The Hewitt Times

Apprehension, anticipation, excitement, relief, intrigue, and reflection: six words that thoroughly describe the Renaissance fair from my perspective as a ninth grader.

First came the apprehension. For weeks, the ninth grade had been preparing for the Renaissance Fair, a single day in which we would all showcase artifacts we had created based on a topic from the Renaissance or Catholic Reformation. These weeks included planning and creating an artifact, writing a catalog entry for that artifact, relating it back to our topic, and creating a script with which we would guide visitors through our rooms.

The Hewitt Museum of Renaissance and Reformation Relics had its grand opening on Thursday, December 15, 2011. At 11:15 a.m., each of the ninth graders was to go to her assigned room and set up for the first set of tours, which would arrive just 15 minutes later. Six groups of six people were assigned to different rooms, or parts of rooms: the main reading room fireside, the main reading room on the magazine side, the mezzanine above the fishbowl, the mezzanine above the main reading room, the stacks room near the computers, and the stacks room away from the computers. After rushing up to set up and order our artifacts, the tours began. For some, the excitement of taking on a docent’s role had come. But for others, like me, the anticipation was just settling it. Struggling to quickly review my script while urging on my classmates, I waited for 20 minutes until my tour came.

In addition to giving one tour, each ninth grader was assigned to experience one or two tours led by one of her classmates. The moment of excitement started as I stood up to lead Mr. Denver, Rebecca Meyer ’15, and  Paula-Ann Reid ’15  through a tour of my group’s room, the mezzanine above the fishbowl. As soon as I started, my nerves ran away, and the excitement of being a docent settled in. The six-minute-long tour flew by and was over before I knew it. As soon as the excitement drizzled out, a wave of relief approached as I realized that what had been building up for weeks was over.

Less than a minute after my tour was over, I was taken on two other tours, one led by Natalia Ryzak ’15 and the other led by Alexis Gajwani ’15. A sense of intrigue came upon me immediately as I got to see what my classmates had been working on for so long. I was able to discover hidden creativity and intellect in my peers, and even hidden artists in some of them.

The whole experience of the Renaissance Fair was unforgettable for the entire ninth grade class. Not only did we get to step into the shoes of a museum docent, but we were also able to do extensive research on one aspect of the Renaissance or Reformation, learn about many others, and display that knowledge to many visitors.