UAM Summer Internship 2019: Introductions & New Beginnings

Greetings, beloved readers!

My name is Fatme Elkadry. I am a Canadian Muslim of Palestinian descent, the 2019 Summer Intern for the UAlberta Museums and your new blog host!

I have just graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) degree in Human Geography. In my degree, I studied the effects that space has on everyone’s well-being. The places that we live, work and play deeply impact our quality of life. This awareness of the power of place is critical to museology. Museum objects are retrieved from certain places and contexts, and exhibit spaces are designed to communicate that context or to entice certain emotions. These exhibit spaces are complex: they strive for quality interpretation while trying to maintain the safety and preservation of museum objects.

Through past positions with the community and institutional galleries, I’ve gained experience in interpretation and exhibit design. These opportunities have highlighted the widespread perception that museums and gallery spaces are exclusively for elites in society. This limits communities from indulging in awe-inspiring works. I want all people to feel welcome in museums and galleries. The artwork, narratives, and artifacts presented are universally enjoyable; regardless of the intersections of class, ethnicity, educational level, faith, and gender. In my future, I seek to dismantle these invisible barriers and create an atmosphere of authentic representation and belonging for all in cultural spaces. 

I first learnt of this internship in my second year of my degree and have dreamt of it since then. Receiving this internship is ideal for me: although I am interested in museology, I don’t really know what the field entails. This immersive internship will expand upon my experience in ways that wouldn’t be available to me otherwise. The experiential learning that is foundational to this internship will clarify the journey I’d like to take next. I am most excited to learn about the field of curation, and what it means to be a curator.

In this blog, I will post about the projects that I am working on throughout the summer. I will create films for each project to provide deeper insight into the work that I’m doing. Keep up with the blog to join me on my adventures as I learn about the fascinating field of museology!