INTERNSHIP STORIES

My name is ReAnn Orr and I am a Senior Film & Video major. During the summer of  2018, I did an internship with Mad Queen Productions . Mad Queen Productions is a  production studio based in Baltimore, owned and created by Madeline Becker. I found  out about this internship through MICA Career Development internship site. What  appealed to me was that the internship position was listed as Video Archivist. Appropriating archival footage is a tool I have used frequently in my work and know how  to execute well. After setting up an interview with Madeline, I got the the job. Madeline  hired me as Video Archivist for a documentary she was making about painting professor  at MICA, Raoul Middleman. My job consisted of finding archival imagery and video of  topics Raoul spoke about in his recorded interview with Madeline. Some examples of  these videos and images included family photos of Raoul, photos of historic Baltimore in  the 20th c...

My name is Tanvi Sharma and I am a rising Junior Painting and Humanistic Studies Major.  During the summer of 2018, I was an intern with the artist Matt Bollinger , based in Holmes,  New York. I had been interested in Matt’s process of combining digital and analog media and  creating compelling narratives since a couple of years. During the spring semester I had been  working on creating similar work of my own and decided to shoot Matt an email. He turned  out to be a friend of my professor, Sangram Majumdar and he went on to recommend me to  Matt. Matt agreed to have me work with him for the summer, which turned out to be the  most enriching experience. The experience included long conversations with Matt about his practice, the art world and  what he wants to do in the future. I think the most valuable thing I have gained from this  experience is getting to intimately know a working artist I strongly look up to. During the d...

My name is Danny Varillas and I am a senior Graphic Design major. This summer had the  privilege of being a design intern at The Working Assembly in New York, NY. I first heard about  The Working Assembly during my junior year in flexible design studio. This course was  structured around workshops with various professional designers and studios around the  country, and The Working Assembly was one of those studios. A MICA alumni who is currently  working at The Working Assembly encouraged me to apply for the summer internship position. I  had been interested in their work and decided to give it a shot. I sent a brief email with my  resume and portfolio link. They quickly contacted to schedule an interview. Within a week I had  received a email of acceptance. The Working Assembly is multidisciplinary design studio that primarily focuses on branding. The  studio is primarily women employed and led. This is one of the things that sets it apar...

It all started when I was watching several films on a raining day. These films ranged from  documentary to scripted narratives. As I would scroll down at the end of the film to see the  credits, I would notice one similar logo. The logo was “ Tribeca Film Institute ”, or “Tribeca Film  Festival”. My interest grew as I started to research them. I was fascinated by their goals and  philosophy of finding independent filmmakers and producing their work so that larger audiences  can see the films.  A couple of months went by and I was still searching for an internship. Until one day I  was talking to my brothers friend who is a filmmaker himself, and I told him my interest in TFI.  He smiled and said that he worked with the head director of TFI on a film. Her name is Amy  Hobby. He gave me her contact information and I drafted a email to her. She was happy to see  my interest so she connected me to Olivia Creamer who is in charg...

My name is Lufei Xiao and I’m a Senior Film & Video major. I found this internship from my  friend who own a small production company in my hometown, he worked with Snowball Pictures   for a short film project before, so he introduced me to them. Snowball Pictures is a video production company that produce video works including student  shorts, commercials and some website films, they are expert in cinematography particularly.  My direct supervisor is Qingqing Liu who is the founder of Snowball Pictures, but when I got  here he has to go to Shanghai for another project so I was assisting another director. I was involved in several project, two commercials and one student short. I worked as director  assistant I do whatever the director told me to do, included writing script, project docking, gaffer  on set, etc. I'm most proud of my ability to teamwork with others.  I learned the most when things don’t go well. I ...

I was recommended for the position at Ziger/Snead by my TA from a class I took on the fall semester of my sophomore year. He was graduating and was asked to find someone to take his place so he recommended me for it. I secured it by working on creating a portfolio and a resume that showed my potential and by interviewing with the partners and the studio manager at Ziger/Snead. Ziger/ Snead is an architecture firm that is based in Baltimore. They are very much committed to working specifically in the area of Baltimore and it’s surroundings . They work in a variety of residential, institutional and historic projects. The team is composed of 18 people. They create design that is tailored to the client and it is never a repetitive or robotic design process. Every project is different. In my internship my direct supervisor is Nicole Lamont and she is the studio manager. She manages everything in the office and maintains everything flowing smoothly.  I had som...

Over the summer I worked as a Public Programs Intern for NURTUREart in  Brooklyn, NY. I met the executive director and gallery manager during the Fine Art  Review at MICA. Christopher Ho, who was one of my instructors, and is currently  the president of the board for NURTUREart later mentioned that they were looking  for a summer intern. At his suggestion, I wrote an email to Will Penrose, the  executive director with my resume, a cover letter, and professional references. After  a phone interview, I was offered the position. NURTUREart is a nonprofit gallery and arts organization that has been  operating in for 20 years. They focus on exhibiting work by emerging artists and  curators, and lean towards showing more experimental and challenging works,  since they do not rely on sales. They also have several youth education programs in  Brooklyn schools that provide opportunities for all grades K-12. I worked directly...

I found out about this internship opportunity in a few different ways. I heard about the  opportunity originally while using the lab at Light Work the summer before, but I heard about it  again while talking to Nate Larson about internships during the spring semester. After I was  reminded about the internship I filled out the online application, and wrote an essay along with  attaching my resume. Light Work is a non profit that was created by to be artist run, in 1973.  Light work has residencies, publications, exhibitions, a community access lab, and many other  projects to help artists working in photography and digital imaging. Light Work is located in  Syracuse,NY, on the Syracuse University campus. Light Work also works with the local Everson  Museum to complete the Urban Video Project , where artists films are projected onto the side of  the museum.  My direct supervisor was John Manion, his role within the orga...

The Maryland Science Center is an interactive museum aimed towards kids and teaching scientific concepts. They were looking for people to help conceptualize and fabricate new exhibits, working with the in-house fabrication studio. I had a lot of experience with what they wanted, particularly robotics, coding, installations, and 3D modeling, and I love science and science education. I applied via the internship faire. My direct supervisor was Jessica Ann, who was the head of Exhibit Fabrication. They ran the whole department, as well as outreach to other departments and managerial stuff.  When I arrived, a new exhibit had just been completed. So, I ended up doing a lot of  fixing and developing on prototypes. My main task was completing these “light wands,” a  casing for handheld LEDs that could light up an exhibit. Since kids would be tugging and pulling  on the cables, durability was essential. I went through 4 iteration...