Turin - Museology & Material Culture

Learning about museum practices and Egyptian material culture in the Museo Egizio was an incredible experience. Being able to talk with museum staff and ask them questions about their work, experiences, and curatorial or conservation choices was unlike any other experience I had had before. The field school staff (Dr. Barnard, and 2 TA's, Vera and Rachel) were supportive, very knowledgable, approachable and extremely helpful. I learned so much over the course of the field school. The program includes lectures given by field school staff and museum staff (including the director of the Museo Egizio!) and field trips to museums and cultural and archaeological sites in Italy. We even got to take a field trip to one of the museum's outside conservationist's workshop! Being in the field school gives you unprecedented access to the material, collections and staff of the Museo Egizio. And Turin is an incredible city to live in for 5 weeks. On the weekends, there is time to travel across Italy because it is well connected on the high speed train (my peers I went to places like Florence, Venice, and the lakes district on the weekends). We worked with 3,000 year old pottery sherds and textiles fragments and got to learn how to do ceramic and textile analysis from experts at the museum! We got to tour the museum collections with museum conservators and learn about all aspects of the museum. The exposure to museum practices was incomparable and the overall experience was unequal to any other experience I had in museums prior.