When you check out the special features on your Julie & Julia DVD, you can know a U of C student helped make them happen.
For Laura Golebewski, a communications studies major with a minor in museum and heritage studies, a stint working in public relations for the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC was the perfect summer job. American history met the present, and brought a little fame along with it, when Golebewski was involved in the filming of the featurette about Julia Child's kitchen for the DVD version of the film Julie & Julia.
"Part of my job was to supervise film crews that come to film educational programs and documentaries involving museum artifacts. The museum holds Julia Child's original kitchen and the production company was making the DVD of the movie while I was there."
In addition to handling film crews, Golebewski handled the media at the highly publicized donation of Child's famous copper pots to the museum. The pots decorated the wall behind Child's kitchen counter at her home in Cambridge and were seen on The French Chef and Child's other cooking shows. Child's family made the donation in conjunction with the release of the film. Golebewski helped organize the media event and mingled with Hollywood legends like writer/director/producer Nora Ephron, who also donated the costumes from the film set.
Beyond the glamour, Golebewski's time at the Smithsonian gave her insight into the technical side of communications and a variety of experiences that applied her writing skills and understanding of media. She earned a lot of confidence about her marketability after graduation.
"It was interesting to see the inner workings of a museum," says Golebewski. "It gave more context to my studies in Museum and Heritage Studies too. It was good to think about the academic criticisms of museums, like issues around public programming and why only such a small amount of really big collections are on display, from inside the museum itself and to see what it is doing to rectify those issues."