About Sarah

I see myself as a leader in service to museums as a museum professional in relation to collections management and organization and exhibition design. These areas I have gained the most experience in and find that I enjoy and am the most passionate about. I have participated in several different exhibitions, whether for classes for school or with different museums, and I find that I enjoy the process of figuring out the layout and design, and installing exhibits. My exhibition design class in freshman year was a great introduction, because I learned many of the basic skills involved and had a great team to work with during our first experience with major exhibit design. I had previously helped design some small case exhibits, but the labels were already written and I was just moving and arranging a few objects, versus a whole art show. I was able to learn how to decide which pieces would be included in the show, what pieces look good together and how to arrange an exhibit based on aesthetics as well as practical considerations such as chronology or classes. Those lessons served me well in my junior year, where I did a whole exhibit of Amos Nattini's paintings of Dante's Inferno by myself. I used the skills I had learned in exhibition design in particular in order to successfully design, market, install, and open the exhibit. I have continued to use these skills in other exhibitions, including one at the Behringer Crawford Museum about how we listen to music. At this point, after having done so many exhibitions, I find I enjoy much of the process and that my skills have greatly increased. 

I have also gained a lot of experience and passion for collections management. Much of my early experience in collections was helping with small projects, and during the Covid 19 pandemic shutdown in 2020, I participated in a massive reorganization, cataloging, and deaccessioning project at the Behringer Crawford Museum. This experience helped me learn a lot about the practical realities of many museum collections and started me down a path of being interested in and passionate about collections management. Since then, many of my projects at the Behringer Crawford Museum have been related to organization and inventorying collections. This was in combination with learning the professional standards and procedures in classes. As a result, I have become knowledgeable about collections and collections management, and it is something that highly interests me and about which I am passionate. As part of my senior year capstone project in Fall 2023, I did extensive research on collections management policies and wrote a research paper on the topic. I am using that research to write my own collections management policy for the Behringer Crawford Museum, putting years of experience, knowledge, and learning to practical use by creating a usable policy to better how the Behringer Crawford Museum manages its collections. 

In the future, as I venture into my professional career, I see myself continuing to work to help museums manage their collections and do exhibitions. Over my time doing research and doing classes, I have gained extensive knowledge that I can put to use to serve various museums in bettering their collections management. I hope that I can use what I have learned over the years to serve any museum I end up at to the best of my ability.