My name is Sukhmani Kaur and I am a Junior Art History major. During the Summer of 2016, I was a Gallery Intern at the Cuevas Tilleard Projects, a gallery based in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City. I have always been interested in curatorial practice and careers within a museum setting. After taking an Intro to Curatorial Studies class at MICA during spring 2016, I decided it would be interesting to gain experience in a commercial gallery. So towards the end of the semester I started researching gallery intern positions on the New York Foundation for the Arts website. After an extensive search I applied to Cuevas Tilleard Projects in the Lower East Side. Cuevas Tilleard stood out to me from the many galleries that fill NYC streets because it was fairly new (they opened in 2014), the team was small, and they primarily focused on young and emerging artists based in painting.
After sending in my resume, cover letter, and a brief explanation of why I was interested in interning at the gallery, I heard back from Cuevas Tilleard within a week and scheduled an interview right away. The interview was brief and casual, and within a day I had secured the position! I was scheduled to work two days a week at the gallery during the summer and I couldn’t wait to get started.
The experience at Cuevas Tilleard has been both exciting and informative! My supervisor, Caroline Tilleard, is one of the gallery owners and she was very helpful and supportive as a mentor throughout the experience. As the gallery had such a small team, I was often working on tasks in the gallery independently, always communicating with Caroline though email. Throughout the internship period I was assigned weekly projects that involved researching artists and artwork, and prominent galleries in the NYC area. I had the opportunity to visit galleries in the LES, Chelsea, Upper West Side, and Brooklyn. I was also working on creating posts for the gallery’s social media. One of my bigger projects involved creating a presentation and exhibition materials including: press release, preview, checklist, price list, consignment agreement and graphics, for a hypothetical exhibit of my choice that would be able to work in the gallery. Besides these specific projects, I was also responsible for assisting artists and clients that visited the gallery on a daily basis.
This experience as a Gallery Intern at Cuevas Tilleard has really helped me to understand the process and what it takes to run a commercial gallery in a thriving art sphere. I enjoyed the fast-pace environment and felt very satisfied with having firsthand experience in gallery relations! I am glad I took on this position before I start the Exhibition Development Seminar at MICA this fall, and also continue to pursue my Curatorial Studies concentration.
