We're all happy to have jobs, but sometimes that morning alarm is not our friend.
For some people, that alarm sounds off much earlier than most.
Going to the museum and seeing all those cool dinosaurs and ancient pictures is catching to the eye - but how do they get there?
Jeff Yearick, Senior Installer at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, is in charge of putting new exhibits together and taking them apart once the exhibit has run its course.
Yearick and many others at the museum start their jobs pretty early.
Fellow installer Todd Norlin is one of them.
Norlin said, “Most of the things we get in here have been traveling for many years and we are just putting puzzles together."
But putting those bones up and taking them down is far from a solo project.
“We both walk through these traveling exhibits on a daily basis making sure that there's nothing that's been broken or needs to be addressed immediately,” Norlin said.
The pieces can range anywhere from thirty to forty pounds on the lighter side, but can get up into the hundreds.
“Getting everything wrapped and prepped right is pretty important. A lot of these pieces are cast pieces so they are built to travel,” Yearick said.
As delicate as you need to be with a dinosaur, other objects require the same care, like the Degas exhibit.
Timothy Standring, Curator at the museum, says getting to the point where you can see the masterpieces is where the work comes in.
“It takes us like five years to organize an exhibition like this,” Standring said.
Which can sometimes drive you crazy, according to Standring.
“We have a padded room for staff members to yell and scream,” Standring said.
He too is up before the sun mainly because he works with people in different time zones, like Europe.
Every nail put in and every screw removed has to be done just right.
“It’s not like we are just grabbing them and putting them up. You have to be prepared,” Kevin Hester, with The Museum of Nature and Science, said.
And even though they are not wearing hard hats, these early birds are putting in hard work.
“A lot of things that we do here is a variation of construction with better toys,” Norlin said.
Toys that are meant to be handled with good old T.L.C.
The Degas exhibit at the Denver Art Museum opened February 11 and runs through May 20. During that time, Denver is the only place you can catch it.
Learn more about Degas and the Denver Art Museum here: http://bit.ly/2Grahj6.
Learn more about the Denver Museum of Nature and Science here: http://www.dmns.org/.
