Effective Communication

In late 2013, we had to do a museum exhibit for Art History. Initial thoughts were full of
confusion, but then after a while in all the hard work and seriousness, our exhibit itself would
have to be a piece of art. We were asked in the beginning of class to select a region that we
would like to study. None of us saw this coming. I picked Africa because those traditional arts
always fascinated me. Mrs. McDonald told us to go to our teammates. I met us with my
teammates - Regan and Kelsie. Regan and I always fought about everything in general so I was a
little scared about how this would go.
On Sep. 18, we met for the first actual session for our exhibit and figured out what each one of us
had to do. We were really dedicated to our work. We would constantly disagree about
something, but at the end, we would figure out what to do and we stood by our work. We never
doubted each other and did our tasks efficiently while collaborating constantly. On Nov. 15, we
started working even more rigorously to do the best we could. I was in charge of making a movie
that went along with our project and also in charge of a PowerPoint overview. Regan was in
charge of the brochure. Kelsie was in charge of the poster.
The day had come when we had to present. We were all really nervous about this. We were
revising constantly and people started coming in. Regan and I would switch off describing the
artwork while Kelsie would talk about the tribes. We had several questions thrown at us and we
answered back swiftly. Our presentation was also revised to be different to different kinds of
audiences, so when people were showing signs of heavy interest, we would explain the details
and significance of the artwork, tribes and influences. When the room was filled, we would give
an overview and tell five or six artworks in detail. We were scared for a moment because an
parent came to look at the artwork and he told us that he was African and he had seen some of
these artworks himself. We started explaining it to him and he would nod along, and sometimes
tell us how he was involved in some or the rituals and traditions. It was nice to have someone
who knew these artifacts first hand and we talked for a while. We were expecting more people.
Me and my group, we could totally do this. We went through a journey and we had conquered it.
We were familiar with at least some of African art. We had some nice words and then the bell
rang. It was as if I never wanted that bell to ring