Artist Internship

I learned about this internship through the Practice & Pie event. I was spotted by someone who told me that an employer liked my handknit sweater, who then directed me to them. She connected me with this artist after the event and I later introduced myself via email. My supervisor is a working artist who addresses and creates conversation around racism in America–with a focus on Baltimore, through craft. Many of her works are woven photography, repurposed ‘trash’ items such as plastic bags, caution tape, and more recently fruit bags. She uses various weaving techniques, hand-sewing, and other innovative joinery to create large sculptural works. My responsibilities were mainly to assist with making tests, or sketches, as she calls them. “Sketches” were like prototypes of larger works or playing around with materials. The sketches I created served as smaller models for larger projects, scalable measurements, potential joinery methods, and/or to learn about the characteristics of the material.

My biggest takeaway from this internship is how to look at art from both a business and passion perspective. It is not difficult for me to schedule around my art-making for class but I am amazed at the drive and discipline of all independent artists. I learned a lot more about project management and how to present your art than I did about artistic processes. Although, she did expose me to many new methods of art making that covered a variety of materials. 

From this internship, I have learned that I do not want to be an independent studio artist. I would argue that this realization can be just as important as learning that you want to be an independent studio artist. I deeply enjoy crafting, but I would like to work with sculptural textiles collaboratively. Designing for the Annual Benefit Fashion Show at MICA clarified that I want to design garments but that I definitely need a team to produce something more amazing. Kim also introduced me to the idea of becoming part of an artist’s team. In conceptual art and other collaborative projects, a team is needed to fully realize the idea. I often struggle with creating concepts for my work and, instead, focus mainly on the craft portion of an assignment. I would like to learn more about assistant fashion designers, co-direction, and collaborative art as a whole!

Miami Swim Week Shows (MSWS)

The DCSW (parent company of MSWS) is a leading luxury fashion show production company that specializes in innovative fashion concepts, production, and execution. Independent fashion designers present their collections to an international audience of press, retailers, stylists, industry influencers, and buyers at MSWS. 

The Director of Creative Affairs for Miami Swim Week Shows (MSWS) reached out to me through LinkedIn after seeing that I directed the Benefit Fashion Show at MICA. She was my direct supervisor throughout my internship. Leading up to the show I was in charge of design and social media such as editing graphics for brands, designing booklets to be printed for the show, and planning / editing social media content.

MSWS covered my flight and stay during the week of the show, where I was lead photographer for the sponsors and event. It was my first time doing commercial photography such as food, product, and events. My days were very long, every hour I would be moving to a different location, shooting a different model, celebrity, or product. I would end the night very late to ensure all the images shot throughout the day were delivered by the morning. Because commercial photography wants to have an impact, I had to adjust my editing style to be more punchy: sharper contrast, saturated colors, and overall defined details. Overall I am proud of how quickly I was able to adapt to the environment I was in.

This internship taught me how important it is to be punctual, consistent, and have open communication. It was vital for my supervisor to state what exact shots are needed for the videographer and photographer. I also learned when to be loud because during the chaos of large events, I needed to make my voice heard to get the shots I needed. I learned how to socialize and network with other designers and guests that I documented, which gave me the confidence to step outside my shy bubble. 

Working with a real fashion show production helped me realize the fast paced environment was not for me. I prefer the editorial photography space, where the artistic vision / editing is solely within the hands of the photographer. However, this fast paced experience was still an amazing experience.The creative team became my close group of friends and the designers I met were so beyond talented and inspired me with their visions. The show as a whole was a surreal experience that allowed me to experience Miami for the first time.

Around the World in 80 Fabrics (ATW80F)

 This summer I had the privilege of working with Around the World in 80 Fabrics. ATW80F is a non-profit organization centered around connecting people back to the planet through the fabrics we wear. While with ATW80F, I worked under the team Outreach Director who was also my connection for securing the internship. I had first met her at a previous internship and I was really excited when she told me about ATW80F. 

My role with the organization consisted of research, project management and assistance, and graphic design work. When I started the internship, I began with natural dye research that went towards a TED Talk and pop-up event that the founders of the organization were holding. Later I was able to work with my supervisor partially in person on various small projects. Because of my prior natural dye research, I became the home base connection while the team went on a trip to Morocco to work with a small community of weavers and help them transition from synthetic dyes to natural dyes. They also collaborated with a team of microbiologists to extract pigments from the soil to use for dyeing. After they returned from Morocco, I worked on creating a trip booklet with a summary of the trip and the natural dye recipes used. This book was then printed for the weavers to have for future use.

Because this organization is still relatively new, I feel that I was able to learn how a team works without the restraints of a strict professional environment. I learned so much about how a team of dedicated and talented people can collaborate with each other and use emotion as a tool in their work instead of trying to remove it from the workplace.

I feel like this was the most valuable takeaway from my internship because I feel art is so emotional in nature and I struggled to see a career where emotion was valued instead of frowned upon. It helped me to widen my spectrum of jobs that I can see myself pursuing and made me less overwhelmed with the prospect of getting a job after college. Overall, I am so glad I had the opportunity to work with ATW80F as it allowed me to form so many connections which I will continue to come back to throughout my career.

Blue Light Junction

I found out about the opportunity to intern at Blue Light Junction through word of mouth and social media. I first learned about the organization through a couple of field trips during my freshman and sophomore year. I had followed them on social media, saw them posting about having interns, and decided to apply. I contacted the founder/director of Blue Light Junction to inquire about the opportunity and after a brief interview, we determined that it would be a good fit for me and the organization. She wound up being my supervisor throughout the internship.

Blue Light Junction is a community arts organization with a studio space and an annex garden for growing natural dye plants. They grow, process, and sell natural dye materials and seeds, run workshops teaching about natural dyes and occasionally other gardening and craft skills, and are beginning to work with local businesses to create naturally dyed products for display and sale. They additionally collaborate with local farmers involved in the Baltimore Farm Alliance to expand growing capacity.

Over my two and a half months as an intern, my responsibilities shifted overtime to meet the needs of the organization. They ranged from cleaning and organizing the studio and garden supplies, planting, weeding, and watering the garden, going to partner sites to plant, weed, and harvest, dyeing products and samples for workshops and sales, assisting with workshops, and accompanying my supervisor on meetings with local partners. I am personally most proud of my improvement as a dyer after being given many opportunities to test new dyes and techniques. Some of my samples even became part of the set of examples shown to visitors and workshop attendees. I am also proud of the breadth of knowledge I accumulated about the garden, plant care, and identification.

My biggest takeaway from this experience was the importance of creating strong networks of partnerships. The reason Blue Light Junction is able to be such a flourishing organization is because of its relationships with local businesses, farmers, artists, and volunteers. These relationships are mutually beneficial and create a vibrant community around urban agriculture and cultural preservation.

I have found this experience to be deeply moving and motivating. I have learned that my interest lies in community oriented work and building community around craft and culture. I would love to come back and work at this organization, or a similar one in the future.

Monique Crabb, Artist

I acquired an internship as Monique Crabb’s studio intern after approaching her at a local art gallery and asking her if she needed an intern. She was hesitant at first but eventually came around to the idea. Monique works in a variety of mediums including but not limited to natural dye, quilting, and sculpting. While working with Monique I had the chance to help lead a natural dye and eco-printing workshop, make floral arrangement sculptures, prepare natural dye vats, apply upholstery to material, sculpt with clay, and learn rug-making. 

In addition to learning various practical skills during my internship, I was also exposed to the importance of networking and working collaboratively with other artists. We attended gallery events, worked with a local farm to organize a workshop, and consulted with other artists to inquire about framing. I was able to be immersed in the social network of other artists and see them talk about their practices with one another.

The process of interning taught me the importance of writing as an artist, keeping an updated website, documenting your work, how to find and applying for grants, and it gave me a clearer vision of my possibilities post-graduation. Maintaining an art practice goes far beyond just producing work, it involves a great deal of focusing on the “business” aspect of your practice, as well as keeping up on networking while consuming new media and researching to generate new ideas. 

This internship allowed me to get a general understanding of how the art gallery scene operates on a local level. I was given insight into how galleries often accept artist exhibition proposals and what that process would usually look like. I was able to see interactions during studio visits between Monique and a local gallery curator.

This internship also gave me a better understanding of a schedule an artist might follow and how that timeline stretches out over months or even years; with many short-term goals in between. The art process is heavily influenced by planning, testing, and experimenting and often seems slow but is really an accumulation of skills and knowledge.

FABSCRAP

My summer internship took place in Philadelphia at FABSCRAP, a textile recycling company. FABSCRAP held a pop-up selling used fabric, trims, and notions at MICA and my professor encouraged me to go and talk to FABSCRAP’s reuse coordinator who was in charge of pop-up sales and would later become my supervisor. They mentioned FABSCRAP’s internship program and I applied for a summer position when applications opened in February. I secured an interview where I spoke about my passion for sewing my own clothes and my desire to learn more about fabric reuse, which led to me being selected for the role of summer reuse intern.

My internship organization’s primary goal is to reduce textile waste from the fashion industry by sorting, recycling, and reselling over 374,000 pounds of fabric in 2022 (and over one million pounds total). FABSCRAP utilizes volunteer sorting sessions to process incoming donated fabric, and once organized, the fabric is either shipped out to be shredded and turned into “shoddy” (used for insulation, carpet padding, and furniture lining) or resold at affordable prices in the reuse store. My role involved sorting specialty bags of material (spandex, lace, and leather), detrimming denim for the shredding process, as well as being trained to use the cash register and assisting customers with fabric selection, program questions, and checking out.

I’m proud of myself for picking up many new skills in customer service, fabric identification, and project management this summer, and being able to combine them with my knowledge of FABSCRAP in order to step into the role of Reuse Coordinator (at times when my supervisor couldn’t be present, I was often the person in charge of the reuse room and sales).

Interning at FABSCRAP allowed me to meet and network with many other fiber professionals, such as the CEO and designer at Fite Fashion, which was instrumental to my career development. I learned that I would like to pursue a career working with clothes with a smaller fashion brand or possibly as a stylist– spending lots of time this summer upcycling FABSCRAP’s mendable clothing has definitely made me feel prepared for any future positions in the fiber industry.

 

Neighborhood Fiber Co.

My name is Elena Echenique and I am a senior Fiber major. During the Fall of 2018, I was a Dye Assistant Intern for Neighborhood Fiber Co., a company based in Baltimore, Maryland. Before the beginning of the semester, I was on the hunt for an internship to gain experience and skills in the field of fiber arts. I was exploring the Career Development website in search for opportunities when I came across the internship opening at NFC. For some time now I have had a goal to someday own my own yarn business in which I harvest, spin, and dye my own yarn, so when I came across this opportunity, I figured it would teach me some very useful skills that would help me reach my goal.

The company itself is a locally based business that purchases the winded and un-dyed yarn from a nearby manufacturer and then produces its own colors through a variety of dye recipes. The yarn is then hand-dyed and sold in a single location. For this internship, I was part of the hand-dying process as an assistant to my supervisor, Jenelle, who is the Dye Technician at the company. Together, our daily tasks were to read through the "Dye List" which contained a list of the types of yarn, what colors they needed to be dye to, and the amount of each that needed to be completed each day. We would then rinse out the pots containing yarn from the previous day and hang them on the drying racks. Next, we would season the stove by oiling it and turning the burners to a low flame. After we did that, we would soak the yarn we needed to dye as we prepped the pots and mixed the dye we needed.

This was basically what we would do every day, but occasionally there would be some special projects and events I was able to be a part of such as Saturday classes in which customers would come in for private dye lessons. I was also able to be a part of the development of new colors that are now being sold. One of the most exciting events, however, was the Fiber Space event in which we had 50 customers arrive by bus from Virginia and Jenelle and I had 5 hours to custom dye yarn for each one of them. It was extremely hectic but it was so much fun to be able to work with the customers and mix the colors on the spot without any recipes.

I think my biggest take away from this experience is learning about and understanding the production process of hand-dying yarn. Due to this internship, I am now able to have a better grasp of the time and labor required to produce dyed yarn. I feel like I can now take the information and skills that I have learned and apply them to further myself in my career goals.

MamerSass

My name is Haven DeAnglis and I am a junior Fibers major with concentrations in Sustainability and Social Practice and Experimental Fashion. During the summer of 2018, I was an intern at MamerSass Reinvented Fashions in Chincoteague, Virginia. The small business focuses on reducing textile waste, and the apparel that is sold in the store is either vintage or upcycled. I learned of the internship experience after the co-owner and designer of the business, Jamey Brittingham, reached out to the Students of Sustainability club to see if we would be interested in hosting them on their college tour. I was able to bring MamerSass to campus in the spring of 2018, and Jamey gave an inspiring artist talk about starting a small, sustainable business. They also brought along the mobile shop, so students could see the upcycled clothing creations. Before Jamey and her partner Derek came to MICA, I did research on the company and learned that they offered internships. I expressed my interested in interning with them, while communicating the plans for the artist talk, and after seeing my portfolio, I was offered the position.

MamerSass could not have been a better internship experience for my career goals. My dream after college would to have my own small business, in which I would design and make upcycled punk clothing and accessories. I was the only intern Jamey and Derek had at the time in May and June, so I was able to frequently ask questions about how to start and successfully run a business. I mainly worked with Jamey in designing and making upcycled clothing. The workroom is part of the store, so while we weren’t dealing with customers, we were busily making clothes. One of the most important takeaways I had was that working hard and being able to multi-task is key if you want your business to grow. Even though Jamey and I may spend hours making a shirt, it may only sell for $35 because customers want inexpensive clothing. The materials for upcycled fashion is free or very cheap but one has to love the labor they put into it for being your own boss means no one is giving you a steady wage. While it was a lot of work, I absolutely loved the internship and making the clothes and jewelry each day. One of the most fulfilling aspect was when a customer would buy an item I made and knew they would wearing something I created.

During most of my internship, Jamey and Derek were preparing for vending at Firefly Music Festival, which meant that a lot of clothes had to be made. Jamey and I created Festival Tops out of scrap pieces of fabric, Split Tees out of old, unwanted t-shirts, and many t-shirt shopping bags. I was also able to teach them how to screen print their logo onto t-shirts and sweatshirts, which sold well at the festival. It was cool to see that something I had learned in school was able to be implemented into another setting. After my internship was completed in June, they asked me if I would like to stay and work with them for another month and be paid! Not only was the internship an excellent learning experience, but I was able to receive a job from it, too.

Nikki Martinkovic Design Studio

In late February this year I started to look for internships. I was considering both printmaking internships and illustration internships. I searched for pattern design studios. I found several places that have similar styles of my drawings. I sent cold emails to around five places, and Nikki Martinkovic Design Studio was the one that replied and scheduled an interview. After interview they offered me an assignment as a test, and accepted my application one week later. Kyle Naughtrip is listed as my direct supervisor.

There are six interns for the summer; I and another girl from RISD are creative interns. We draw small elements on paper, and other employees in the studio transform them into patterns. As interns we did not get chance to do patterns by ourselves, but they gave us several tutorials on how they do patterns. We have freedom on what we want to draw. Every several weeks the studio would come together and discuss what kind of images they need more in this period of time, for example, animal prints. I tried to make three architecture collage drawings, which I like a lot.

From this experience, I improved my painting skill and learned some really useful Photoshop tricks. I have an idea on how to estimate the time for each drawing. I got chance to observe how other people works, and started thinking about drawing in a different perspective. The two creative designers at the studio hold a session and answered our questions about job opportunities in pattern design industry. I learned a lot from their experience, and knew more about pattern design industry. This opens my eyes and shows another possible path that I can consider after graduation.

I’m happy that I took this internship. This experience has prepared me well for my coming senior year. I wish I took it earlier.

Latino Studio

This summer I was a studio assistant at Latiano Studio, the studio of Jonathan Latiano, a sculptor in Baltimore Maryland. I had worked with Jonathan last summer as his teaching assistant at MICA precollege. We were still in contact, so last semester when I asked if he knew any artists that needed studio assistants this summer, he told me that he himself did, and I got the job.

As a studio assistant, I mostly helped fabricate one of the projects that Jonathan is working on entitled “The Only Thing That’s the End of the World is The End of the World.” It’s a collection of hundreds of irregular spheres covered in thousands of mirrored shards. I did detail work with the mirrors, but also helped build some of the interior structures of the spheres, which have to bear a good amount of weight. Jonathan included me in planning his studio visits with curators for other projects he’s working on, as well as the grant writing and exhibition proposals he’s working on. I helped to prepare the model of a sculpture he’s proposing for a show at the Sculpture Center in New York, and got to visit the Peale Museum with him to plan an installation, as well as meet with the curator Lynn Park.

At the end of the summer, Jonathan took me and his other intern, Andrea, on a trip to New York City to visit his friend who works at DYAD, a design studio in Brooklyn. We learned a lot from her and her co-workers, and got to see some impressive galleries in Chelsea. This internship was so  informative to me about what it’s like to operate your own studio. I feel like I have a lot of in-depth knowledge that will inform me in my own practice in the future.

Knox Makers

My name is Grace Kwon, and I am a rising sophomore Fiber Major. During the Summer of 2017, I was an intern for Knox Makers, a makers space and studio in Knoxville, TN. I have always been interested in makers space particularly after visiting OpenWorks in Baltimore. Because of the growing interest and popularity of makers spaces around the country, I researched for these spaces in my hometown, Knoxville. After a couple of intensive internet research excursions and  communicating with artist professionals in Knoxville, I discovered the newly opened Knox Makers. Knox Makers was not openly looking for any hires or interns, so I contacted them requesting for a possible opportunity and also attached a resumé. Knox Makers replied fairly quickly, offering an opportunity although it would be their first time hiring an intern. For the next couple of months, we corresponded through email and through phone calls, trying to define what I would do as an intern in the space. Even though it was new experience for both Knox Makers and me, it was fulfilling experience to make internship that seemed impossible work.

Knox Makers is a workshop that features dedicated zones for woodworking, metalworking, 3D printing and scanning, electronics, arts and crafts, fabric arts, leather working, and laser cutting. It is based on the community of makers in Knoxville which is small but growing. My direct supervisor was Doug Laney, the president of the organization, but I also received a lot of help from other members and the community as a whole. I was responsible for making the space a more relatable and convenient space for the members. I was tasked with various types of jobs from fixing industrial sewing machines, to reorganizing space, to teaching my own class. As a nonprofit organization that emphasizes on community rather than profit, Knox Makers was truly made up from the ground by the members and the community. One of the largest projects I had was teaching a beginner screen-printing class. The space had never had a class for screen-printing so I got to experience starting a class from scratch by making the classes’ screens and researching material. From the class, I learned many technical skills such as different wood joints and more professional skills like how to conduct a productive classroom.

The biggest take-away from Knox Makers is the networking and the professional relationships. Although, the relationships are seemingly small scale in a small city like Knoxville. The space and community encouraged me to talk to new people and learn how to build a professional relationship. Since this internship, I have been more interested in the community side and the educational side of the arts, and how to inform the general public. I have also gained many technical skills that I believe I can incorporate into my work at MICA. Knox Makers made me consider the community side of the arts field that I did not think about before.