Herman Maril Foundation

My name is Peter Favinger and I am a junior Drawing Major. During the spring of 2014 I
have had the opportunity to be an intern at the Herman Maril Foundation, a foundation dedicated to the life work of Baltimore native and MICA alumni Herman Maril. The foundation is run by Herman’s son, David Maril. The foundation appeared at the the internship fair in the spring of 2013. Upon seeing the internship listed on the MICA website, I knew I wanted to work at the foundation. Dressing in a suit and tie, I presented myself in the most professional manner as I possibly could to David, gave him my resume, card, and a cd of my artwork and conversed with him at his booth for several minutes. Before leaving to view other internship booths I was offered a chance to meet again with David discussing the internship in more depth at his home in Mt. Washington, Baltimore. The home is also the location of Herman Maril’s studio, and
former winter and spring home in the city.

David has been my direct supervisor within the Herman Maril Foundation, as he is the head of the Foundation. Each day I come to the work site, David and I recap what we had done the previous day and continue to work on what wasn’t completed prior. For a large part of the internship I had been documenting Herman’s artwork that wasn’t logged in the personal database for record purposes. Currently David and I are cleaning up the estate, organizing book shelves according to those related to Herman Maril, and others that he had interest in reading that are related to the art world.

Through working at the Herman Maril Foundation I have had the opportunity to help set up a solo exhibition of Herman’s work at the University of Maryland University College with the help of a curator from the David Findlay Jr. Gallery in New York City. The gallery represents Herman and they sent their gallery manager down to UMUC to curate the show, and I was fortunate enough to help choose some pieces and hang up some of Herman’s work.

This internship has given me a chance to take a step into the fine art world, to see how an artists estate is run, and how artwork is appraised. I have enjoyed working at the foundation having the chance to help categorize and organize an artists entire life work. I am very fortunate to have had this opportunity, and I’m very proud to say David Maril has offered me a part-time job working as an employee working at the Herman Maril Foundation, starting immediately once the internship has ended. This internship has helped shape what career path I want to pursue. The gallery world and the life of a practicing artist is a very exciting concept to me, and it is something I wish to become.