State of the internship

I may or may not have mentioned it at some point, but I'm getting on halfway through an internship stint with the National Trust for Scotland and I just have to say... wow, is it exhausting! It's incredible the amount of work and time and teamwork and planning and organizing and so on that goes into something like the Trust, and what I get to see is just one small slice of the pizza-pie.

I've been shadowing a curator there, which is pretty much what it sounds like: shadowing. Quite a bit of standing/following around, a lot of listening, a little bit of doing--but a lot of learning. The days I help out are rarely spent in the office, and usually involve driving to one (or some) of the properties under the Trust's care in order to assess specific issues or work on projects particular to those places. It's a conservation charity, but it's so much more than that. Aside from collections and archives, there are entire estates to manage, holiday lets, historic house restoration projects, wilderness conservation, and archaeology. There's a wold heritage site!

St. Kilda World Heritage Area // via //

Glencoe // via //

Leith Hall // via //

Gladstone's Land interior // via //

Falkland Palace // via //

Inverewe Garden & Estate // via //

It's an enormous volunteer-driven organization (3000+) with a staff of several hundred to do the steering. It's an incredible amount of work, and like any other cultural/ artistic/ heritage institution, it's got its fair share of financial woes and restraints. In spite of this--or because of this--I feel, more and more, that the work this organization does is imperative to preserving the history and natural environment of Scotland for generations to come. Where I am from in Wisconsin, there is no heritage organization that remotely compares in scale or scope, so volunteering with NTS has been an eye-opening experience. Not to mention that it drives home the notion that I really have chosen to pursue something I love.

I may not be with the NTS for more than a few months, but like my museum experience before this, it's teaching me loads about every part of the museum and heritage business. Universally, big organizations can seem a little bureaucratic, they can feel disorganized, staff might not agree with one another's viewpoints, the public can be critical, problems of storage and finances arise, membership needs to be maintained, and so on... but the history (the artwork, furniture, ephemera, etc.) is priceless and the preservation work is paramount. One may learn something practical about how to properly carry a chair (not by the arms or back!) but what's more is where that chair came from, who used it, what its significance is, where it might go... History is an endless, unfathomable well. So in a day's work one learns to communicate with different departments that might have different needs. You begin to piece together what it means to have these properties open to the public, and the challenges that presents. You might move a bunch of paintings one day and sit in front of a computer doing data entry the next.

So it may be exhausting, but the reward is knowing that little by little, even if it feels like there's Just Too Much, history is recorded, preserved and presented to the public.

I encourage you to check out the NTS website where you can search their latest news and also search by location or map for all of their properties and projects. It's a fantastic resource for information on things to do all over Scotland.

Have you ever volunteered your time? Museum or cultural institution? Education? Maybe a community garden? What was the most rewarding part?

Cheers!
Kate xx

'Architectural Vandalism?'

As I was seated in the coffee shop this morning, I noticed a couple of interesting signs out on the sidewalk on the Royal Mile. One of them read 'Architectural Vandalism!' And the other implied something along the lines of 'fake old' buildings. A website was scrawled across the bottom. I was curious, so I looked into it and learned there was a hearing this morning, and a vote, on a long-contested architectural development in the Old Town portion of Edinburgh, which is generally refered to as 'Caltongate.'

Turns out it's going ahead. The vote was eight to six. Obviously I haven't been here over the last decade, during which this long and controversial plan has been making the rounds, but this has been in the news a bit lately. I thought it was interesting, since I've only just finished with a Scottish architectural history course so it's fresh in my mind. I'm not terribly political and I prefer not to get mixed up with petitions, etc. unless it's something I feel very strongly about one way or another. So here I'm just an observer, an outsider, obviously only learning of this on the day that the final decision was made.



But by virtue of the fact that this is the Old Town, distinctly separate from New Town (which is 19th century but still considerably newer-looking and blatantly commercial), I find it interesting that the city plans to build a modern commercial square, complete with hotel, residences and retail space. On the other hand, it's a derelict, vacant, unused space that used to be a bus station, demolished several years back. The picture above, which I took a few months ago, shows at the very bottom the land and some of the buildings that will be affected.

This area is nothing special right now with that big vacant plot there. That I completely understand. But I also feel the community's frustration when historic buildings must be demolished or overhauled in order to make way for some modern commercial venture. The building in the bottom right corner is apparently one of those that would be majorly affected; if not scheduled to meet the wrecking ball, it will be heavily modified. Below is a better picture of the entire site (via).

It's tough to say how I feel about this sort of thing. It's the same with cutting down trees or removing houses to build a highway. I know there are good reasons for doing it: jobs, tourism, land use, etc. But the art-and-architecture, heritage-and-preservation bit of me hates to see historic properties given the axe to make room for incongruous modern complexes in the middle of historic districts (let alone UNESCO World Heritage areas!). So here's to hoping they really do make an effort to preserve all they can and still create a successful use for that currently wasted space.

Again, I've only just come into this at the very moment when the battle has essentially ended. The city is going forward with the plans, and construction might already start this spring. We shall see...

How do you feel about big commercial developments? How important is the history of a building? Could you not care less? Is a modern, useful building preferable to a crumbling old building, no matter its history? Thoughts! ;)

Cheers,
Kate x