National Museum of the American Latino - Camila - Week 1



This week I split my time between the National Museum of the American Latino General Motors Learning Lounge and the Molina Gallery, and the offices at Capital Gallery. 



At Capital Gallery, I was assigned my project, which is to create a scavenger hunt for Latino artifacts around the National Mall in museums and galleries. For this week, I made a timeline to finish the project, started building the virtual “tour guide” character, and began searching the Smithsonian Archives and Smithsonian Collections for possible ideas of locations and objects. Since the scavenger hunt is based on an app, I took some time to explore the app and some Smithsonian scavenger hunts that already exist. This was extremely helpful in helping me see how the activity should flow! This was my first experience with the app, and I was surprised to see how many people participate in the scavenger hunts. I’ve been visiting D.C. since I was little, and I never knew it existed! I wonder if there are physical flyers or places promoting the app and the activities.



At the Molina Gallery and the Learning Lounge, there was an early morning tour that a 4-H organization hosted by Purdue University scheduled. I got to hear Melissa’s narration of the exhibit, like we heard Emily’s during Washington Week!


After that, I learned how to set up the lounge for guests and even played an intense game of Taco vs. Burrito with two young visitors. Two other visitors from California taught me how to play Dominos! 



The highlight of this week was probably Tuesday, my first day, because we had a very special field trip to the Smithsonian storage facilities, specifically the storage facilities of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I got to see some very cool objects and learned how curators and their team work to select, process, and upkeep items even before they enter the museum exhibits for guests to enjoy. The facilities are huge and the variety of items they house is unbelievable. There’s furniture, sculptures, and even Rosa Parks’ dresses!




I learned how important the collaboration between NMAL and NMAAHC has been, and their curatorial staff was very eager to give advice for NMAL’s future acquisition of items! One of the curators who spoke at a panel during Washington Week was there, and she seems so committed to begin working on NMAL’s collections.


Washington Week definitely prepared me for my internship, and it was very helpful that the places we spent time in during Washington Week happened to be my internship location. In addition, I became much more familiarized with the Smithsonian’s and NMAL’s vision and mission during Washington Week in order to better facilitate activities in the Learning Lounge and plan the scavenger hunt stops.


See you same time, same place, next week! 👋


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