My internship at the National Museum of Archeology in Lisbon was a good experience, even if it was a bit conditioned by the pandemic situation.
The first part of my internship was dedicated to study the catalog of the temporary exhibition, “Idols – Millenial Gazes”, and to visit the museum collections and the museum ambients. The catalog was in Spanish and Portuguese, and for this reason at the beginning, it wasn’t easy, but it was an opportunity to learn new languages.
The support that my tutor Margarida Carmona gave me was fundamental. Initially, she was always with me, and whenever there was a need she was always ready and available. For me she was an important point of reference.
After this study period, we did some visit simulations in English. In the same period, beginning and mid of May, we attended some meetings with two professors of archeology from the University of Lisboa. They were helpful in integrating with translations.
Later we joined Margarida during the visits by listening and learning new things and curiosities about the Museum. Most of the visits were in Portuguese . This was useful to try to understand a little bit of Portuguese, which it was useful to integrate there.
In the second part of my internship, I was finally ready to lead some visits on my own about the temporary exhibition; while Margarida did tours on permanent collections. Even in this period
Margarida has always been attentive and available. She was always present. In this second part of the internship, I keept in touch more with both the museum workers and with the tourists. Furthermore, by doing the visits alone was also a way to improve my English and talk more with people.
In June, an interesting project was proposed to me: “ZOOM GUIDE”, a start-up that
develops digital audio guides in different languages. Initially, I translated the texts of the permanent collection in Italian and then we read and recorded the texts with our own voice. For this project, the help and support of Ana Caessa with the translations were fundamental.
In conclusion, I am very satisfied with this internship, even if two months is a too short period to integrate and experience the city of Lisbon at full speed. It is a very beautiful city to live in, much quieter than Italian cities. Concerning my host organization, I was really happy about the activities proposed, although I would liked to have more time to do some other type of activity concerning communication and organization of events.
Finally, I would like to thank the director Antonio Carvalho for the opportunity and for acceptingus for this internship. The restorers and Susanna for their availability of the library and Ana Caessa for having involved us in an innovative digital project. Finally, a heartfelt thanks finally goes to Margarida, for her important advice and a point of reference for this experience.
Simone Tortora, students of Cultural Heritage Management at University of Naples_ FedericoII
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