Museum Studies Craft Market gathers funds for graduation

The Museum Studies Craft Market on Nov. 25 in the E-building raised money to support a showcase by graduating students at the Ottawa Art Gallery

“We want to be able to deliver a good experience for the people that show up,” said Esten Szwalek, a third-year student from the museum studies program.

The showcase is also a way to help students network and a chance for the grads to show their projects and speak to professionals in the museum fields.

“We’re essentially put to work all the skills we learned throughout the program,” said Emeraude Mukikala, a Level 5 class representative for the museum studies program.

Mukikala said students hoped to raise $1,000.

The table was full with a variety of different little souvenirs including stickers, ornaments, bandanas, crocheted items and many more fun items for people to buy and collect.

They chose to create handmade gifts instead of baking pastries because their program has a lot of creative people. “It came from the fact our program is really crafty and artsy people,” said Mukikala.

The gifts were all made from scratch by the graduating museum studies students, everything was priced between five dollars $5 and the highest priced item was $30 which was a reversible tank top. The most popular items sold were the stickers at $5 each.

Third-year student Elizabeth Henshaw, who creates stickers on the side as a “personal business,” made some of the stickers for the fundraiser.

“Everything on the table was made by someone from our graduating class,” said Szwalek.

Last year they could not pay for catering, so this year their goal is to make more than they did last year. “The goal is to pay for catering and be able to afford tables,” said Henshaw.

The event ended at around 5 p.m. and the students made about $650 at the end of the event, just $350 short of their goal, according to Szwalek.