This July will mark my four year anniversary at Bucknell, but over the last 24 months just about everything at the Samek has changed! I came back to work the first of May from being on maternity leave for 11 weeks and it feels like I am starting a new job. We have a relatively new Director (Rick Rinehart, started May 2011) and a very new Operations Manager (Pam Campanaro, started March 2012). In addition to the Samek Art Gallery and the Museum Collection & Study Room, we opened the Downtown Art Gallery. I have been promoted to Registrar and am now a working mother.
Through one Director-less year, the retirement of our former Operations Manager, 7 1/2 exhausting months working through a pregnancy, a complete revamp of our office culture, a new job description that brought with it a slew of new responsibilities and a surprise, 6-week early leave, there has been one constant in my work life that has, quite frankly, kept me sane: our awesome Graduate Fellow, Will Schwaller. Will has been our go-to guy for two years; our junior curator, our extra set of hands, our bouncing board, our tie-breaker, our substitute gallery attendant, our blogger, our disc jockey during installation weeks, our research assistant, our administrative assistant, our courier, our prep crew, our dog walker, our house sitter, our friend.
Will’s retirement from the Samek is bittersweet for me. I am very proud and happy for him to move on to the next step in his career, however I am sad to lose one important part of our new Samek “Dream Team.” I’d like to take this moment to publically recognize Will for all he has done for me personally over the last two years, as well as the Samek. Thank you Will; I couldn’t have done it without you!
Before he leaves, I thought I’d subject Will to a few questions regarding his time here; an exit interview, if you will, Will.
Tracy: So Will, how does it feel to be indispensible?
Will: Well you know I don’t really notice it, it’s just who I am…Just Kidding! Naturally, I’m flattered, but I’m just happy that you all liked me here and let me stay for two years. I really like it here at the Samek, we’re kind of a small family in my mind. I think it’s for that reason I was constantly motivated and happy to work hard and contribute to the Gallery’s work.
Tracy: What are the 3 most important lessons you learned during your time here?
Will: 1. Make as few marks as possible when measuring and hanging artworks. It might mean a little more math and mapping it out on a notepad, but it is so rewarding when you take the work down after an exhibition and you only have a few pencil marks and two screw holes to clean up!
2. Museums and Artists work at different speeds, which is perfectly fine and to be expected, but as a result you need to be in frequent communication with artists you work with and begin planning exhibitions way beforehand so you have time to get the exhibition in place with time to spare.
3. Putting on good exhibitions, while great and admirable, isn’t the only goal a museum or gallery should have. Engaging your audience should be as much of a goal, since they are who you work for, essentially. Especially in an academic gallery, our exhibitions should be ones that everybody can relate to or talk about. There shouldn’t be exhibitions that are made just for the Art and Art History kids, but ones that an Engineering or Management student would enjoy personally and academically.
Tracy: If you could pick one task that you did here at the Samek to never again do during in your lifetime, what would you chose?
Will: Clean walls. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a nice clean wall, but when it’s your job to clean them you look at them a whole different way; you notice very little blemish or bad patch spot and it can drive you crazy. Or maybe it would be counting boxes of catalogs, that was dusty and kind of boring…
Tracy: If you could take one object from our collection with you, what would you take? Allow me to be very clear: this is a hypothetical question. I know where to find you.
Will: Tony Smith’s Tau, 1965-80 or Neil Anderson’s The Elements:Fire, 2005
Tracy: In my high school, we did “Senior Wills” where we would write messages to the incoming Senior class, passing down advice, wisdom or tangible things like our locker or letterman jacket. (Not that I had a letterman jacket to hand down; I only earned a JV letter in tennis.) What would your “Senior Will” entry say to our two incoming Graduate Fellows?
Will: I would say, take advantage of the great one-on-one access to Bucknell’s faculty; I had awesome courses in Art History, German, and Philosophy and wished I could take more Studio Art and Italian. Take advantage of being a student with access to a great library, gym, and free food for on campus events and end of the semester study breaks! At work, I would advise them to peruse the collection, because we have some pretty cool stuff. If I stuck around longer, I would have also liked to pick our Director Rick’s brain about new media art since it’s not often taught and he is a wealth of knowledge on the subject. Also be sure to meet and get to know the great artists we bring in, it was great to meet the ones during my time and I look forward to running into them and catching up.