Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose - Week 2

 It's week 2 and the last week! 

Admittedly, as I felt - and as the staff confirmed - this second week was more a jumble of everything that needed to be done, less 'structured' in a sense. But this was all fine and well, as it really did represent the state of the museum after COVID, as everyone and everything was operating with a 'skeleton crew,' having limited positions due not only to financial restraints but also COVID concerns for the little kids. Everyone, therefore, had to wear multiple hats, and I was no exception.

Before all of that though, life did throw itself in my face and show that no one is immune from random inconveniences. Returning from Yosemite on a weekend trip, we timed the return of our car perfectly, as we spent all day in Yosemite and returned to SFO airport at around 10PM, which was also our car rental return time. My friend, who lives in Thailand, would also be perfectly on time to catch her 1AM flight back, so everything was perfect. We returned back to the airport, returned the car, and I bid farewell to her flying away. As I was ready to leave the airport and head back, I realized: I had lost my keys to the place I was staying. Either on the car, or in Yosemite, or somewhere. At that time, it was already 11PM, and getting back to San Jose would mean a 2 AM arrival - nobody would be awake, and I had to be at the museum the next morning at 9. 

So that meant only one thing: Spend the night in SFO airport.

And that's exactly what I did. Before then taking the CalTrain to the museum early in the morning. 

That day was mostly one of redecorating and reorganizing, including of the display cases and activity room. But oh man, that was a miserable and tiring day. 

Brought the ladder out!

Replacing all the displays of art! 

One of the other important things happening at the museum is that we are currently starting to develop an Artist-in-Residence program, of which Evelyn (my internship supervisor) is the first. So a lot of time, as well as a couple of my individual assignments, were spent on researching how an artist-in-residence could work at the children's museum, what sorts of activities could be done, and how exactly they would be done. One of these was an artist-in-studio event, where Evelyn would paint on a blank canvas from scratch, and families would come in to watch where she would also talk about her art. 

Evelyn painting her mom in Honduras

This was also a big learning experience, really just learning together - observing how things worked, how the guests interacted with Evelyn, and how we could improve it in the future - ripe with a big brainstorming session right afterward. 

And that's pretty much it! The week then concluded with one of the board members treating all the staff to lunch, I had a good chat with Joey, the marketing man, and the final two days organizing the month's oil pastel activity again with the kids!

Staff lunch!

Cleaning up the big block playing area

Two last days of artwork for the kids!

Overall, these two weeks were far too little to truly understand everything within a museum and all the different facets, but it was a very good insight into what physically goes on. There are truly so many considerations that are required, not only for a museum in general but also for a children's museum. The takeaways are bountiful, and I am incredibly grateful not only to all at the museum staff but also at the Smithsonian and YAP for everything I was able to do and experience in this short time. Despite being a Children's Museum, CDM is truly for all ages, and I hope to be able to return soon!