Over the summer I worked as a Public Programs Intern for NURTUREart in Brooklyn, NY. I met the executive director and gallery manager during the Fine Art Review at MICA. Christopher Ho, who was one of my instructors, and is currently the president of the board for NURTUREart later mentioned that they were looking for a summer intern. At his suggestion, I wrote an email to Will Penrose, the executive director with my resume, a cover letter, and professional references. After a phone interview, I was offered the position.
NURTUREart is a nonprofit gallery and arts organization that has been operating in for 20 years. They focus on exhibiting work by emerging artists and curators, and lean towards showing more experimental and challenging works, since they do not rely on sales. They also have several youth education programs in Brooklyn schools that provide opportunities for all grades K-12. I worked directly with Ivan Gilbert, who is the Director of Programs and Gallery Manager.
Much of my day-to-day work involved managing and planning social media posts to promote events and researching organizations in the area to identify potential new partnerships. Over the summer, NURTUREart hosts a series of residencies, so I also helped support the residents through their stay and during public programming. During the second half of my internship, I was helping to review proposals for the upcoming exhibition season; I was proud to have contributed to the process, and felt like my input was desired and respected.
My biggest takeaway was a greater understanding of what goes in to managing an art space, I learned valuable new networking skills and approaches that built upon those I had learned over the course of my first year in the Curatorial Practice program. I also learned that I don’t have much interest in working on the development side of things; I’d much rather focus on executing effective projects and programs, rather than trying to secure funding and recruit donors. This internship solidified my interest in working in the nonprofit world, and gave me an idea of the types of jobs I want to look for as I near graduation next spring.
