Holocaust Museum Houston - Rachelle Escobar, Week 2

 Week 2!

07/16

My work week starts on Tuesdays, so I battled Houston traffic and made it to the first full week of my internship at Holocaust Museum Houston. I spent most of my time helping run a teacher workshop hosted by the education department at HMH. “Teaching the Holocaust: Lessons and Resources for Educators” gave me an inside look into secondary school teachers' professional development. This workshop aimed to teach educators the dos and don’ts of teaching the Holocaust and give educators a plethora of resources created by the Education team. I was also tasked with creating a short social media post for the program, which was really fun.

In addition to aiding the teacher workshop, I met with the Volunteer and Volunteer Services Manager. Helen told me about her career experience and what volunteer services are like at HMH. Something I found insightful is that Helen is at a very different stage in her career than the team in Education. Even within the department, Laurie, my supervisor has started pursuing her doctorate, while Ezequiel an educator there has finished his bachelor’s. I’ve never considered the different stages of career and education that go into staffing a museum or business in general before now.

I also had the opportunity to meet Rosa Ana a local freelance curator. She gave me a look into her journey to becoming a curator; her undergraduate was in chemical engineering and her career took some wild turns. Meeting Rosa Ana was very inspiring because it reinforced the idea that careers aren’t linear and that we will often have opportunities to explore new ideas and disciplines. 

07/17

    Today kicked off the Kaplan Institute! The Education team created a three-day program that secondary school educators can attend to learn about different themes related to the Holocaust. This year's theme focuses on the use of art and media to teach the Holocaust. I was invited to participate and learn alongside the participants and gained a lot more in-depth knowledge of the Holocaust. I have learned about the Holocaust previously, of course, however, my experiences at HMH have given me a more complex view of the Holocaust than an AP class ever could. 
    The Education Department invited Joanna Wasserman, the Education Initiatives Manager at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. She gave a Zoom lecture about how to teach Nazi Propaganda used before the German election in 1932 in the classroom. 

“Propaganda does not exist in a vacuum”

Her lecture reminded me of “1984” by George Orwell which the Nazi Regime and the political climate

in the Soviet Union inspired. When she introduced the large Ministry of Propaganda in Berlin, it reminded me

of the way that the main character in “1984” aided the erasure of free thought in Oceania. I wrapped up the

rest of Wednesday by participating in the Kaplan and creating a social media post.

07/18

    
    Thursday was spent observing the second day of the Kaplan Institute with the Education Team! While I created a short social media post and took pictures of all the participants and speakers, educators watched the Defiant Requiem Film and learned about Samuel Bak’s artwork. 

Here's a picture of the Gallery from the Social Media Post:

Since I had no meetings on Thursday, I started working on my final project (which I'm presenting on the last day of my internship). Since I’ve learned so much about the Bak Gallery and Samuel Bak’s artwork I have decided to focus on this area. Specifically, I want to create a guide through the actual Bak Gallery that holds a large amount of his pieces. A lot of people who work with docents and volunteers at the museum have told me that many people feel intimidated or have an overall lack of knowledge of art. Because of the period, a lot of Bak’s work is surrealist and contemporary, so its appearance also seems puzzling and complex. From my experience, a lot of people view art as something inaccessible; Viewing it as too difficult or snobby to understand. I believe art should be accessible to all visitors; thanks to the education department I have received a lot of resources on how to teach others to dissect and interact with art. I’m hoping to use some of that knowledge to create my final project. 

07/19

    Yay, Friday Jean Day! Our last day of the Kaplan Institute consisted of the last few workshops teaching

how to use graphic novels in the classroom as well as a sneak peek into a new temporary exhibit. The

Educators who joined us enjoyed spending the last day of this institute visiting some of the museum’s

exhibits one last time and drawing a dice roll face during the graphic novel workshop. Below is a picture

of my drawing, which is genuinely terrifying. 

     I also had the opportunity to meet the Marketing department (two people) at HMH. They told me all

about the work they do, which is incredibly extensive. I got to see their yearly magazine, where

Roseliane (the YAP intern from last year) was featured and hopefully, I will too.

They taught me the difference between communicating from “business to public” and “business to

business”; B to P focuses on a general public audience while B to B is industry-specific. Robin and Claire

also gave me some insight into the firm they work with that provides their graphic design work, and how

important it is that they’re working as a non-profit. 

    Lastly, I finished the first draft of my final project and am hoping to look it over with Laurie,

my internship manager. To reflect on this week, I had a great time learning alongside teachers and

helping run part of the Kaplan. I feel more comfortable with the Education Team and working within the

office setting. I enjoyed my first full week of the internship and am hoping to have as much fun in the next

two weeks.