Zanavykija Region, Lithuania

I'm amused. My bit of good luck this morning passed and within an hour I slipped on ice and fell on my tailbone and hand and threw up and might have to go to urgent care.

I'm having a hard idea coming up with an exact point, but I want to talk a bit about my field of expertise. I have a master's degree in history and work in a museum. I know so many people who are leaving the museum field (or who never got in) because it's extremely underfunded so people are overworked and underpaid. Budgets are precarious so most people are working contract to contract because institutions simply can't commit to hiring people permanently. MANY museums have one person doing the work of 3-5 people and they're making little over minimum wage. Burnout is a huge issue.

I hit the jackpot when I snagged a permanent full time position in a museum with a relatively healthy workplace culture. I make just enough to make ends meet and pay my student loans, and that's more than I can say for most of the people my age I know in the museum field.

But people constantly complain that our museum is only open 8 hours a day, six days a week, that we don't offer more public programs, that we don't have more exhibit changes. Meanwhile our budget, which comes from the government, has been status quo for almost a decade. That means we have the same budget now as we did ten years ago, even as the cost of utilities, staff, insurance, everything had increased. My museum is running on what is essentially a skeleton staff. We need 12 more people to have a comfortable distribution of duties and 23 to reach our full potential. (We have 24 permanent staff so we essentially need to double our work force).

People want their museums (and their libraries and art galleries and many other institutions) to offer endless, cutting edge services but they aren't willing to pay a small tax hike to fund them. People honestly think it's perfectly reasonable to expect a museum to expand its services when its budget has essentially been cut every year for a decade.

Museum exhibits and programs don't appear out of thin air. They take weeks, months, sometimes years of research, writing, conservation work, graphic design, and community consultations. Before they even start to be installed! The people behind each of these parts have specialized education and training. And most of them are making a bit over minimum wage if they're lucky.

People work in museums because we're passionate about them, but that doesn't pay the bills! People love their local museums until it's time to fund them. People love to complain about what their museum isn't offering but grumble and groan when a museum tries to fundraise from its community.

Basically if you want cultural institutions in your community you need to support them! If you can't donate, visit! TONS of museum grants are based on the number of feet through the door. If a local museum admission fee is too high for you to access, find out which level of government funds it and write to that representative. (Also see if your museum has days with reduced or free admission or if you can rent a membership from your local library, libraries renting out memberships to museums and galleries is becoming more and more common).

This is a very winding post and idk what I was aiming for but I needed to get it out.

every now and then i have to think of the roman family from two thousand years ago that buried their little daughter in a boy's athletic-themed sarcophagus and i weep a little because that's the softest declaration of love i can possibly imagine

Testing out makeup stuff for my next event! What do you guys think? Am I snek enough?

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Jeez and wow. Lots and lots. Also, I found this gif and just needed to share it.

The 2000-year-old clothes of the Huldremose Woman, a bog body recovered in 1879 from a peat bog near Ramten in Denmark. It consists of a checked woollen skirt, a checked woollen scarf and two skin capes. Now on display at the National Museum of Denmark

https://museum-of-artifacts.blogspot.com/?m=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/CZJGhVGoD1g/?utm_medium=tumblr

These were the doodles I did in college in my history classes.

As in like what was the default thing you would draw on the margins when you were in class and had no creative ideas? Personally I was a wings and eyes kid. Usually wings though.

Please reblog to increase the sample size!

pride month questionnaire.

LOOK AT HOW GREAT THIS DRESS IS! IT LOOKS LIKE CHAIN MAIL!