Museum Internship Experience / 博物館的實習經驗

Hi everyone. This is Ching Lam. I am from Hong Kong. I am studying Finnish language in Turku and an internship is required for the program. I tried to look for an internship at Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, because it is such a nice museum and luckily there was a project that I could join, called ‘A Thousand and One Interpretations on Collection Objects’.

So far I have worked on the project for 3 weeks. On the first day, I was given a short tour in Wäinö Aaltonen Museum. I also assisted with the photographing of project participants’ objects. It was interesting to see how people from different parts of the world choose and interpret objects that are meaningful to them. I look forward seeing how those objects will create interesting dialogue with the collection objects.

The most important part of my work is to interview other artists with immigrant background in Turku. As an artist and as an immigrant who has newly moved to Finland, I really have a lot of questions about the art world and practical issues. For example, how one can get contacts and help from art associations in Finland, and what the working situation is like for artists in Finland etc. I believe that I am not the only one who wants to know the answers to these questions. Therefore, I have used them as interview questions to be asked from other artists with immigrant background.

Also, I have found a lot of useful information with the help of my co-workers while researching for the project. The results of interviews and other useful information will be used for an event which will take place at Kansalaistila (Citizen Space) at the shopping centre Forum in March. I hope other artists with immigrant background will benefit from my work too.

Ching Lam

大家好，我是來自香港的清琳。我正在圖爾庫(Turku) 修讀芬蘭語課程，而這個課程其中一部分是需要找一份實習工作。而幸運地，博物館中心正進行一個有關多元文化的藝術計劃可讓我參加，這計劃正正是「館藏物件的一千零一種詮釋」(A Thousand and One Interpretations on Collection Objects)，於是我便參與了此計劃。　

 

目前為止，實習工作開始了三個星期。實習的第一天，我參觀了威諾‧阿爾托南藝術館(Wäinö Aaltonen Museum)，亦協助了計劃參加者所提供的物件之拍攝。看到來自世界各地的人如何選擇並詮釋各種對他們來說別具意義的物品，是一件很有趣的事。我很期待看到參加者所選的物件與博物館的收藏會產生怎樣的化學作用與對話。

 

而實習工作最重要的一部分，是訪問在芬蘭的移民藝術家。而我作為一位剛移居到芬蘭的藝術家，本身亦有很多關於芬蘭藝術界的問題，例如移民到芬蘭的藝術家可以如何連繫藝術團體及得到其支援？對於藝術家來說，芬蘭的工作環境如何？當我在準備有關的訪問問題時，同時亦是在問一些我自己很想知道答案的問題。希望透過其他移民到芬蘭的藝術家的經驗，可以了解更多。而在為此計劃查找資料的過程中，在同事的幫助下我亦找到了很多有用的資料。
藝術家的訪問會於三月在「市民空間」(Citizen Space )發佈，希望這些資料會對其他的移民藝術工作者會有幫助。