30.03.2012
Over 4.5 million people visited the museums and galleries of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin last year. Spectacular special exhibitions, small presentations and the museums' permanent collections offered an array of cultural highlights that everyone could enjoy: whether expert, schoolchild or tourist, every trip to the museum is a personal experience that leaves behind lasting impressions and new insights.
But who are the people who work for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin? What jobs and professions are required to keep such a large operation like the Berlin Museums with its 19 museums, 4 institutes and 4,729,856 artworks running smoothly? All of the people presented here contribute to the success and the existence of this universal museum that collects, preserves and studies art and culture from the beginning of time to the present day. They all work behind the scenes and only rarely meet our visitors on site. We want to lift the curtain a little and offer a glimpse backstage at the inner workings of a museum.
Marion Stenzel and team - Exhibition Design and Mounting Artworks
What does your typical workday consist of?
As a team of four people we are the contact for all questions related to exhibition layout or mounting artworks. Every day is filled with appointments in the museums. At the beginning of a project, we get together with the specialists on site. Recently we were in the Museum of European Cultures where there's going to be an exhibition of Christmas pyramids in autumn. There was much to discuss: What can be restored in the intervening time? Which objects have to be exhibited? How can they be best presented? Afterwards we built a 1:20 scale model which we will use to work out the layout and presentation of the pieces together with the curators over the next few weeks.
Has there been one particularly memorable event in the course of your career?
I still really enjoy seeing how an exhibition comes to life. So many different stages, ideas, impulses, solutions and even coincidences come together each time. I particularly love when the plans and designs that have been developed over a long time start to take shape and the efforts of all involved are transformed into a unique piece of work.
What do the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin mean to you personally?
The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin are like a magic city in the middle of a city, rooms full of treasures and things, secret passageways and doors, surprising scenes and views, animated by a myriad of personnel. As well as the collections, the many different types of professions within the museums are a special feature of life here. These diverse professional and personal perspectives always offer new insight into the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.