Museum Internship
In spring of 2025, I interned at the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines (順益原住民博物館) in Taipei, Taiwan, during my two-semester study abroad. I completed three projects there: developing an educational activity for children, creating a museum exhibit scavenger hunt, and designing museum stickers.
School Group Activity
This game was developed with fellow interns and the museum manager for the Children's Day holiday in April. The plan was to first read aloud a children's book about an indigenous Taiwanese group, and then follow it with an educational game. First, a book was selected from the museum library, and then a game based on the story was developed.
In the game, players lay out the steps of how to grow millet and hold a harvest festival, with the steps and order based on the children's book 「回家」 by Lu Yifang (盧怡方) and the Lalaulan tribe (拉勞蘭部落), and illustrated by YiVon Cheng (鄭宜芳). Traditionally, millet is an important crop to many indigenous groups in Taiwan. Reading aloud the book and then playing the game with children is an engaging way for them to learn about these traditions.
The game boards are two animals native to Taiwan: the Formosan clouded leopard and the Formosan black bear, and the boards they hold feature the hundred-pace pit viper, another notable native animal which features prominently in several indigenous Taiwanese cultures.
To produce the game pieces, first the core steps of growing and harvesting millet were determined. Next, I sketched out the steps on paper, decided on a cheerful, natural color scheme and simple style, and then drew and formatted them in Adobe Illustrator for printing on foam board. I did the same for the game boards, ensuring they fit within the printer's size constraints, and that the game pieces and boards dimensions worked well together. Finally everything was printed and cut out with x-acto knives.
Exhibit Scavenger Hunt
The scavenger hunt features a variety of large and small artifacts from the museum's permanent exhibitions on traditional indigenous Taiwanese ways of life. Museum visitors can search for them as they navigate the exhibits.
To create the scavenger hunt, I compiled a list of possible notable objects and details in the exhibitions, then narrowed it down to twelve objects with a fellow intern. These objects represent the variety present in the museum collections and in Taiwan's indigenous cultures: clothing, agricultural practices, everyday items, woodcarving and beadwork, calendars, games, and ritual items. Then I drew them in a simple, recognizable style (using grayscale to conserve printer ink) and laid them out in a grid. Scavenger hunts are an easy way to help engage visitors and encourage them to look closer at museum exhibitions.
Museum Stickers
These are original illustrated stickers created for the museum's use. The major shapes and colors are inspired by the museum's branding (which in turn also draws on indigenous embroidery patterns) and the animals are all native Taiwanese fauna. The stickers are useful as prizes for completing the scavenger hunt or other museum activities.
