Submitted by students, these are internship experiences told first-hand.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Congaree National Park

Running the Junior Ranger Ecology Camp at Congaree National Park in Hopkins, South Carolina required a lot of work, everything from throwing on a pair of waders and collecting aquatic macro-invertebrates from a lake, to inventorying supplies, scheduling activities, becoming first aid/CPR and AED certified, and becoming aware of educational standards put in place through the public school system. I now have experience working as part of teams with a number of specialists, researchers, park rangers and other government employees, and other people from all backgrounds and professions. I’ve participated in many different programs including the North American Butterfly Count, conducting hydrology research and measuring cross-sections of creeks and rivers, and bird banding for data collection, just to name a few. In addition to participating in these programs, I had an obligation to document them and provide professional photographs of such activities, and my pictures were utilized for different publications, and utilized for educational purposes as well.

Upon completion of my summer internship, I installed a photography exhibit of 42 prints I had produced over my time there. It took up three big walls I had installed in the Harry Hampton Visitor Center, so that visitors from around the country and the world could see my vision of Congaree as a photographer. This is the first show I’ve installed outside of MICA, so it was a good experience to think about things like placement, captioning, and how people outside of the art-world might perceive my work.

Overall, the three months I spent at my internship site threw me into situations I never though I’d be in. I made some professional contacts in the National Park Service, and have been inspired to continue working with similar subject matter in the future.  I now have experience in the realm of nature and wildlife photography. Within this, I’ve learned how to camp, navigate, and drudge through some of the most unfavorable environmental conditions possible. I hope that I get to utilize these skill sets again someday, as I yearn to travel and see as much of the natural world as I can. Photography plays a big role in this as well, as I don’t want to explore just for the experience of it alone, but always be able to come out with high quality professional images, which can be utilized for publication or for sale in the fine art marketplace. If my job demands that I hop on a plane to Africa to photograph wild tigers as part of a story on the diminishing wild tiger population, I will be content.  In addition to being able to expand my photography portfolio, I’ve learned a great deal of other skills. I now have experience working with young kids, which will benefit me if my photography ever leads me to those sorts of situations as well. I’m confident that having this internship on my resume may lead to new and exciting endeavors in my professional career.
-Paul Angelo '13 Photography


Bernice Steinbaum Gallery


I’m from Miami and I had already visited Bernice Steinbaum Gallery a few times before, and at Art Basel 2010 she represented the artist Hung Liu, whose tapestries I stood in awe of. I knew that this was a gallery I was interested in working with and I just went online, found out who to contact and sent her an email. I contacted Johanna Moneserratte (Assistant Director) a few months prior to my arrival in Miami, and we agreed to schedule an interview with her and Juan Griego (Chief Preparator) when I was in town. Fast forward to summer and I had the interview. I believe I made a solid impression on them and as a result of that I started my internship the following week.

Since the gallery was closing I had the job of cleaning out the upstairs closet in which Bernice kept multiple copies of extensive catalogs on each of the gallery's artists, both former and present. Included in these catalogs were slides, articles, resumes, awards, family photos, letters to the artists from different organizations, you name it, it was in there. I had the pleasure of taking home a Miriam Shapiro catalog filled with “insider” information  like the line-ups and speech for an awards dinner Shapiro was presenting at with artists like Roy Lichtenstein; high quality photos and slides of her work, and well as posters and interviews. 

My direct supervisors were both Juan and Johanna. Although I was Juan’s intern throughout the closing of the gallery I did whatever we needed to get done. Juan’s job as Chief Preparator involves the handling of all work the gallery interacts with. He has to keep a strong relationship with the artists and has to learn the specifics of displaying each of their work within the gallery. Lighting, sound, kinetics, etc. For the more hands on part of my internship I learned some of the gallery standard ways of packing and shipping artwork, as well as some of the administrative duties and matters of press. I really enjoyed working with Juan and Johanna, they were funny and really just great energies to be around. The two of them had an educational history with each other, the both completed their undergraduate studies in art at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Every morning I would come in and make coffee and then we would all sit and chat. I really liked the casual but still professional atmosphere. As for responsibilities, I was only asked to be willing to work on anything, whether it was sending out a press blurb for the gallery or moving and wrapping work or ordering lunch. 

Bernice gave all of her interns extra assignments for the gallery. My assignment had to do with African masks and costume and drawing connections between the aspects of the traditions behind them and the way they have influenced the Western worlds ideals and styles within art and of course religion (because the two are so historically related). I produced a power point presentation as well as a visual piece, an adapted 18th century style European collar, with printed fabrics that represented each country involved (7: Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin, Zambia, Nigeria and Haiti). 


Another project I was involved with early on in my time there was a commission for several of the galleries artist. Bernice had been asking everyone in the gallery that day if anyone had a video camera, everyone said no but I volunteered mine. She then told me that there was a buyer interested in purchasing the work of a few artists in the gallery (Enrique Gomez de Molina, Cal Lane, Carol Prusa and Reynier Leyva Novo). I was asked to film the pieces in the gallery and to put together some kind of presentation. I put together a really wonderful power point complete with the videos, photos and titles for each artist and Bernice was really impressed. 


With this internship I am most proud of the relationship I’ve built with Bernice herself and her staff, through our interactions. I am very grateful to have worked with them and my only wish is that I still could. I believe Juan, Johanna, and Bernice enjoyed my company as an intern and I was informed multiple times of how impressed by my work they were. The biggest take away from this internship is my recommendation letter. I am so wonderfully excited to have it within my arsenal. A woman that has been a pioneer in the feminist art movement, who has had incredibly successful galleries in both New York and Miami, a woman who has made a household name for herself in the art world over the past 30 years says that I’m more than alright. This experience has helped incredibly. I got a taste of the kind of knowledge I have wanted to acquire and now I am so excited to experience more. I am hopeful for what the future has in store for me with internship opportunities because I know that a high recommendation from Bernice Steinbaum means quite a bit. As for my career goals, I want to immerse myself in my learning and really be a sponge. I know that no matter what, I will be using my creativity to its capacity to figure out what I need for myself as an artist and a student.

-Khadija Adell '15 Interdisciplinary Sculpture

Redline Gallery


My name is Caitlin Alicia Roberts and I am a senior Photography major/ Art History minor at the Maryland Institute College of Art. During the summer of 2012, I had the opportunity to complete an internship at Redline Gallery in Denver, CO.  Redline is a working studio and gallery, as well as a non-profit organization geared towards using art as a vehicle for social change, improvement, and awareness. I was fortunate enough to gain insight of this internship through a friend from home in New Mexico. I contacted the director of Redline, sent in the required forms, and landed the internship. During this time I assisted both the resident artists and the exhibition development team through a variety of tasks. While working with the resident artists I helped with everything from their studio and creative process to their research and material gathering. I also worked with the exhibitions team installing and de- installation two shows “ Off the Beaten Path: Women, Violence, and Art” and “ Hybrid”.  Additionally, I helped manage the figure drawing classes by checking people in an out and gathering dues.


Throughout this time I learned an immense amount about the practice and professional practice of art and the creative process, professionalism in the art community, and art handling.  I assisted several artists in their studio practice during my time at Redline, which helped me understand more about how to work efficiently, how to be organized, how to work with deadlines, and how to interact with the art world. Each of the artists shared their struggles and success- they gave me insight and a realistic understanding of the art world. Not one of them entered undergraduate school with the knowledge of wanting to become an artist or going to an art school, yet each one is now a successful, practicing, and showing artist. I helped one of the photographers scan and color correct hundreds of negatives, organize his folders of exhibition announcements and gallery cards of shows attended, and frame artwork. I also helped maintain and update his digital databases. I helped a sculptor with by mixing mediums and helping create stems and flowers for larger than life bouquets. Lastly, I assisted a painter (the one who introduced me to Redline) by photographing/color correcting/ documenting his paintings, accompanying him to art stores to purchase materials, acted as his assistant while meeting with curators, and attending gallery openings together as artist research.

Working with these artists exposed the real world ethic and mechanics of the art world. Yet, as much as I enjoyed working with the resident artists I may have enjoyed the installation and deinstallion of exhibitions at Redline. It was simply beyond thrilling to have a hands on experience with artwork as I unpacked it from the crates and hung it onto the walls versus simply viewing it from a stand offish, hands off perspective at a museum. I had the chance to even hold and pose with a Louise bourgeois drawing!! I want to own my own gallery one day so it was certainly a valuable experience learning how to properly hang and handle artwork, properly light shows, and other general gallery management I know the level of professionalism at Redline has set incredibly high standards of conduct for any future gallery I choose to work at. Working at Redline showed me everything I need to know emulate in becoming a successful, fore front member of the contemporary art world. I saw discipline, commitment, work ethic, and clarity of vision unlike I had ever seen before. I was challenged, but in a good way. I felt valued but I also felt potential for my own growth. Every moment was stimulating. Working at Redline was hands down the best experience of my career at MICA and I STRONGLY recommend other students exploring this incredible gallery and working studio.







Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm


The Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm is a co-housing community located in Peterborough, New Hampshire, with Green homes and a green philosophy in mind as a way of life. Adjacent to the housing units lie the organic farm fields in which support the CSA shares. The CSA, or community supported agriculture, connects people and the organic foods they eat to the farm directly.

Todd Horner, my site sponsor, is a self employed farmer who plans and runs the farm project. There were about 1 to 2 other interns other than myself, along with the people from the neighborhood and community who had working shares.



As an intern I worked about 32 hours, 4 days a week. My job as an intern was to complete tasks in the fields to maintain the gardens, fields, crops, and prepare for the harvest. The tasks assigned varied on a day to day basis, and I followed under my site sponsor’s, instructions. In the fields I completed jobs such as planting seeds, transplanting plants or flowers, creating beds, building a trellis system to support the tomato and pea plants, removing rocks, post pounding, and harvesting on harvest mornings two days a week, in preparation for families to pick up their shares. As an organic organization Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm implemented solely organic methods of farming such as use of compost, rock powders, natural fertilizers, and killing any crop bugs with our bare hands.

During my internship at Nubanusit, I learned so much about growing food, why it is important to implement organic techniques in farming, and where our future in the food industry might be headed. I learned that being a dependable and hard worker will get me that much farther in anything I am educating myself in, and I am looking forward to a possible future that includes farming and the food industry. As I have grown with the plants, I have also been working on ideas of how to educate the public on where our food industry needs to go through Illustration. As I still have ideas in the works for using art to educate, I know I still have much more to learn within the field.






Life is Good



My name is Caitlin Cawley and I am a current graphic design major. The Life is good company is one that I grew up with and am very familiar with. I completed an internship during my freshman year of college at an advertising company. Afterwards, I began brainstorming places I would like to complete internships with; Life is good was one of them. I am a fan of their page on Facebook and noticed that

they had recently posted job positions for graphic designers. Although there were no internship postings made I still decided to email my packet containing my resume, a cover letter and samples from my portfolio to the contact listed. I heard back immediately, however, there were not going to be any internships for graphic designers that summer. The Human Resources representative included information about an internship for apparel designers and thought that I may be interested. I set up a phone interview with the two designers I would be working with. After the interview I knew for certain that this was an internship that I really wanted, and could learn a lot from. I was soon contacted again to come in for an in‐person interview at the flagship store in Boston where the design offices are held. Shortly after this interview I was offered the internship. 

Life is  good is a lifestyle brand that was founded in Boston, MA. They produce casual apparel for men, women and kids as well as accessories such as mugs, water bottles, beach towels and dog toys. The products are easily recognized due to their bright colors, as well as Jake, their logo. The company believes in the power of optimism and giving back. All employees of the company embrace this optimism and are very enthusiastic about what they do.

At Life is good I worked with Lesley Potter, who is the Women's and Girl's apparel designer, and Molly Bodurtha, who is the Men's, Boy's and Infant apparel designer. These women develop the sketches and silhouettes for all apparel products produced at the company as well as develop the color palettes and color flow from season to season. As their intern I completed several projects. One of my


first projects was going through the color library to select a blue fabric swatch that would fit with the other colors selected for the Holiday 2013 line. I pulled several swatches and one of them was picked to be used in the line. I also named several new colors being used in the Men's and Women's Fall/Winter and Holiday 2013 lines. In addition to the color work, I also designed and curated several presentation
boards for the company. First I was given a label branding board to design. The company wanted a board dedicated to label branding for the future direction of the company. I researched label branding to generate images for the board. On the board I displayed the best images I found in my research as well as actual labels from shirts and pants. The board was used in design meetings at the company and is
now being saved as a reference. Due to the satisfaction of the company based on the previous board I designed, I was given another project where I had to curate boards with printed images featuring all clothing products from the Spring/Summer 2013 lines. The boards were to be used in company design meetings as well as meetings with companies that sell Life is good products such as Hallmark and The Paper Store. In total, I curated twenty different presentation boards for this project.

I am very proud of the work that I completed at Life is good.  The label branding board that I created for the company is what I am most proud of. It is something that I created for both the apparel designers and graphic designers, and is being saved for future reference. I learned so much from this internship. Although I did improve my skills as a designer, I learned a lot about working in a quick paced professional environment. When working in a quick paced environment communication is very important. Through this internship I formed valuable professional contacts that I plan on staying in touch with throughout my career as a designer. Although I did not intern as a graphic designer at this company, this internship opened me up to another aspect of design I had never been exposed to before, and most like would never have experienced if I did not complete this internship. I hope to one day work as a graphic designer at either a fashion or clothing company and I feel as though this experience has only made me a more well rounded designer.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Artspeak





My name is Evan Roche and I am a Junior Interdisciplinary Sculpture and Painting double major. Over the summer I worked as an intern for Artspeak, which is a not for profit artist-run center in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Artspeak allows an opportunity for artists to publish, exhibit, perform and speak and has been doing so for 26 years. The gallery exhibits work by contemporary artists and focuses on creating a dialogue between visual art and writing. An example of this dialogue is the production of a postscript after each gallery show. The postscript is published by Artspeak and is essentially an objective response to the previous exhibition written by another artist/writer in the community. This person is given freedom in their writing format and to be critical. 

Artspeak is run by a board of artists who are prominent in the Vancouver arts community and also by the gallery director, Peter Gazendam, and the curator, Kim Nguyen. I originally contacted Peter in the summer of 2011 and asked to volunteer to assist with the Holy Ward exhibition that was being installed at the time. This most recent summer they welcomed the idea of having me as an intern. I worked with both Peter and Kim, however I predominantly worked alongside Peter with tasks related to the exhibitions and the publications. I was involved with archiving publications and doing documentation for the publication catalog. 

The main exhibition that I helped to install was for an artist named Aaron Flint Jamison. I was involved with installing the sculptures, painting them and mounting items on the walls and a variety of other tasks. I took a lot of pride in the quality coats of paint that I applied on the sculptures and also in my inventiveness to solve certain technical problems. It was very interesting for me to watch as the plan for the installation developed over the course of the week of installation. Flint made many edits and even swapped parts of some sculptures for others to suit the specific location of the gallery space. It was very valuable for me to observe how the work assumed a different form based on its specific context. Seeing how flexible the installation process could be was very informative for my own artwork.

 This experience has provided a window into the workings of artist-run centers and their differences from commercial galleries. Keeping this in mind will help to inform my decisions around which galleries I will be interested in showing in or involving myself with in the future.

Museum of Geometric an MADI Art


This summer I was and intern at the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art, in Dallas, Texas. The museum displays work from artists all over the world, and focuses specifically on geometric and MADI artists. The MADI movement began in the 1940s by Carmelo Arden Quin and continues today through out the world. Dorothy Masterson and her husband Bill opened the museum in 2003 after they had been introduced to the movement and had a growing collection of art from that genre.



I was assigned by my sponsor, Dorothy Masterson, to document any of the artwork belonging in the permanent collection that was not on the website. I also created artist biographies and formatted pictures of each artist for the ‘artist pages’ on the website: these pages included images of each artist’s work that belong in the permanent collection. Another task I had was to photograph events like artist talks, exhibit openings, and student workshops for the museum’s monthly newsletter. 

By the end of my internship I documented more than 195 pieces of work in the permanent collection for the website. I also documented the work of three artists who were in a show at the museum called Parallels and Contrasts. My images were printed in a pamphlet that people could take with them after they left the museum. And a picture I took of one of the artists, Albert Shaw, was used in an article in the newspaper mentioning the opening for the exhibit.


I was very pleased with the amount of work I was assigned although it was very challenging at times. I was on ladders most days- moving artwork around to photograph in one of the galleries and having to put back the artwork after I was finished for the day.

-Katy Wood '14, Photography

Friday, December 21, 2012

Martha Stewart


My Name is Taylor McMahon I am a senior fibers major with a concentration in experimental fashion at MICA. This past summer I was lucky enough to find an internship with a MICA alumnus. Alison Mazur attended MICA and was also a fiber major. She is currently working as a freelance stylist in New York City. I met her at a MICA alumni panel on fashion in the spring of 2012 and reconnected with her later on when I was home in New York for the summer. She had just gotten hired as Martha
Stewart’s personal stylist and asked me to intern for her and Martha.


This summer Martha was working constantly on shooting a new show that will air on PBS this coming spring. The show is a cooking and show and each episode focuses on a theme and Martha teaches the viewer how to cook and prepare several dishes (for example one episode is only on meat and butchery while another focuses only on grains). Working with Alison I got to see how styling for television worked and helped prep each day for the segments that were to be filmed. I also helped style whatever guest chefs Martha had on the show.  One day Alison had to run out to do last minute shopping for a black tie event Martha had that night so I got to prep the filming segments myself. I shopped frequently with Alison for both the show and for many of Martha’s black true events and for when she traveled. During shooting Alison and I were also working on the large task of transporting, documenting and organizing Martha vast wardrobe from the offices and set in the city to her home in Bedford, NY. We converted part of her basement in to a huge wardrobe room and organized everything for her.


Interning at Martha Steward was quite an experience. I learned a lot about how important organization is as well and being able to clearly communicate your ideas. I also got to see how styling for a single person works as well as having to work with on the set of a show and think about the television aspect of it.

What was also great was that while interning for Alison at Martha Stewart I started also interning for her on her freelance jobs. I was able to work with her on a music video for the rapper Silm, an editorial for the September issue of Tank magazine and on several Solezia 2012 ad campaigns (a Korean design house). Since I was working as Alison’s only assistant, both at Martha and with her freelance work she gave me a lot more freedom and I had many more responsibilities which was really helpful in learning all about the business of styling. I learned how important it is to use resources and connections you already have and to be constantly making new ones any way you can. With both experiences I got to experience a field I had always been interested in and was able to learn quite a lot about the industry.



TerraCycle





My name is Mike Chiarella, and I am a Junior Environmental Design (Object Track) student. From June 4th through August 8th, I was one of five Design Interns at TerraCycle, a Trenton, NJ-based company that makes consumer goods out of non-recyclable materials, and encourages corporate partners to establish green practices. They also launch some community-based recycling initiatives as prototypes of how they could work on a larger, nation-wide scale. Essentially, they are selling the idea/inspiration of green design/practices to show how possible such practices actually are to companies who wish to pursue them. I was searching for internships through several websites, including micanetwork.com and internships.com, but ended up finding this one independently of these sites.
While working at TerraCycle, my direct supervisor was Brad Sherman, who was part of a team with two other "Design Junkies": Lori Anselm and Tiffany Threadgould. 

I worked alongside four other Design Interns, and together we got our hands on some really cool projects. We did concept drawings and prototyping for, among other things, a cigarette butt recycling initiative, a Capri-Sun Legends-of-the- Hidden-Temple style competition/event, some office re-designs for TerraCycle's Trenton and Toronto offices, a collection box for a township-wide chip-bag recycling campaign, and some other things. I am most proud of the projects that I completed single-handedly: computer-rendered concepts of ways to repurpose old escalator handrails, and a faux neon-sign for the Toronto office. Still, I think being a part of the concept phase for the cigarette butt recycling initiative will prove to be really rewarding if the project advances.


I think that the most important thing I learned from my experience was how a Design team of a company works in conjunction with the other teams (Research and Development, Marketing, Material
Sourcing, etc.). I also realized that you will sometimes be asked to do things that you're not comfortable
with, or that aren't in your field, but that you have to pitch in to help out the company as a whole.
Designers don't work in a vacuum! I also definitely learned to work in a fast-paced environment, and to
work as a team, which I haven't done too much of. It was amazing to get these experiences now, as an
intern, before actually entering the field after college. Everything I did at TerraCycle will prove to be
very beneficial in the future, even if some things are just food for thought. Establishing connections and
a foundation/background in the field I plan on entering is of course a great thing, but it also will help me to decide where I want my career path to go: what, where, and how I may or may not want to design.

Flat Vernacular

My name is Katherine Stankewicz and Iʼm a Senior Drawing Major with a Printmaking Concentration. Over the summer of 2012 I was one of the two interns working for Flat Vernacular, a Brooklyn based wallpaper company. Flat Vernacular specializes in original hand-drawn and hand-printed wallpapers. As a student focused on drawing and printmaking, I knew that I wanted an internship that specifically utilized printmaking processes as an element in their production. Flat Vernacular was a perfect match for me being a company that specialized in both of my fields of study. 

I discovered Flat Vernacular through MICAʼs “Connect Internship + Career Fair.” Flat Vernacular was one of the fifty companies participating on campus during the event. While attending the fair I met the companyʼs founders, Payton Cosell Turner and Brian Kaspr, and had the opportunity to introduce myself, ask questions about the company and internship, and hand in an artist package I had created through my Professional Practices course. I participated in MICAʼs “Prepare for the Fair” workshops which gave me the preparation and confidence I needed to have a successful experience at the fair. Over the next week after the fair I received an email from the company requesting to have a phone interview and next thing I knew I was going to Brooklyn! My Professional Practices course and the workshops I attended gave me the guidance and support I needed to land my internship.

While working at Flat Vernacular my duties often consisted of assisting alongside of Payton Turner and Brian Kaspr while completing the daily tasks in the studio. I also worked with another intern and MICA student, Molly Mercer, and the two of us completed many tasks together as well. We worked on tasks including product production, packaging, and advertising.  Brian taught me how screen-print during my internship, and I even occasionally printed myself. Payton taught Molly and I new things as well, giving us insight into the business world and sharing her own experiences she had with operating Flat Vernacular. Payton taught Molly and I how to create a pattern by hand and digitally, processes that she learned herself and utilizes in creating her signature designs. Two major events that Molly and I participated in were the ICFF and the photo shoot during our internship. We were representatives in the Flat Vernacular booth at the ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) held at the Javits Center in Manhattan.

We got the chance to speak with other major representatives of other companies who had come to the convention center in search of taking on other new companies and using their products on a large business scale. This event gave us real world experience in the interior design world, and helped us develop our communication skills. We also participated in Flat Vernacularʼs photo-shoot over the course of a weekend. We created a fake wall outdoors, which we used to mount each pattern onto for documentation and these photos were ultimately be used for the companyʼs new website. This part of the internship was my favorite, we used many props such as paint and smoke bombs to create a complex and exciting photograph. We gained experience in working collaboratively as a group under a time constraint to complete a large project. We also helped in the experimental portion of the photo-shoot, coming up with ideas for props and experimenting with different products to determine what would work best in front of the camera.

Interning for Flat Vernacular was more than I could have ever hoped for. I was exposed to the interior design world and saw the many possibilities for how a printmaker can fit into a design oriented business. I have a clearer understanding of the kind of career that I would hope to have in the future and experienced real-world applications with the practices Iʼm studying. I left this internship with new printmaking skills, a deep understanding for a self-operated business, exposure to the design-world, and in the process I made some really great friends.

15 Four



    My time at 15Four was honestly pretty amazing. Like most things it started out slow and with a lot of getting to know people and finding out where I could fit into the machine that is their organization. But from about day 2 I had people treating me as if I had always been there, coming to me with creative questions and seeing what new ideas I could bring to the table. 









      One of the first things I was doing was animating titles for the MICA orientation video they debuted for this year’s freshman class. It was somewhat surreal having just ended a MICA semester to then having MICA as a client. After a few days myself and another animation intern were given a project just for the two of us: a small 30 second commercial for a local dog walking company. Most of my internship was spent on this project as me and the other intern scripted the animation, put it through pre-production, generated assets, animated, and took care of all the post production work as well. The time I wasn’t spent working on that animation I was doing odds and ends: animating stylized titles for this-and-that, doing post-production work, custom scene transitions, and general intern duties. I spent a lot of time working with other interns from other departments as their summer time mission was to go out and do small pro-bono shorts about local Baltimore business. That’s where a lot of odds and ends animation came into play, whatever they needed, I got to them. Aside from doing I also, ya know, learned. Another animator there was able to teach me a fair amount of a program called cinema 4d, one of the few programs I had never really touched before. They also taught me some new tips and tricks to streamlining the animations process from idea to final as well as how to streamline my productivity within Adobe products and how to deliver a quality product. This helped create a snappy and efficient pipeline that is still tediously helping my personal workflow as I head into my senior year. 

Overall, 15four is a great place filled with a lot of young professional people who, even though I’m still a student, still treated me as an intellectual and creative peer with just as many good things to bring to the table as any other employee. They did a good job of making my time seem worthwhile and helping me improve myself as an artist.                
 -Mike Petrick '14 Animation







Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Girl's Life Magazine


My name is Sarah Adams and I am a Senior Photo Major. This July, I started an internship at Girl’s Life Magazine, as their Art Intern. I had been searching since January for an interesting and relevant internship. However, after all that time my friend who had previously worked with Girl’s Life said that they were looking for a new intern and suggested my name. I spoke with them and we set up a meeting to meet in person and discuss what they needed and expected. From there on out I would go into their office a few times to meet everyone and get a feel for what Girl’s Life is all about.

I got to go to a lay down shoot with my supervisor Jess D’Argenio Waller (Girl’s Life operations manager and fashion editor). A lay down shoot is where they create outfits for the next issue, they then set them up in a studio with lighting and their photographer shoots them. I would assist him setting up as well as start on the clipping paths for the layouts. Clipping paths are essentially digital cut and pastes for the editors to use in layouts. They have to be clean and follow the lines of the articles of clothing, accessories and shoes. I learned from their photographer his way of working on clipping paths and working with files for clients. It really helped me to get to talk with him about how he works with clients like Girl’s Life-­‐ we talked about everything from how he got his start to how many copies of each file he saves. It was great to get these hands-­‐on experiences; it gave me a good sense of what options I have if I want to take them. I also got to go to a photo-­‐shoot with one of their other contracted photographers where I helped set up lighting and assisted with other equipment. It was fun but also informative, it was great to get to see how it works and a sense of the fashion world.


I really think that this internship provided an essential period of time for me to stretch my technical legs, so to speak. I really had to rely on my experiences and education to make it through, this isn’t to say that I had a hard time, but that I wouldn’t have been nearly as successful if I didn’t have my past 3 years of practice behind me. I really learned how to better manage my time between school, Girls Life and my part time job. I feel like I am much better prepared for professional settings and to work on the timetables of a professional setting. It was exciting to work with an admired publication. I had considered before looking into to publications, but wasn’t sure if my previous experiences were enough to know if that is what I was interested in or not. However, after Girl’s Life, I know that it is something that I am interested in. I am looking into an internship at Aperture Magazine as well as some other smaller publications.

While it was difficult to find this at first, I am quite happy I got this experience and I am proud of the work I did. I’m glad it was a positive experience and am looking forward to what is next.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Artspace


My name is Nick Pfaff and I am a senior General Fine Arts Major with a Minor in Art History. Over the summer of 2012 I worked as a Gallery Intern at Artspace, a non- profit organization in New Haven, CT that presents local and national visual art. I have worked and participated in several programs at Artspace since I was in high school. When I took a leave of absence last year I contacted Helen Kauder, the director of the gallery to see if there was any work available for me. I began volunteering a few days a week. I had a variety of obligations and duties. During this time I got to know the inner workings of the organization very well. I stopped volunteering in spring because I was working several other jobs but by the start of summer I was asked to return as a paid intern! 




My new position was to manage Artspace’s Flatfile.  The work is sold in auctions and displayed in shows that are put together by guest curators. I worked closely with curators including one of my interviewees, Tim Young, to develop themes for the Flatfile shows and to choose appropriate work. I installed all of the work for the Flatfile shows. I also worked with artists in assembling portfolios and updating existing portfolios. One of my goals in working on the Flatfile was to purge it of old work, which I packed and shipped back to the artists. I also tried to encourage artists to update and refresh their existing portfolios. My other duties included assisting artists with their own projects in the gallery and managing the Flatfile website. I also took any odd job that was thrown at me.



Artspace continually maintains a Flatfile of affordable two-dimensional and digital work for interested patrons of the gallery. Artists selected for the Flatfile add new work to their portfolios annually, creating an ever-changing, dynamic collection of accessible art. The majority of the collection consists of works on paper, ranging from collage and drawing to lithography and photographs. Small artist's books and digital prints are also a regular component of the Flatfile. Each Flatfile artist has a portfolio containing up to 10 works, generally no larger than 24 x 30 inches.

During my time at Artspace I learned a variety of skills that will not only be useful in finding jobs within the gallery/museum field, but also in my own art practice. I am now much more confident in hanging work, conceptualizing ideas for exhibits and I now know how to collaborate with curators and other artists successfully. I am most proud of the work I did installing pieces in the gallery and off site locations. I take great pride in helping to realize the vision of the artists and curators that I have worked with. I made many lasting connections and friendships with the people I have worked with. I am much more confident in my abilities and value as a prospective employee. Artspace has been an invaluable resource to me for years now and helped to confirm my interest in art and informed my decision to attend art school. I am so fortunate to be a part of the organization and for their continued support and investment in my future.