The "Fierce Women" tour started last year over the weekend of the Women's March. It was originally called the "Nasty Women" tour and was incredibly popular the weekend of the march. Our museum education team, the women who developed the tour, did something like nine tours that first weekend. They were scheduled to do two. Since the march, the tour has been renamed and a group of docents, myself included, have been trained to deliver the tour. The tour is very different from the regular highlights tours we do; it's irreverent, funny, and very feminist. It's based on the idea of museum hacking, bringing an unconventional approach to a museum tour. We highlight eight artists in our collection from the first professional woman artist, Lavinia Fontana to Mickalene Thomas, a modern painter responsible for the first portrait of Michelle Obama. It's a scripted tour, which is different for us docents as well, and we use a lot of source images to help tell the stories of these artists. We also get to tell jokes, racy stories, and add our own personal stories as appropriate.
I love this tour. It's more like performance art than any other tour I've ever given. It's fun, visitors get into it, and they participate. As an educator, one of the things I always think about when designing training is whether information will stick with learners/visitors. Classroom teachers think about this a lot too. The tour is fast-paced and we don't leave a ton of time for questions. What I observed today with my group was that they were getting it. They might not remember everything I said, but I can guarantee they remember a few nuggets and will keep their eyes out for women artists as they visit other museums. I'm also pretty certain this tour has inspired visitors to come back to visit NMWA again and again. They had fun and they learned something.
One of the artists included in this tour is Maria Sibylla Merian. Merian is one of the artists I had never heard of when I first started volunteering at the museum. She's a 17th and 18th century artist best known for her masterwork, Insects of Suriname. Merian always had an interest in insects, even growing silkworms in her room as a teenager. At the age of 52, she sold all of her possessions to fund an expedition to the Dutch colony of Suriname. Her younger daughter accompanied her on the journey, an unheard of act at that time. Women barely walked down the street alone, let alone travel to another country without a male chaperone. She spent two years documenting the life cycles of over 180 species in their natural habitats, trekking into the rainforest, through gardens, and onto plantations. Of course, she did it all in the fashion of the 17th century. I can't even imagine what she tracked in on those skirts. She came back to Europe, divorced the husband, joined a cult, left the cult, and reestablished her art and naturalist career. Her work was important in establishing the science of entomology, particularly because of the fact that she studied from life rather than from preserved specimens.
Merian's story constantly inspires me, as I shared with my group today. Think about it: she's 52, living in a society that doesn't allow her to join the scientific groups who benefit from her work, and people probably think she's a witch given the association of women and nature during this period. Instead of being a butterfly lady painter, she trekked into the rainforest and painted tarantulas the size of dinner plates and all sorts of other creepy, crawly creatures. Whenever I think to myself, "you can't do that" or "this is going to be terrible," Merian pops into my head and I forge ahead, even if it is terrible. I may not be going into the rainforest or helping to move science along, but I can be brave, intrepid, and daring in my own right.
So what am I planning on doing in 2018? I always establish goals at the start of every year. This year is my year of learning: I'm going to take classes, travel more, revamp my professional writing on LinkedIn, and finish my novel. I know it's a lot, but I feel really good about this list. This is going to be a great year.
My 2018 Goals - Remember kids, if you don't write your goals down and put them out in the universe, you won't actually do them. Nothing says accountability like posting my goals here on my blog. Y'all keep me honest.
- Personal
- Classes
- Baking classes. Yes, I know how to bake delicious things BUT I also like learning new techniques. First up, croissant making at Sur La Table later this month.
- Metalworking/Welding. No, I don't want to learn how to weld to fix cars or build a house or something more useful. I want to learn how to make jewelry and maybe metal sculptures.
- Drums lessons/Sign up for We Rock camp - Some people box to get out their aggression, I think drumming will help meld my love of music with my need to occasionally hit things.
- Craftivism & the Badass Herstory Project - I signed up to participate and stitch my story as well as be a project ambassador. This is going to be awesome.
- Finish Transient Suburbia. No really, it will happen.
- Monthly letter writing
- Do yoga at home after I finish up my last seven courses at the studio.
- Travel
- Memphis in May - Foo Fighters show, Graceland, and BBQ with my brother. It's going to be awesome.
- NYC at some point this year to see The Dinner Party at the Brooklyn Museum.
- NOLA - it's been too long away from home.
- Nashville - this might be a stretch, but I'm hopeful I can fit it in this year too.
- Career
- Publish 3-4 articles on LinkedIn.
- Complete a certification course OR present at a conference.
- Sign up for my local ATD chapter and attend one networking event.
