Can You Hear Me Now..........?

I cannot believe how fast this summer is going by and that I am into the recording stage of my audio tour. Last week Mike, my supervisor and Executive Director at the New Castle Historical Society, and I made some final edits to the test script for the audio tour.

While the final version of the tour will be more complex and with a variety of narrators, Mike and I decided that recording a test version would be best for a number of reasons.

1. I really want to see as much of the process of creating an audio tour as possible, which encompasses: research, writing the script, recording, trying the tour with a test group, editing/ reformatting the tour as necessary, and then re-recording.

2. It's summertime, and it will be difficult to schedule the different people in the time that remains for my internship, so me recording just myself is much faster.

3. Having a test version is invaluable so that the test group can really get the feel of an audio tour, which is much different than fact-checking the script. Using this version we can check the directions, determine if there is a lull in the tour, and where to cut out information.

So for this week, the kitchen table of my apartment has been turned into a makeshift recording studio. I chose my apartment because it is a quiet environment and essentially an isolated location in which to work. We could have set up in one of the rooms at the historical society, but I knew it could be more difficult to get work done, since there is always an interesting distraction going on or people moving in and out of the museum.

Podcasting Station

In terms of equipment I am using the software Audacity, which is an open source editing and recording software. While there are many different kinds of software, I am familiar with Audacity and its usability and Free nature makes it and ideal tool. In terms of other equipment, I am using a Behringer Podcast Studio which is essentially an a full recording studio in a box, with a microphone, headphones, and mixer (which lets you control the recording levels). These sets are relatively inexpensive, but I was able to borrow the equipment from University of Delaware's History Media Center. Don't let the equipment intimidate you though, the possibilities are endless for this type of project, and recording can really be done with any sort of microphone or tape recorder.

Screen Shots of Audacity Software

So what is the recording experience like? A LOT of work!! Even though the finished product will probably be under 2 hours (we know we need to cut out some information, but cannot decide what!), recording and editing takes much longer. Once you get used to talking to yourself in an empty room to a computer screen, you have to keep in mind varying your voice, talking at a relatively slow speed and not tripping over your own words. You find that some of your elaborate and fact filled sentences look great on paper, but result in complete tongue-tied-ness when speaking out loud. I have also discovered that the human voice, or at least mine can only handle about a half day of continuous speaking before it gets tired, so I try to balance out recording and editing. Editing is a fun process, but can also be time consuming, depending on how long the section or how many mistakes I have to edit out.

With fingers crossed, my goal is to have all of the tracks recorded, edited, and exported in an MP3 format by the end of the week so that next week we can have people start testing it. I am finding that this is an ambitious deadline, but I want it to be available to test as soon as possible, so I have a few long days in store this week.

If you would like to be involved in testing, get in touch with us at the Historical Society, we would love to have as many people as possible!!

Photo Credits: Jesse Gagnon

Wilmington: “A Place To Be Somebody”

Greetings to one and all!

You might think that it's a bit late in the game to be introducing myself on this blog, but I actually just started my internship with the Delaware Humanities Forum on Monday. (For the first five weeks of the summer I was teaching a history course at UD.) The DHF promotes the humanities by connecting the people of Delaware with humanities specialists and creating a network of civic, educational and cultural institutions. The organization provides a variety of resources, including grants to nonprofit organizations and public programs, and is supported principally by an annual grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This summer I'll be working on creating a walking tour of Wilmington, the largest city in Delaware. We're not sure yet what the final product will be but we do know that we want to help people who spend time in Wilmington discover the city's history and cultural heritage. Our goal is to reach out to residents and weekday workers as well as tourists.

When I first discussed the project with DHF director Marilyn Whittington, we envisioned a tour that would focus on Wilmington's monuments and memorials. Monuments exist to commemorate the people and events that we consider (or once considered) significant for understanding our identity. Yet often we become so used to monuments as fixtures on our landscape that we don't even think about who or what they represent. How many times have you walked past a statue without noticing it? If someone stopped and asked you who it depicted, you might be able to say, "Oh, that's so-and-so." But could you explain what "so-and-so" did to be memorialized in such a way? Organizations and individuals in Wilmington have already created a landscape of memory with monuments, plaques, and street names. The purpose of the tour is to direct our attention to these memorials and deepen our understanding of the place that is Wilmington.

As I develop the tour, I would like to use this blog to introduce you to some of the city's monuments. Perhaps more than any other monument, the equestrian statue of Caesar Rodney (above) symbolizes Wilmington. Dedicated on July 4, 1923, the statue was designed by New York sculptor James Edward Kelly. The statue is somewhat unique in that it depicts the horse in full gallop, with its two front legs in the air. To balance the figure, Kelly heavily weighted the horse's tail and placed Rodney slightly to the rear of the horse's forward rear hoof. The overall effect is one of motion. Unlike most other equestrian statues, the monument does not celebrate the accomplishments of a general, king, or president, but rather an event: Rodney's ride from Dover to Philadelphia to cast Delaware's vote for the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The historical record calls into question the accuracy of this account. Rather than galloping into Philadelphia at the last minute, Rodney may have been there for several days prior to July 4. Moreover, he may not have arrived there on horseback at all. The goal of the patriotic group of citizens who erected the statue was not to realistically depict the event, but rather to celebrate the critical role that their state played in the founding of America. As Delaware poet George Alfred Townsend wrote, "Here this day is made a nation, By the help of Delaware."

At this point, I'm still settling into the office and getting acquainted with Wilmington. Although I've lived in Delaware for three years now, I haven't spent that much time in the city. I'm enjoying discovering its history on walks and in books. I am also very excited about the prospect of collaborating with many longtime advocates of the city's history, including the generous staff of the Delaware Historical Society. It is very clear that many people are interested in rejuvenating Wilmington and ensuring its future as "A Place to Be Somebody."

As a Massachusetts native, I'm not as familiar with this area as many of you may be. So here are two questions for you:

1. What would you like to see included on a tour of Wilmington?


2. What format do you think would be best for encouraging people to take the tour? A website? Printed map?

I looking forward to sharing more as my internship experience continues.

Best, Anne

For further reading: Robert T. Silver, Outdoor Sculpture in Wilmington (Wilmington Arts Commission, 1987)

Photograph Credit: Anne Reilly

My Photos Are So Delicious You Can EAT Them!

Hello out there museum and art enthusiasts! Sorry for the hiatus! I was so busy helping put up the artwork and sorting out the artists the last week and in Wisconsin over the 4^th of July—I just plain forgot.

But hey, great news: the Arts Alliance accepted not just one but TWO of my photos to display in their Annual Member’s Show! Although they do accept one piece from every member who submits artwork, it’s generally very special to have two pieces selected. So I know you’re all DYING to find out what they look like:

The first is a shot of raspberries from my garden at home in WI and the second is a shot of some bandaged cheddar that I used to sell as a cheesemonger (also back in WI).

Both of those are the actual photos taken by me! (I took a shot of the pictures hanging in the gallery but they had too much reflection so I thought it'd be better to just post the originals.)

When it comes to photography, and practically everything else in my life, food is priority numero uno!

Here are some other shots of the other member’s artwork. I would say that we have some pretty talented people around this place.

So in other news, I have currently been spending most of my time working on two sources of funding. The first is a letter to The Wilmington Flower Market. And the second is a letter to The Brandywiners. We have received funding from both of these places in the past so hopefully my carefully worded letters will strike a chord with them in the form of loosening their purse strings!

Both of these organizations are really interesting because they support completely different types of arts and culture programs. The Wilmington Flower Market is a group of women in the Wilmington area who organize a huge fair every year during Mother's Day weekend to raise money specifically for programs that benefit children. The Brandywiners support local performing arts groups. Since we qualify as both of these types of programs, I hope that applying for their grants will be fruitful.

We are looking for grants mostly to support our Camp Imagine program. It's a two-week arts program for kids aged 7-12 with both traditional art projects along with dancing, singing, and even yoga! The great thing about Camp Imagine is that kids can get scholarships that covers almost the entire tuition if their families are low-income. This is a great opportunity for kids who might not have positive role models or places to go in the summer.

One side note/reflection: something I'm beginning to learn is that my rhetoric training is starting to come in handy writing all of these letters. The key thing is to really do your research for all of these grants. The more you know about what they prefer to fund, the more you can angle your proposal to fit their requirements. It's a surprising amount of work but I think that my experience here is really going to benefit me in the long run. Unlike a lot of the sciences, humanities majors like myself find themselves short of funding much of the time. The current economic climate also changes the approach. Funders prefer to give money to organizations that are already financially stable. Paradoxical as this may seem, it makes sense to them to see that they are supporting something the community already values. All in all, I'm glad that Terry is helping me along with all of this stuff and giving me tips on all the whats, whys, and hows of grantwriting. I may not be doing archaeology but I do feel good that I am helping the NAA find more support so that it can go on providing the awesome programs and classes that Newarkers love so much!

Archaeology for a Day?! --Don't Mind if I Do....

One of the great things about working at a local historical society is that there is always something new going on. For the last two weeks, the Dutch House, one of the museums that the New Castle Historical Society operates, was the home of an archaeological dig. While the Dutch House has two garden areas, one is about to be turned into a Delaware native plant garden. The planting of trees and shrubs will potentially disturb any existing archaeological sites as their roots penetrate the landscape. For this reason, now seemed as good a time as any to begin this type of project.

The Dutch House (back view)

While NCHS has conducted some archaeological research at the Amstel House where their offices are located, this was the first time any digging occurred at the Dutch House. For the past two weeks a team of archaeologists from John Milner Associates, Inc were on site aided by a number of volunteers from the community. I was lucky enough to take a break from my tour writing to volunteer one day. And what a blast is was!

Ground Penetrating Radar (commonly referred to as GPR), historical surveys, and maps were used to give the archaeologists some idea of where there may be anomalies beneath the surface and where earlier structures existed. Most of the excavations entailed creating 2.5' by 2.5' test pits, or units, that were excavated layer by layer. In each layer the dirt was sifted and we put any objects we found into plastic bags with a specific description of which unit and at what layer it was found. Without this information the objects have no context, and would therefore be near useless. Among the activities I got to participate in included sifting dirt, picking out objects, cleaning the objects, and then re-bagging them to be taken back to the lab to be processed later.

The Dig Site

Many of the excavation sites turned out to be at least 3 feet deep if not more, much deeper than the archaeologists were expecting, and in one unit it was more that 5 feet before the eighteenth century surface was reached. These excavations suggest that the New Castle landscape, which is today rather level, was most likely much more varied in elevation.

Amy, one of the Archaeologist working on one of the units.

In terms of objects, I was amazed by the variation and amount of material found in just 10 test pits, a small fraction of the garden's total size. Many of the objects included pottery shards, including a piece of Borderware, which may date to the seventeenth century; glass pieces; nails and other metal ware, clay marbles, buttons, and a thimble. In what is believed to be a trash pit, a near in-tact mineral water bottle from Wilmington was unearthed. This trash pit also produced a number of larger pieces of pottery.

Jen, another archaeologist working on the trash pit, which you can see was expanded past the 2.5' by 2.5' size typically excavated

Excavating the mineral water bottle in the trash pit.

It was an interesting diversion, but my tour is also well on its way as my internship moves into its final weeks. The script is almost finished and I will soon begin recording a test version of the tour. This version will be used on a test group to find out what people like and dislike about the tour, as well as a time for final fact-checking with a group familiar with New Castle's history. While I am rather nervous about being the voice behind the audio tour for this test version, the plan is for the final recording to have a cast of characters to narrate the different histories, stories, and primary source excerpts. So stay tuned!!

** All these photographs were taken by me!

Happy 235th Birthday Home of the Red, White, and Blue!!

Today I am back at work at the New Castle Historical Society after a nice and refreshing weekend celebrating Independence Day. It seemed appropriate to blog on this first day of the workweek because Independence and the Revolutionary War play such an integral part in the history of New Castle, some of which I want to share with you today.

On June 15, 1776 the Delaware General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Delaware was fighting in the American Revolution. Today every June on the first Saturday Delaware and particularly New Castle celebrate Separation Day in honor of Delaware being the first state to separate from England.

Delaware was home of three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Thomas McKean, Caesar Rodney, and George Read I. In perhaps one of the most famous events in Delaware's history, Caesar Rodney rushed to Philadelphia in July of 1776 in time to break the deadlock in Delaware's vote for Independence, because George Read voted against it during the July 2nd vote. While Read was a leading opponent to British taxes, he was worried that Delaware was not quite ready to separate from England. Nevertheless, once the decision to declare independence was made, Read also signed the document.

(George Read I)

In New Castle, George Read is perhaps most revered for being a signer of all three great state papers: the Olive Branch Petition of 1775, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of 1787. Read was incredibly influential in convincing Delaware's leaders to adopt the Constitution, and Delaware became the First State by approving the Constitution on December 7, 1787, a designation Delaware holds onto proudly even today.

This is just one story that I am working into my tour as the summer progresses. Sometimes there is a tendency to emphasize the Revolutionary and Federal periods while discussing the town because they are perhaps the most recognized by visitors. But the town has so much more history, 235 years worth in fact. In addition, it is important to see the shades of gray in every story, like that of George Read I who was conflicted regarding whether he was making the right decision or not, and what the outcome would be.

Sources:

1. Image from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GeorgeRead.gif

2. Fradin, Denis Brindell. The Signers: The 56 Stories Behind the Declaration of Independence. New York: Walker & Company, 2002.

Inside the Archives: Files, Ledgers, and…Darkness?

Hi everyone! I am back to detail another week of working in the archives.

Last week I shared with you the agenda for the summer. Just to recap: I will be weeding out files and documents that Auburn Heights will then discard. I will be pulling out documents to scan, I will construct a temporary finding aid, and will analyze the files to find ways in which they are useful historically and for research purposes, amongst other things.

The process is in full swing! I have started the procedure of weeding out files. Even though various documents will be disposed, I still keep track of them. I developed a master file that includes all the files, ledgers, and document, plus their location within the room. I have another list that includes documents that I am pulling out for scanning, and yet another list that include files and documents that the repository will eventually discard.

So far, I have pulled out many ledgers, which will go out for scanning. The ledgers date from the 20^th& 21^stcentury, as early as the 1920s. It’s incredible to see documents that have such age and history on them. I have to be careful when handling these ledgers, both for my sake and for the ledgers’ sake. The ledgers are old and worn, the binding on some are starting to fall apart, the pages of others are brittle and fragile, and some are growing mold. So, care must be taken.

My experience thus far within the world of archives has been filled with discovery and adventure. I have stumbled upon a bird’s nest and have spotted a herring. This week proved no exception. However, this week was not as spectacular. For five minutes, I was thrown in complete darkness. I could not make heads or tails of anything and could not see my hands outstretched in front of me as I blindly made my way out of the room, searching for a source of light. The power had gone off! Luckily, it didn’t last long and I was able to get back to work! I’m all for adventures, but hopefully no more of ones where I’m plunged into absolute darkness!

Retz

Catalogs, Photographs and InDesign. Oh My!

I can’t believe my time at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts is almost half way over! After spending the first two weeks of my internship completely engrossed in the catalog for the DCCA’s first satellite show, Young Country, I thought that sending the raw materials to the publisher meant that our part was complete, but boy was I wrong! Once the designer was finished working his magic he sent the PDF back to us and everyone in the office got a copy and we all went over the catalog with a fine-toothed comb making sure that everything was perfect. I’ve learned about aspects of Adobe Reader that I never knew existed!

Now that the Young Country catalog has officially gone to press, my duties have shifted back to the everyday duties of a curatorial assistant. My big project has been to organize files on the DCCA server. There’s a lot of redundancy in the computer system, so it has been my responsibility to restore order and clear out duplicate files.

Another of my tasks related to the computer has been resizing installation shots of the exhibitions at the DCCA. One of our generous board members comes in at the beginning of every exhibition and takes photos of the work in the galleries. The shots he takes are beautiful, high resolution .tif images, which if I placed on our internal server would take up all the space we have, so it has been my job to resize the images and file them away in their respective artist’s files. While doing this, I noticed that not all of the installation shots from previous shows had not been resized before they were filed away, so I am now going through and resizing all the images from the past six years of installations. It's a daunting task, but something I enjoy doing.

Also during the past two weeks I have dusted off my InDesign skills and created Call For Entries for both the upcoming MFA Biennial and the 2013 Member’s Solo Shows. I have also been doing a lot of research on curatorial practices and theories as well as artists who use social media as a basis for their artwork. It’s really exciting to see first hand how popular culture affects the art scene. Next year the DCCA will be having an exhibition dedicated to social media’s influence on contemporary art.

DCCA Summer Art Camp 2011: Explore, Imagine, Create started this week and even though I’m not directly involved in that aspect of the museum, I cannot wait for the end of the week showcase where the children will present the projects they have been working on all week.