Our original intent with the blog was to highlight some of our Permanent Collection artists and their works, and this we continue to do. Occasionally we also talk about an HMA exhibit that we borrow rather than own, such as the very popular Steve McCurry photographs in the first part 0f 2016. Those exhibit posts continue to be visited even after the exhibits themselves are done.

It is one of my responsibilities as part-time Project Coordinator on the staff to put together our blog posts. New posts are featured on the HMA web site, and I also cross-post new pages on Facebook which successfully generates more views. As to subjects, if you have an idea of something you would like to know more about, just let me know in the "comments" section at the bottom of this post and I will address it!

To our surprise, our most popular post by far continues to be the one about Hickory's response to the 1944 polio epidemic. We think this is because it is a topic of local school assignments, but we don't know for sure. (You can see it here.) Overall, blog traffic averages about 10% of overall HMA traffic every month, which admittedly is very gratifying to me.

My own background includes an undergraduate degree in art (though I never had any illusion that I was going to make a living from my art), many years as an academic librarian (that is, getting creative and administrative experience in other non-profit institutions), and a now (early 2017) eight year tenure at HMA starting with several years as a volunteer. Currently I do "whatever needs doing" at the Museum, especially if it involves writing or editing, though I also stuff envelopes if that is needed because of short deadlines - but then, we all help with that. And I keep doing it all because HMA is such a cool place, with such wonderful people and such cool art and exhibits and programming!

This newspaper clipping (on left) documents my only previous staff involvement with an art museum, when I was working at a university in Illinois - though unlike what the clipping says, I was never the museum's director.

Karin Borei

Post by Karin Borei, HMA Project Coordinator, writer and editor as needed, and HMA blogger since our blog's inception in March 2015.