My name is Sandra Liu, and I am a junior Painting major. During the summer of 2017, I was an intern artist at Salem Art Works, an art center and sculpture park located in upstate New York. I found this opportunity online through the MicaNetwork, and I was interested in it because it provided an opportunity to work amongst professional artists and explore new mediums. I wanted to push myself as a painter beyond school and desired a venue to talk to practicing artists about how they make work and sustain themselves. Furthermore, since this program was a work study, I would have food and board covered and a small artist’s stipend. I applied to Salem Art Works online through their Submittable form and turned in my resume, letter of intent, and ten work samples. I was notified through email two months later that I was chosen as one of the new
interns.
My direct supervisor was Anika Cartterfield, the intern coordinator at Salem Art Works. They helped integrate all the new interns to SAW and distributed the tasks that needed to be done each week. For the most part, my responsibility at SAW was to maintain their various facilities: wood shop, metal shop, glass shop, foundry, etc. and help improve their living spaces and accommodations for new artists coming in. Furthermore, the interns helped coordinate and set up many of the fundraisers and events that were happening at SAW. This included cleaning and setting up the spaces, documenting and cataloging artworks, curating shows, and working as advocates of SAW in public relations. Occasionally, we even got to install new outdoor sculptures and clean up and replace old ones.
I am most proud of my open-mindedness and willingness to learn in a communal art environment. Making studio work at SAW was not always easy because of how much work I did weekly and how many engagements went on in a day. I worked hard in balancing new relationships, making works, and exploring the environment and tried not to sequester myself to my studio but engage the other artists and facilities. I tried out working in the glass shop and threw some ceramics in a wood fire. My biggest takeaway from this experience is how different working as an artist is in a society than at school. I learned how to manage new professional and personal relationships and how to know when to focus on my own work and when to take a break. I learned that being an artist is a lot more than just making work. I gained new skills in managing my work and personal life and in challenging new directions that my work can take. This experience has clarified my career goals in helping me understand how to balance making work with real life commitments and how to network with galleries, curators, and fellow artists.
