My name is Kathy Guo, and I am a rising Junior Fiber Major. As a child that was always fascinated with crafting and making things out of fabric, I was very fascinated and intrigued about a place like Textile Arts Center. I found out about them when I stumbled upon their studio one day, decorated with yarns and an array of fiber art. I looked on their website and they mentioned they were looking for summer interns, and I thought this would be a good place to learn something new and to keep my hands busy so I applied. After answering a few questions and submitting my portfolio, I was
interviewed a few months later. The next day they called me back and welcomed me as their intern.
Textile Arts Center is a resource facility that aims to raise awareness and understanding of textiles through adult and youth education. The studio hopes to inspire and provide people with traditional crafts, skills and processes that have become less commonplace with the world modernizing. Textile Arts Center also hopes to provide a safe and creative community for people of the textile world.
My supervisor was Callen Zimmerman when I worked in their Manhattan studio and Lisa Sikorski when I worked in the Brooklyn studio. They are the directors of youth education for both after school and summer camp. During my internship, I helped out with recreating their lesson plans that would soon be examples for the summer camp projects. We experimented with different paints and techniques to see which was most effective. On top of that I often went in and out of many classes that were going on and assisted the teachers when they needed an extra set of hands. When I was not doing those tasks, I spent most of my time re-warping looms, cleaning the classroom space, running errands, and sorting/ cutting material for every class. Although these tasks were tedious and unfulfilling, I am glad to have better experience teaching and interacting with kids. I learned not only through watching other amazing teachers, but also through first hand experience. This was a skill set that I wanted to learn for a long time.
Still, I was unhappy with the majority of the internship, both with how I was treated and what I got out of it. I spent most of my time doing brainless physical labor for someone else, which was not enriching to me as an artist at all. Many times I was very tempted and close to quitting. However, I took this as an opportunity for me to learn and understand how important commitment is in the working environment, as well as the importance of creating networks. I am proud of myself for sticking with it until the end.
Perhaps the most important thing I learned from the internship is how the working world operates. There is a lot of injustices, a lot of tedious work, and a lot of financial burdens. I have much better clarity after speaking to a lot of my co-workers, what to expect after graduation and what kind of spot to aim for that is both realistic and fulfilling. Although I am still very unsure of where I am going to end up, and I do regret choosing this studio as my internship, I am now more aware of what I need to achieve each career option I have in mind.
