When I visited the Nelson-Atkins as a kid, I thought that the only people who worked in the Museum were the ones that protected the artwork in its galleries and sold books at the Museum Store. As an employee, I quickly learned that it takes hundreds of people performing a fascinating assortment of tasks to keep the place running!
Because one of my favorite things to do in the Museum is treating myself to dessert in Rozzelle Court, I took some time to chat with Judy Garver who spends a lot of time there.
What do you do at the Museum?
Administrative Assistant for Food Service [now contracted through American Food and Vending], which includes the weekly payroll, invoices, maintaining the department calendar, maintaining and updating the kitchen event work clipboards with event worksheets, counting the daily cash receipts and completing all deposit documentation, plus secretarial functions, helping with cashiering in the dining room, Point of Service programming, and a hundred other things too boring to a normal person to mention.
How did you get your job?
Been doing it for many years…so many years I don’t remember really when I first started doing it. Aspects of it have evolved over the years, with some parts of it getting easier or more complicated as the years went by. Now that I’m with American Food and Vending, the payroll and the invoicing parts of my job are a lot less complicated than they used to be.
You’re redecorating your place and the Museum offers you one piece of artwork. What do you choose?
The large limestone relief, Winged Genii Fertilizing a Date Tree. I just love that piece. I’ve walked past that piece for so many years I already feel like it’s mine.
Why is art important to you?
Art can be a snapshot of the creator’s soul. And to have a glimpse at his joy or misery, or his emotional vision, whatever, is what is interesting to me. If I can share his moment for just a second, then it matters to me. I’ve never been able to “go” there with a giant soup can or the Shuttlecocks.
Stay tuned for the next installment of Who's Who @ The Nelson-Atkins!