Fine Arts Career Services

This marks my last week formally working on the translation of the Avraham Goldberg set of prints. I have been translating the introductory text of the prints from Hebrew to English. Monday, I consulted my father on the unclear parts and filled in the phrases that were still a bit confusing. By mid-week I was confident about the finished product, and I was ready to show my supervisor the finished work. He said I did a great job, which validated all the work I had done. He also gave me some great suggestions. The problem with translating (since I am not a professional) is that literal translations of the text might not make sense in English, in the case of colloquial or old-fashioned expressions. Therefore, I have to change the wording in some sections in order for the correct meaning to get across. My supervisor suggested that I change the wording in the body of the text, and then set a footnote on the bottom of the page listing the literal translation and the reason for the change. These changes that I added made the English text flow much smoother. I also added some footnotes describing some Jewish concepts that would otherwise be unclear. Hopefully, any one that looks at the work I have done will fully understand the meaning of the text with the supporting footnotes and modifications.

The next step, which we might have to put off for awhile, is to figure out the provenance of the prints. We need to find out from which collection the prints came and who donated them. This might be tricky because names that are translated from one language to another are often spelled differently in English by different people. So in this case, the artist’s first name transliterated from Hebrew can be spelled Abraham, Avram, or Avraham (and this name is the easiest of the group to transliterate!) This makes research a bit more difficult, but I am hoping that this all comes together!

Next week, I will be returning to the database/loan project that I worked on about a month ago. I think that should take me to the end of the semester, with whatever other small projects arise along the way.

This past week I continued working on the artist Avraham Goldberg’s Suite of Prints. Translating the introduction from Hebrew to English has proved more difficult that I originally thought, which ultimately makes it all the more worthwhile. This translation has taken me about two weeks now, and I am close to finishing. I just need to clarify a few difficult sections of the text with my father, the Hebrew expert. Initially, I found it difficult to find information on this artist on the Internet. I just thought that information on him was limited, but I was mistaken. Apparently, I was just searching the Internet in the wrong language! I found a Wikipedia article that linked me to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem that provided the basic information I needed, like artist birthplace and date of birth etc.

Last week, we also finished tagging the “homeless” paintings. Each tag is color coded, determining which paintings go into which room for permanent storage. I was relieved that we tagged every painting! There were no stragglers ( a relief since I made the labels)!

I think that this marks the end of the Big Move, at least as far as I am concerned during this semester. After I complete the translation, I wonder what project is coming up next!

This past week provided a bit of a breather I think for my supervisor and the rest of the staff in the Art Department. Even though there are a few odds and ends that we need to work on, the first wave of the Big Move is over! The HRC’s objects and paintings are now safe as construction begins at the FAC.

Seeing as that project was mostly over (for me at least), my supervisor introduced me to a new project: translating information on a set of prints by Avraham Goldberg. The title, artist info, date, and introduction are all in Hebrew, which I can translate as I grew up speaking Hebrew, my father’s native language. Previously, at the HRC I volunteered by translating identifying information on Hebrew and Yiddish books, so this new project was sort of a deja vu experience as I sat leafing through my dictionary and slowly, but surely making headway!

During my first day with the prints, I felt fairly confident as the information presented  was straightforward and easy for me to translate. However I turned to the last page of the suite, and I saw a double sided introductory text. The two scholars who wrote the introduction did so in a sort of elevated academic Hebrew, which is much more advanced than my conversational skills. And so this part of the translation has taken me a few days, and will be an ongoing project. I have translated, with some gaps, most of the first section, and next week I will tackle the next. There are some words and phrases that are beyond both me and the dictionary, and I will definitely be calling up my father next week, bugging him for some answers (he doesn’t know this yet!).

I hope that in the future someone will find this translation helpful in their research. The artist, Avraham Goldberg, is not renown so much in the U.S., but in Israel he is more well known as an artist dealing with Jewish themes, something that many Jewish artists have tried to move beyond.

I enjoy projects that I know will take a few weeks to complete, so I don’t have to constantly be searching for small tasks to do. I come in in the morning, check in with my supervisor, and get to work! Feeling productive makes me feel like I am really contributing to the HRC.

This week, the HRC staff saw the start of a much awaited event: The Big Move. My department has been planning this move for months now. Previous interns have worked on this before me, and I am, along with other interns, are continuing the effort to coordinate this move. With all the hype that preceded it, I was expecting utter confusion and mayhem. But it has been a surprisingly smooth and stress-free process (at least for me). I know that this is due to the careful planning that my supervisor and other have put into this project.

Monday, my supervisor and I oversaw the movers, and then we moved some art ourselves. I reshelved some things and found places for “homeless” works of art. I was on my feet the whole time, something I really enjoy as a nice change from all the sitting I do in class. Wednesday was a bit more relaxed, as I prepared labels for the artwork in one particular room. The labels act as an example of how well the HRC staff is handling this move. Everything is color coded and marked to show where the artwork came from and where it is going. Every detail has been considered. I am very impressed!

On Friday, I went with my supervisor to the FAC to help with the moving process again. We were going through a box of unidentified objects. I was curious and opened up one of the small cases, and I found a mezuza in it. A mezuza is a Jewish object meant to be placed on the door that also holds a scroll of holy texts. Finding it was completely unexpected as we were in a room filled with cowboy and horse motif inspired objects! I was able to identify the name and purpose of the object for the staff.

After a weekend of heavy studying and writing, Monday came as a relief. This week I was jumping between different tasks at my internship, a nice reprieve from last week’s constant work on the database.  At my internship on Monday, I completed the mindless task of creating labels! After working hard on the database the week before, it was almost fun to just sit back and make labels. But this only lasted an hour until we went over to the FAC to tag items before the Big Move starts next week. This upcoming week, materials from the FAC are moving to the HRC. And to get ready for this, we had to tag every item so that during this hectic move, we will be able to keep track of every piece. I am really impressed with how my supervisor and his co-workers are handling this move! This is a project that is so stressful, and they are handling it with such composure. Their organizational skills, I’m sure, are the key to this whole process. I am very excited for next week when this whole thing will be set into motion.

Wednesday’s work was very much like last week’s, as I was working on the database again.

Friday, I helped Mr. M. set up for a private tour. So we pulled items in the Prints and Drawings Room. We pulled mostly portraits: Frida Kahlo, E.E. Cummings, Anne Sexton, Diego Rivera, and others. And then I went on a mini-field trip around the building to different floors, in order to keep track of paintings and sculptures that these departments have from the Art Collection. I always find it exciting to stretch my legs, get up from the desk, and get to walk around! Working on the computer has its merits, but I like to get my hands dirty, so to speak.

There was some more added spice to this week. On Wednesday, Mr. M. sent me an email that a bat was found roaming around the HRC! But not only was it just in the building, but it was on the 7th floor, where I work! I was a bit apprehensive about bats flying in and out of the HRC, but I soon forgot about it once I started working.

Like last week, I spent most of my time working on the database this week. More specifically, I have been checking for discrepancies between our files and the database, and then noting problematic records on an excel spreadsheet. Basically, I am condensing all of this information into a readable document so that my supervisor will be able to go through this information quickly and advise me on how to fix it.

I completed the first draft of these “problematic records” on Monday. And so on Wednesday, I met with Mr. M. to try to find solutions to fixing these records. This project is like a big jigsaw puzzle. At first, it just looked like a bunch of scattered pieces, but now the pieces are slowly starting to connect and I am seeing how everything is beginning to come together. After our meeting on Wednesday, I started to revise information on the database and also create another document to further condense the information. This document will not only be useful for our department, but it will also help the Registrar to maintain her records as well.

In my industry paper I researched a broad challenge facing not only the museum sector, but all industries: keeping up with technological advances. This challenge seems to be a factor at the HRC. As I am working between electronic and paper records, I am seeing that electronic records are much more efficient. This is most likely something that the HRC is looking to change in the coming years.

This past summer the HRC switched to a fully electronic method for patrons to request materials. So if someone wants a certain book or material, he or she must go through online sources to request it. This is a new system for the HRC, and so far I have only heard great things about it. While this switch has been successful, I believe that the staff at the HRC will use it as a model for other electronic systems. Maybe in a few years paper files will be completely replaced by computer files! Transitions like this are occuring at the HRC, but only time will tell how far technology will be able to take us.

This last week has been a little hectic for me, as I was juggling my time between school work, going to class, religious holidays, and studying for the GRE. After weeks of mindlessly memorizing vocabulary lists and relearning algebra, I finally took the GRE today. That is one thing I can thankfully cross of my to-do list. I was very happy then that my internship was not as chaotic as the rest of my week. Most of my time spent at my internship I was wrapped up in the HRC Art Department’s online database. I was jumping between the computer and the file cabinets, checking discrepancies concerning exhibition and office loans. This database project will be one that I will definitely need a few more weeks to complete. It is not a glamorous one, but it is one that I am finding is very important not only for Mr. M., my supervisor, but also for the Registrar. And I am very glad to help out.

I had one small reprieve from the computer screen and that was my foray onto the fourth floor and the Exhibitions Preparation Room. Mr. M. asked me to “encapsulate” a few papers for him, which ultimately led me downstairs to the fourth floor. It was there that I used the “encapsolator”, a machine that is mostly used to preserve delicate pieces such as manuscripts or other paper materials in plastic. My career operating heavy machinery was short-lived, but it was a pretty fun experience. Then I went back to working on the database. Hopefully next week will deliver more exciting adventures!

Thinking about upcoming projects, I remembered that the Big Move (moving materials from the FAC to the HRC) is happening soon, and I hope I will have a chance to work on that with Mr. M. in the next month.