Joy Siler

I would say my support structure, and the grace of God, because I've had a very supportive family, and co-workers, and professors within my programs that have been very inspirational and very supportive. They helped me to bounce ideas off of them and were very open to just supporting me during the times when I needed them most. Having that support structure in place has been monumental in being able to get to where I am now. I've moved around almost every 2 years in the last 8 years or so because of school and different jobs in different locations, and knowing I could stay with a family member while I took a part-time job to get the experience that I wanted has been probably one of the biggest things. Even when the job wasn't going to be enough to pay rent at the time, having somebody to support me made it possible to gain the experience I needed.

Probably allowing yourself to stretch beyond job description, and to not discourage yourself if there's something that you don't know how to do yet. Mostly because someone is going to extend a job to you, and it sounds really intimidating for the long list of skills that they have on that job description, but the whole point is to bring someone on board, and you already get a period of orientation. They're going to help you learn the job as well. There's going to be aspects where you may be a little bit weaker, but that's okay. It's better to take a job where you feel like you can grow as well, because if you checked every single box, then it's not going to be a learning experience for you. You're not going to really, truly gain another skill or experience that may really help you. Diversifying what you do can also be a really great strength, because if you take those almost far-stretched ideas, like okay, this sounds like a really cool experience, but would it really work, just going for it sometimes and actually just throwing yourself into it and seeing what kind of comes up on the other end can actually be a really good experience and give you extra skills that would surprise you later on.

I would say the number of opportunities. COVID hit us hard. A lot of museums had to close, had to really realign their budgets, and it's starting to bounce back now, but visitorship also had dropped off drastically, obviously during COVID, but then after COVID, it took a long time for visitorship numbers to reach levels of pre-COVID. That is a big way for museums to get funding, through visitorship and ticket sales. But a lot of them also rely on grants, and there actually have been a lot of political turmoil as well that has cut off a lot of funding, because of the IMLS department that was almost closed down, which gives a lot of national funding. So funding is usually kind of a hard part, because museums are non-profits, and they are very dedicated to maintaining public trust by holding collections that have been donated. We have a lot of ethical responsibilities for what museums do. Those challenges bring out kind of a tightrope walk sometimes when you are really trying to make sure that a museum can stay open or can function to its best potential. We need the funds to be able to take care of all the older objects we have, to make sure that they are kept safe and kept to a certain condition for the community to enjoy for years to come. But we also want to provide really great programs and experiences for people coming in and have our doors open. Being able to make sure that the bottom line is met and that a lot of the internal functions can go as they need to is probably one of the biggest challenges for a lot of museums, especially currently.

I would say faith. I'm personally a person of faith, and that has definitely influenced a lot of my personal work and my personal philosophy. But I think it also can almost be defined in another way, just faith in people. Being able to extend trust, extend kindness, I have faith that that will be returned to you. Sometimes it's hard, especially in today's society, because a lot of people have been hurt and become suspicious, and rightfully so. But being able to have the faith that there is good in humanity, that there is that reciprocation, sometimes it's a risk, but sometimes you have to extend that hand before it can be reciprocated. Just showing respect and kindness and being open and welcome is something that I've really tried to hold on to. As a museum person, it really does influence a lot of my direct work, because as you're walking someone into a space, you want them to feel like they are able to ask questions, that they're able to explore, that they don't have to be nervous about sounding ignorant on a certain topic. That's why we have exhibits, that's why we're here to help them learn and have that education within that space. Feeling vulnerable is okay, and being able to have that safe space to broaden your experience is important. I think those themes have always been part of my work, and I try to hold on to those no matter what I'm doing, because it goes for working with staff and constituents too. We rely on each other for everything, and that kindness really does help and comes back to you as well.