This week has been another busy, rewarding week! The best news: my College Night project was fully approved to move forward! This event will officially take place on September 18th from 7-10pm at CMA Pizzuti. College Night will be a social mixer event for students to come with their friends, make new ones, and meet OSU clubs at the beginning of the semester. It is so exciting to finally begin official prep on this event and I can’t wait to continue moving forward, after so much time spent meeting student groups, both online and in-person. Our next steps include: working with marketing to create a flyer, discussing a marketing plan for social media, and putting this event on the main website. 

A new experience this week was completing the museum’s inventory off-site. I accompanied Laura, Assistant Registrar (and new friend!), to the Columbus Club and the Motts Military Museum to check in on their loaned artworks from CMA. Many institutions in Columbus are eligible for loaned art to be displayed in their public spaces. As part of the ongoing inventory initiative at the museum, the registration team is responsible for checking on the state of the loaned works and updating loan agreements with these external partners. The works at the Columbus Club and the Motts were (luckily) in good shape and it was so much fun to be a part of the inventory project! 

As my interest in fundraising and development grows, I have been meeting with more members of the museum’s Advancement team. I sat in on the Advancement team meeting to learn about new gifts supporting our upcoming exhibitions, statuses of grants, and more about member/visitor trends since the Free Admission Under 25 initiative began on July 1st. I additionally connected with Holly (membership manager), Ryan (senior graphic designer), and Brenna (senior director of development) in 1-on-1 chats! 

Other highlights from this week included the 165-person All-Staff Meeting with catering, the Level the Vibes event at the Pizzuti, the Curatorial department social at BAM Thursday, and the Greater Columbus Up Close series with Michelle Stitzlein and Rae Root. Looking forward to another wonderful 2 weeks at CMA and I hope they don’t fly by too quickly!