Sadie Counts is the Graduate Research Associate of Curation, Exhibitions, and Special Projects for the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee. Thank you Sadie for your membership, sharing your time, and talent with us!
What’s one thing you learned in the past month?
I’ve been reading more Indigenous style guides for label copy writing and editing and it’s allowed me to be more critical and self-reflexive of the way I write and edit label copy that is about and/or is written by Indigenous/Native Nation partners. This is obviously something that is ongoing learning, but I’ve been focusing on much more lately.
If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be?
This is a little cheesy, but I’d trade places with my partner just so I could get a better and deeper sense of understanding of what his day-to-day life is like so that I could be a more empathetic partner for him.
Coffee or Tea?
Coffee 1000%.
Book/Author suggestion?
I’m currently reading Earth Works Rising: Mound Building in Native Literature and Arts by Chadwick Allen.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A trapeze artist, vet, fashion designer, ambassador, and eventually an anthropologist from a very young age.
What do you enjoy most about being a part of an academic museum?
I love the joys of working with students and scholarship in the museum setting and being able to serve as a bridge between the public and academia.
What are your hopes for our industry?
My hope is that we as museum professionals continue to challenge what it means to be a “Museum” and what a museum’s role can be for the different communities it serves.
Photo courtesy of the McClung Museum
Bonus: Tell us a joke!
Two fish are swimming along. One fish runs into a wall.
It turns to the other fish and says “dam”.