Student puts her own touch on Maltwood exhibit

by Lynda Hills

Daley

"What interests me is interpreting information and artifacts and making their histories come alive for other people as much as they do for me," says Kate Daley, a student in UVic's cultural resource management program.

This summer, Daley had a chance to put her learning to work as a curatorial assistant for the Maltwood Gallery's current exhibit, A Woman's Place: Art and the Role of Women in the Cultural Formation of Victoria, 1850s–1920s. "It was a real learning experience," she says.

Daley, who graduated with a degree in history and anthropology, decided to enrol in the cultural resource management program after travelling in Sri Lanka and volunteering at an archeology museum in Jaffna. The experience inspired her to go into museum studies.

The cultural resource man-agement program is a post-degree and professional development diploma that allows students to work and study at the same time. Most instruction is online or in one-week intensive courses.

Daley became involved with A Woman's Place by attending Community University Research Alliance (CURA) meetings and volunteering her research skills. When CURA acquired funding to install the exhibit, Daley was hired to work with curator Dr. Karen Finlay through a Young Canada Works grant as a summer curatorial assistant.

"A Woman's Place brings together many different artifacts from a lot of different collections in Victoria that wouldn't normally be together," says Daley. "We also have items from collections that don't have space of their own to exhibit."

Twelve donors contributed to A Woman's Place, and finding the collections often required some sleuthing. Two-thirds of the artifacts are from the B.C. Archives and the Royal BC Museum (RBCM). Other contributors include the Sisters of St. Ann's and heritage homes such as Point Ellice House and Helmcken House. Word-of-mouth was also helpful in identifying collections.

The best part of the process for Daley was installing the exhibit. "We unwrapped all the artifacts and figured out how everything was to be set up," she says. "In one day the gallery turned from a mess of bubble wrap to looking like a museum."

Part of Daley's job was to check for cracks and dents for the condition reports on objects. "Looking at the artifacts so carefully involves you much more with the exhibit," she says. "Especially as I've been learning so much about the women who created the objects. It makes these women more real and tangible when you get to touch their work."

Through the cultural resource program, Daley is now working as an intern at the RBCM. She's also hoping a proposal she helped to create, A Woman's Place virtual museum, will be accepted.

"I think what people find the most interesting about museums are the little incidental, individual things that people can relate to on a personal level," she says.

A Woman's Place runs at the Maltwood Museum and Art Gallery until Jan. 11. For more information call 721-6562 or visit www.maltwood.uvic.ca.