The owner of the gallery was my direct supervisor, who organized all of its events and coordinates with artists in order to hold shows at the gallery. I also did some work with another supervisor, who handled a lot of the gallery’s more technical work involving spreadsheets and advertising. On slower days, I worked the front desk at the gallery, and helped talk to other artists and potential customers, and helped to sell artwork. I also helped some with setting up their website and stock-keeping. Additionally, I was able to help out with some of the remodeling and setting up for their latest exhibitions, namely, I helped to organize the resident artist exhibition, and made all the vinyl cutouts on the walls for the exhibitions.
I’m very proud of the organizational skills I developed while working at this internship, and I think that I’ve helped the gallery to be more organized in its operations due mostly to all of my pestering. My biggest takeaway from this experience is that being an artist means networking and meeting the right people and knowing a lot about the area you live in. Baltimore has so many different galleries and artists that I’ve never even heard of, and somehow everyone still seems to know each other. As artists, we have to work hard to be a part of the wider community of artists, so that we can continue to give each other opportunities and uplift each other.
From this internship I’ve learned about creating websites, networking with other artists, and the more technical and proper ways to sell artwork. This internship has really helped me with my career goals, and I think I would be really happy working somewhere like this in the future. Gallery work and selling artwork is just extremely fulfilling for me. If anything, I know that I will continue selling my artwork at art markets, and searching for a job that lets me interact with new artwork and other artists.
