Guess Family: February 2016

I concluded my career at the Thinkery on Jan 21st. 2 weeks shy of 11 years. On Feb 1 I start a new gig at Austin Community Foundation as the VP of Donor Relations.

I got to spend my last few hours of work playing with Marlo and her classmates at a special family event for her school. A great way to finish it out and say good bye.

Every week at the Thinkery I worked with the Leadership team and HR to present the Friday 5. It's an email of 5 important/ fun/ interesting things for the week. Here is my final Friday 5- A special edition where I share some of my favorite memories. It was pretty impossible to narrow it down to 5 but it was fun to reflect and dig through old pictures.

1. The Orb

I’ll never forget the day, late in the summer of 2013, when I pulled up to work and this thing was sitting in the lot next door. After years and years of talking about this imaginary structure, visualizing how tall it could be, how kids would challenges themselves on it, after years of seeing it on paper and in renderings… there it was... It gave me chills!

Related to the climber memories- the day we had our first staff climb was definitely a career highlight. We invited all the staff and their kids to test it out and it was one of my proudest moments as a museum professional and as a mom! Everyone had a blast and we definitely uncovered a few safety issues that needed to be addressed before opening to the public. My proud mom moment was not only that 18 month old Louis made it to the top but that I let him- without hovering nervously!

2. Spark Shop Mural

This is the group of teens that I worked with to design the mural in spark shop. We launched the production of the artwork with a construction tour of the space and then spent the next 4 months creating imagery to inspire visitors for years to come. I was able to work with one of my favorite age groups, teens, and I got to flex my art educator muscles (the field of study that originally inspired me to work in informal ed)

3. MakerKids Exhibit

After hosting the kids area at the first Austin Maker Fair in 2008 our team was inspired to bring more making into the Museum. I was trusted with my first full exhibit development project and it was one of the most rewarding projects I had the honor of working on. We were in the middle of a recession, had just launched a capital campaign and we had $30,000 to put together a 4 month summer exhibit. If you think we are scrappy now… we had to cover all the furnishing, components, staff, and materials. We had to get creative and put in a lot of elbow grease! We tested many things that went on to inform the development of exhibits and experiences at the Thinkery. We gave kids sharp tools, we had facilitated gallery activities, a light room, sewing, and lots and lots of loose material. All these things are familiar to us now but at the time they were big risks for a museum who had never put any item or prop out on the floor that would be considered a choking hazard. For me, MakerKids was the beginning of the Thinkery.

4. Babies!

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How fortune I have been to work in a place that is so supportive of my family. When my kiddos were infants we piloted an infant at work program. Our administrative staff was small in numbers and we had extra office space that was adapted into a nursery. I was able to keep my kids with me at work until they were mobile (Marlo was 9 months old before she retired, Louis only made it to about 6 months old). The program lasted through 2 other museum babies before we had to expand staff and we ran out of space. While the program had to come to an end the spirit of it has lived on. It has been such an amazing benefit to work in a family friendly organization. The flexibility and welcoming atmosphere have made it possible to balance life as a working parent.

(The serious one with the big calculator is Marlo, the really kissable one on the right is Louis.)

5. PEOPLE!

It really is the people that make the museum great. I have so many great memories with both current and past co-workers… I’ve made a ton of amazing friends here and the only thing that makes leaving feel ok is that friendships don’t have to end when you resign.

Thank you so much for all the great work and memories. I’ll miss coming to this big red box and seeing you all everyday. I’ll miss the noise and the giggles (from the kids and from the staff). This place is such a big part of my life it feels like the end of an era- a really amazing, life altering, inspiring era!

Please stay in touch. Find me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/gustafsonguess or drop me a line at cybilguess@gmail.com. I’ll be back often with the kids- I’ll stop by the office and say “hi” when I’m here!

BONUS:

Here’s a picture of me in 2005 when I started working here…

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Ok, not really (And no, its not Marlo.) That’s me in the 70’s. But, my first day really does feel like a life time ago. Here’s a picture that was probably taken in 2007 or 2008 during a guided tour.