Week 6 Blog

Starting Busy Season     


This week has seen an increase in the amount of guests that come in to the Sanford Museum. Last week there was also a good amount of people who showed up but this week we began to have official tours of the museum. There were multiple groups of guests that expressed interest in coming in and having the Curator or the Assistant Curator give them, a guided and detailed tour of the museum and the rich and complex history of Henry Sanford and the city he funded. 

The first tour was one for Seminole County Public Schools. They brought a few kids from different age groups that came in and learned about what the Sanford Museum has to offer. Brigitte, the curator, did the first tour and explained things in great detail. I joined her and shadowed her throughout the tour to see how she explained the museum to the guests and what information she included that was not explicitly shown. Her style was fun as well as informative. She also did a great job at simplifying the vernacular without losing the historical meaning for the kids. I took note of this because it is something that I have struggled with in the past. Knowing how to cater to your audience while not losing the meaning of the content presented is a key part of being a good tour guide.

The second and third tours were today. The second tour was for the Lutheran haven non-profit. At first i was surprised because I have seen the name near the UCF main campus. It was mainly elders and their caretakers who came to the museum but they seemed quite interested. Savannah, the assistant curator. administered this tour. Although I was not shadowing her for this tour (doing my directory work), I still listened and glanced over to see how they were liking the tour. Savannah kept the tour shorter than Brigitte but still kept a lot of the important points in her tour. Again, Savannah is being aware of her audience and packing in the key points instead of dragging out the tour and risking a loss of interest. Lutheran haven enjoyed the tour and even stayed after to chat about some of the things they found interesting. 

The third tour was with kids in a martial arts club. They came to enjoy the museum and learn in a way that isn't the traditional classroom style. Savannah was able to explain things well and kept things light hearted while still touching on the African American communities, Sanford's lineage, Sanford sports, and the cities agricultural history. The kids were well behaved and very inquisitive. 

This week has been very good and a great change of pace from the constant data entry that I have been doing. Analyzing the way the tours are done and seeing people come out of it having a deeper understanding is very nice to see. Week after week, my decision of working with the Sanford museum keeps on being validated as the right one. 

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