During the summer of 2018, I had the opportunity to work as the Chief Historical Interpreter at the Murney Tower Museum (Kingston, Ontario). The Tower is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest museum in Kingston. In my role as Chief Historical Interpreter, some of my responsibilities included supervising interpreters, arranging and providing visitors with guided tours, and working closely with the curator to manage museum operations and collections.
The Murney Tower Museum is a small, non-for-profit museum with five staff members that comprised of myself, two student historical interpreters, the curator, and the director for the 2018 operating season. With few staff members, this summer position allowed me to take on more self-directed projects and tasks, work both independently and also as a close-knit team, and be responsible for a wide-array of tasks involved in the daily operation of a small museum.
As Chief Historical Interpreter my responsibilities included:
- Supervision and scheduling of other museum historical interpreters
- Booking, organizing, and leading group tours of all age groups (age 4 to seniors), which maintained museum revenue and attendance while enhancing visitor experience
- Using Microsoft Excel, which allowed me to efficiently document daily museum deposits, revenue, petty cash, and attendance
- Working closely with the curator and director to oversee museum operations and communicating with them via email correspondence and in-person meetings
- Writing monthly and bi-weekly museum reports with comparisons to previous operating seasons that aided in decisions that helped the museum have a successful season in terms of revenue and attendance
- Creating a social media plan the 2018 season (and off season via Hootsuite) that increased the overall activity (likes, comments, and page visits) and followers for the museum’s Facebook and Instagram accounts from the previous operating season
- Planning budget-friendly museum events (i.e. the 172nd birthday of Murney Tower), which resulted in some of the museum's highest grossing and attended days of the operating season
- Taking care of and preserving museum artifacts and the tower through tasks such as weekly cleanings, monitoring artifacts and visitors, and pest management
- Working as a team with fellow historical interpreters and the curator to conduct an in-depth inventory of the museum collection that allowed artifacts and equipment to be accounted for and displayed and stored properly
- Utilizing my Microsoft Publisher and illustration skills to create a museum colouring and activity book that will work to increase children engagement and gift shop sales for the 2019 season
- Assisting the curator with the research and design of the 2018 exhibition renewal, resulting in the creation of a historically accurate and accessible 8' X 7' display panel on British Martello Towers Around the World and Materials to be installed for the 2019 operating season
- Working with the curator to create a new museum layout that lends to the flow of the unique space and respects the historical integrity of the Tower as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Working at the Murney Tower Museum allowed me to develop a diversity of skills in collections management, exhibition renewal, customer service, tourism and hospitality, administration, communication, and research, to name a few. Moreover, this opportunity allowed me to give back to the place that inspired me to go into the information field.
