Return to SAMA
This Monday (9th July) was my first day back after a week-long absence from SAMA.
My return immediately started with a tour with two American tourists, so it was very important that I immediately got back into the rhythm of things without faltering.
Fortunately, the tourists were very enthusiastic as they asked many questions and engaged in interesting conversations about street art. I am always very thankful whenever I conduct tours for enthusiastic visitors because it gives me a chance to learn about the tourists’ culture and its relation to street art. Luckily, most of those coming to see SAMA collection are like that.
The visit from Germany
This week, we had 120 German students come to SAMA for a tour. Because the group was so large, we had to split into three groups. Anna took the first group, Julia (a volunteer at SAMA) took the second group and I took the third group. This situation was very similar to the tours I conducted for the international students from Utrecht and the civil servants in previous months.
However, the main difference between this tour and previous tours is that I needed to conduct a tour for 40 students, making this group largest group I had ever given a tour alone. This certainly resulted in a few challenges.
One of these challenges was capturing the attention of all of the students during the tour. This was a challenge because half of the group was very attentive to what I was saying while the other half would not be entirely concentrated on the tour (most likely because the group was so large). Another challenge that I encountered during the tour was to ensure that the tour was not too quick, but (at the same time) not too slow. The reason why this was necessary was because the teachers of the German students had asked for the tour to only be an hour. However, because my group preceded Julia’s group, I was unable to conduct the tour as quickly enough for it to fit within an hour.
Despite these two challenges, the tour turned out to be successful and the students really enjoyed learning about the artworks.
Filing the invoices
In addition to conducting tours, I was also given the opportunity to help Anna to organize the receipts of SAMA from the first and second quarter. This took a very long time because it was a task that I was not accustomed to doing.
Fortunately, I was alone in the office for some of the days during the week, so I was free from any distractions and was able to focus on the work. Furthermore, the task of filing all of the receipts allowed me to gain a better understanding of the complexities involved in managing a street art museum. I find the organization of financial transactions to be a very useful skill because the organization of finances is vital to the success of any organization, especially when the entrepreneurial aspect is taken into account.
Conclusion
All in all, my first week back at SAMA after my week-long absence has been incredibly busy (probably one of the busiest weeks I’ve had at the museum). However, the large number of tasks that I completed enabled me to gain further insight into the inner workings of SAMA and into street art in general. Therefore, I very much look forward to learning even more during my last two weeks at SAMA.