ABOVE IMAGE: Brett Adams (Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Summer 2024 Fellow) speaks with Alice Crazy Bull (Sicangu Lakota and Shoshone Paiute, Summer 2024 Fellow) during a summer workshop. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.
I am a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a nation that bestowed the name B’bon kew Nene (roughly, Winter Maker) onto me.
I was lucky enough to be selected as one of this past summer’s Native American Fellows (NAF) at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) where I spent 10 weeks working in the Development department. While I come from Atlanta, Georgia, my tribe is based in Oklahoma and I went to college in North Carolina. I had spent no time in the Northeast that did not involve playing baseball, so I did not quite know what to expect spending a whole summer in Salem, Massachusetts.
Two months before my program started, I was still not exactly sure what the Development team did at PEM. Over the course of the summer, I learned that they do anything and everything to work with colleagues across the institution to ensure that the museum has enough funding to operate at a high level. PEM has a vast collection that needs to be preserved, new exhibitions that need to be developed, acquisitions that need to be made and operating expenses that need to be paid. There are a lot of expenditures in the museum realm that benefit from Development’s efforts to raise funds, write grant proposals and put on special events, all of which allow PEM to deliver unforgettable experiences to a wide and diverse audience.
Foundations, sponsors and donors help support everything that museums provide to the public. My work this summer helped me understand how essential the function of grant proposal writing is to the success and impact of exhibitions and public programs.
My daily activities usually involved me helping my supervisors prepare for engagements with businesses, foundations and individuals to cultivate support for the museum through specific exhibitions or other projects. Like a lot of employees, I started most days catching up on email and quickly moved into meeting mode with a range of colleagues, including Curatorial and Finance team members, on topics such as environmental awareness and improving accessibility. Outside of meetings, I gained valuable experience creating presentation decks, communicating with foundations, researching potential donors and writing grant proposals. That was all before lunch!
The 2024 summer cohort during a tour of the The James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes Collection Center. Photo by Karen Kramer/PEM.
I often met with PEM colleagues over coffee to chat about my career, life, art and really, anything. A tip for any future fellows: Ask as many people, as often as you can, to coffee. Everyone at PEM loves a coffee chat and will be happy to meet with you to talk about their story and yours. My time in Development also included attending curator-led tours of exhibitions. Getting to hear from the minds behind projects was always a treat.
The 2024 summer cohort during a tour of the The James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes Collection Center. Photo by Karen Kramer/PEM.
For Native American Fellows here at PEM, Fridays are workshop days. Leading museum professionals and scholars came and spoke with us; there were tours, field trips, group lunches and wonderful company. I was able to learn a lot about museum spaces, Native American governance, publishing, Indigenous curation and various research efforts across the field, and made genuine connections. My network and knowledge grew immensely thanks to the NAF program. Another piece of advice to future fellows is to always research the presenters in advance and to come with questions ready. The conversations and connections that come out of these meetings are truly special.
The writing, analysis and general people skills that I acquired in my relatively short time at PEM are lessons I will be keeping with me in my studies at graduate school and beyond. Getting an inside look into the thinking process and years of work and research that go into making an exhibition was a dream come true for a museum nerd like me. Hearing firsthand from the curators of exhibitions — and learning more about their vision, intended audiences and research — is necessary when approaching different sponsors and grant sources, and can help elevate a project.
The NAF program and my work on the Development team provided me with unforgettable museum experiences. I got to collaborate with other individuals, museums and representatives from foundations and governmental agencies; learn about fundraising opportunities and strategies; talk about the importance and impact of upcoming shows; and learn about new strategies for disseminating knowledge in the museum world. All the people I worked with within and outside of PEM genuinely care about spreading knowledge, culture and the arts — and that is what this museum is all about.
PEM’s Native American Fellowship program strives to grow and sustain the next generation of Native American professionals across the cultural heritage sector. We encourage rising graduate students and in-service cultural professionals of Native American, Alaska Native, Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian), First Nations, Métis and Inuit heritage to apply for our summer and long-term fellowships.
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