09/09/09 and Dr. Chris Castle

09/09/09 was an auspicious date to start my Museum Studies program. First, an email arrived confirming a small fellowship from the University! The stars twinkled a certain way, and the Faculty of Information realized that some of us are mustering through this degree entirely on our own coin. I was so grateful, and relieved, that some of the financial pressure has been eased.

First class today with Dr. Christine Castle, an extraordinary person I first encountered about 30 years ago, on her first job as director of the Oakville museum. I was a summer student then, who just loved old things. I remember the job very fondly - had secured it at the last moment really. Arriving back in Toronto from Vancouver, I found that the-job-I-thought-I-had had been given to someone else. Disappointed, I headed over to the Manpower office in downtown Oakville to read over the jobs posted. They were literally posted on little recipe cards in those days, and thumbtacked to a wall. The job at the museum was listed, and I was reading it on the last day to apply. Determined and desperate to get ajob, I walked over to the museum and applied on the spot. Chris and her associate hired me, and I was able to spend the summer surrounded by the collection, typing catalogue cards, and generally having a great time with a couple of other summer students. The musuem must have received a grant to hire us, in the halcyon days when OFY grants were prevalent - Opportunities for Youth. I know I worked on a few of those.
The lesson is: disappointment can be a great motivator, and an opportunity in disguise.

Thirty years later, I had a great pleasure of meeting Christine again. Today's class was great - Chris is, of course, an expert in her field, but she seems to share and exemplify many, many of the social themes that I've been working on in museum culture. I didn't take too many notes - I just wanted to listen, and acclimatize myself to the rest of the class - mostly people 30 years younger than myself, although there are a few 'returning professionals'. At one point in her introduction, Chris described herself as person who returns to school "every ten years". More power to that!! It's so wonderful and (really) critical, I think, to keep your mind and your practice up to date, up to speed, and intrigued and interested. Things change so quickly, and there is always more reading to do. It is a great privilege to be in this environment - at U of T - with a Teacher who understands the desire to always be working on new ideas.