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Personas - Ken

Ken Wong
Imaging Center Manager/Administrator, SFMOMA
Motto: "Do it right, do it once."

Ken is 41 years old. He is practical, drives a pre-owned Toyota and wears Edie Bauer clothes. He is a technically savvy collections administrator at SFMOMA.  Ken enjoys using his home computer to track his family's finances and access the internet. He is self-taught and would prefer to figure problems out on his rather than asking for help.

Ken has worked at the museum for ten years, and has been a collections administrator for the last six years.  Prior to joining the collections department he worked all over the museum.  First he was a volunteer intern in the Painting and Sculpture department. Six months later he took a job as a clerk in the museum store. Next he worked as an exhibitions assistant, which involved hanging and tearing down art for exhibits throughout the museum. In that position he got to know just about everybody at SFMOMA. 

Ken studied art and mathematics as an undergrad, and expected to work as an artist while supplementing his income with jobs at museums and galleries. However, shortly after joining the Collections Management group he discovered that he enjoyed management even more.  Five years ago he enrolled in a graduate level evening arts management program at USF, which he completed in three years.  Today he enjoys his work at SFMOMA, but he is growing tired of working in the city and aspires to be director of a mid-sized museum in a smaller town. 

Ken hasn't given up the arts entirely.  He has a small in-home studio and he enjoys making gifts for friends and family in his spare time.

 Ken's Goals

1. Advance his arts management career.
2. Further SFMOMA's mission by making the permanent collection more accessible to internal and external customers through technology.
3. Digitize the entire permanent collection.  Partial coverage isn't nearly as useful as complete coverage.
4. Do it right and do it once.
5. Institute image creation and preservation standards to ensure that the digital collection is accessible and useful for years to come.
6. Develop and implement museum-wide visual resource policy.
7. Make a name for himself amongst peers and colleagues within the arts management profession as somebody who can organize and successfully complete complex projects in a large urban museum.
8. Streamline the process.
9. Eliminate inefficiencies and duplication of work.
10. Track who is using which images, and for what.
11. To proselytize the benefits of a comprehensive digital collection, especially in an institution that is dominated by "visual people"
12. Continuously be on the lookout for new and valuable applications of digital image technology.
13. Facilitate unexpected discoveries (e.g. curator is looking for "x", but is thrilled to discover "y").
14. Minimize damage to art through reduced handling

Ken's Tasks (revised 2/19/2001)

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