clothing, and taking note of trends and stuff for hours at a time on multiple occasions. I find it very fascinating, and frankly pretty inspiring. The main reason I haven't given it much consideration in the past, is my complete lack of any actual experience, and that I don't know what the hell I would need to do to get a job like that. What kind of degree would I need? What kind of experience do I need, and how do I get it? What do curators of that sort of thing do on a day-to-day basis? Do I need to know how to sew? Any book recommendations for further study? Where is a good place to start with this kind of thing ohmygod help please. If you have experience with something similar to that, like working at a historical site, like an old house or something, or working as a museum curator in a different area (like with paintings, or artifacts) then I'd love to hear thoughts from you as well. Thank you! uberwekkness fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Sep 24, 2015 |
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Sep 24, 2015 22:04
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 07:27 |
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Sep 24, 2015 22:06
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From some tangential experience (working in libraries, volunteering in museum libraries), it's very tough to get an actual, paying job in the museum sector. Good museums have tons of volunteers ready and willing to do the grunt work, and there are many rich 'artsy' people, wives of stockbrokers etc, perfectly willing to work that as a hobby. So basically, there are no entry level jobs. There are also museum studies masters degrees that you may be expected to take before you can get a 'professional' level job, and many people working in museums will have Masters, if not PHDs, in the particular field of study. If you are interested, ask if you can volunteer, you'll need to do that in any case to get some experience on your CV and you can start asking the curators and getting your face known.
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Sep 26, 2015 13:39
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mediadave posted:From some tangential experience (working in libraries, volunteering in museum libraries), it's very tough to get an actual, paying job in the museum sector. Good museums have tons of volunteers ready and willing to do the grunt work, and there are many rich 'artsy' people, wives of stockbrokers etc, perfectly willing to work that as a hobby. So basically, there are no entry level jobs. There are also museum studies masters degrees that you may be expected to take before you can get a 'professional' level job, and many people working in museums will have Masters, if not PHDs, in the particular field of study. This, it's something you do if you can't imagine doing anything else in life, not something you settle on after jumping around from thing to thing. There are wayyyy to many people already in the field with experience + tons of education who are struggling to find work that doesn't put them on foodstamps due to funding cutbacks and whatnot. Also any funding that can be wrangled these days is going to go to some flashy science poo poo, not historical fashion. If you want see what it's like I suppose you can be a security guard or something.
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Sep 26, 2015 14:08
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TROIKA CURES GREEK posted:This, it's something you do if you can't imagine doing anything else in life, not something you settle on after jumping around from thing to thing. There are wayyyy to many people already in the field with experience + tons of education who are struggling to find work that doesn't put them on foodstamps due to funding cutbacks and whatnot. Also any funding that can be wrangled these days is going to go to some flashy science poo poo, not historical fashion. I have some connections to the museum "industry" and this is pretty much spot on. I randomly worked as an exhibit installer for a while and was the only person there who didn't have a Masters in something and this was literally a "carpenter, but able to deal with arty folks without yelling" job. Also, if you want to be hands on with stuff you want to be a conservator, not a curator. But in any case your chance of finding a job in that field is still super slim.
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Sep 27, 2015 00:48
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Good to know. Thanks, folks.
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Sep 27, 2015 07:41
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open a vintage clothing store, preferably online so you don't go broke right away.
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Sep 28, 2015 12:49
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Well, you can always just be like Unexpected Road. Show up at museum, be spontaneously awesome, and get a job.
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Sep 28, 2015 13:55
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Schweinhund posted:open a vintage clothing store, preferably online so you don't go broke right away. That sounds pretty awesome, but unfortunately, while I love clothing from the first half or so of the 20th century, which seems to be most common in vintage shops, my interests primarily lie in 19th century and earlier. If my best bet is to look at other careers, I should probably just work on my sewing, and get into costuming. And that's not so bad. Chili posted:Well, you can always just be like Unexpected Road. I hadn't read that thread and wow. Nothing like a good success story.  I don't expect to get that lucky, but hell, maybe if I visit the local museum enough I'll managed to get in there with something. (Or everyone there will think I'm creepy and annoying.)
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Oct 3, 2015 20:59
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 07:27 |
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I've done some work in library special collections and in a museum. My experience was that to get my first paying job in the field I had to take a job in BFE, far from what I consider real civilization. Finally I couldn't take that any more and moved on. Otherwise what the others have written is on the money. Your best bet is to be born rich and privileged.
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Oct 5, 2015 21:15
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