Paid Post-graduate Interns at CCI — 2010
Maggie Case

After graduating from the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario with an Honours BSc in Anthropology in 2002, I spent several years working in the higher education publishing industry. However, I eventually found my way back to a long-time passion — museums — and returned to school to undertake Applied Museum Studies at Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology in Ottawa, Ontario. By the time I graduated in 2009, I had completed internships at the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum (Cumberland, Ontario), the Currency Museum at the Bank of Canada (Ottawa), and the Canadian Museum of Nature (Ottawa). I had also worked on a year-long project with the City of Ottawa to complete conservation assessments of the storage and display facilities for the City’s collections as well as condition reports for 100s of objects.

I was fortunate enough to secure summer positions at two of the institutions where I had interned. As a collection assistant at the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum, I became familiar with the intricacies of large living history sites as I completed an assessment of the site, including more than 20 buildings and their contents. As a collection technician in the Vertebrates section of the Canadian Museum of Nature, I worked to increase available storage so that 1000s of specimens could be relocated. I also catalogued 100s of specimens physically and electronically.

I was thrilled to join CCI as the first intern with the Preservation Services and Training team.  Throughout my 1-year internship I will be focussing primarily on a new risk assessment model that takes into account the ten agents of deterioration and the impact they could have on an institution within a set period of time. I will also be administering Environmental Monitoring Equipment Loans — a program that lends instruments to eligible museums and galleries to help them monitor various environmental factors.