Let's begin!

Me: "I'm getting my Master's degree in Arts Management and Museum Studies, with a certificate in Non-profit Management."

Most people I talk to: "Management? Huh."

The blank stares usually warm up when I repeat the word 'art,' and for the umpteenth time I'll explain my degree / aka, my life's decision to return to school and enter a new field.

The funny thing is, my explanation has continually evolved since September 2008; I can't even conceive of what bullshit I was feeding people back in December of 2006 (the first time I applied, and was waitlisted, to my program).

My original answer ran along the following lines:

"Well, I was a teacher for a few years, and it just wasn't satsifying. Kids are fine, really, I just really hate lesson planning. I kind of hit a dead-end with education - if you ever want to advance or change positions, you'll have to spend a year in grad school. That put the idea in my head. However, if it was in my professional best interests to go back for a third degree, I decided that it had better be something I really loved this time."

"And I love art. And culture. I speak French!"

So, it seemed crystal clear. I reckoned I also liked museums - I'd been to loads, they needed professionals to run them, and I'd find a career surrounded by Caravaggios and professional satisfaction.

As of today, my answer is:

"I'm pursuing a career in the arts and culture sector because the arts are inspiring, universal, and beautiful, and it needs to be run well by professionals like myself and my colleagues -- these are the people I want to work with, and this is the cause I want to work for. To me, the arts are visual, performing, community, culinary, afterschool, amateur, mentored, or sitting on the street: anything or anyone teeming with life, managing to communicate someone's reason for being."

Most people I talk to: "Okay... so... you want to be a curator or something?"

Fortunately, I have another year to fill in that blank. I am specializing in museums, true, and have interned for the Smithsonian in Washington DC as part of my gradute degree program - but what excites me about this field are the numerous possibilities and positions that I will hopefully encounter once I'm back in the working world.

Until then, this blog is my informal and possibly irrelevant collection of resources, reflections and so on, dedicated to the professional arts manager within.