During the summer of 2018, I spent
two months interning at Recess, a gallery and arts non-profit in Clinton Hill,
Brooklyn. Founded in 2009, Recess facilitates four distinct residency programs that
collectively seek to reimagine the institution as a space for mutual learning
and conversation between artists and the public. The gallery’s program
director, Gee Wesley, joined the Curatorial Practice graduate program as a
visiting professor for the spring 2018 semester, and because the research I was
engaging for my thesis work overlapped significantly with an upcoming artist project
at Recess, Gee invited me to intern with the gallery.
As Program Manager, Gee is the
direct point of contact for artists working with the gallery. Because Recess
offers a unique residency program, one that transforms the gallery into an evolving
installation and public studio, the summer artist-in-residence, Ilana
Harris-Babou, was on site nearly every day. I worked closely with Ilana to
build out her project, an installation existing somewhere between a cooking
show set and an imitation HomeGoods store, and I facilitated accompanying
programs over the next two months with her. I similarly worked alongside
artists and writers Xaviera Simmons, Chloë Bass, Hannah Black, and Kristina
Wilson to assist with ongoing research, writing, planning, and events related
to their individual projects. Even sitting in on meetings with
Gee and future Recess artists-in-residence provided great insight into both the creative
process and the more logistical side of planning. One of my favorite aspects of this internship was the
in-depth relationships I was able to forge with artists through sustained, sincere dialogue. One of
Recess’s core missions is to facilitate experimental projects that leave room for play and even
failure, and it was very special to be able to work through ideas with artists I greatly
admire.
Although Gee was my direct
supervisor for the duration of the internship, I also worked closely with the two other staff members of
Recess, Jackie Chang, Director of Engagement, and Allison Freedman Weisberg, Founder and
Executive Director. Alongside Jackie and Allison, I was heavily involved with
communications and marketing for the gallery. At the beginning of each week, I would draft Recess’s
newsletter, designed to alert the public to upcoming events and programs and recent news by current
and recent Recess artists. I additionally spearheaded social media, website design and
maintenance, and press releases. The small scale of Recess allowed me to experience nearly every facet
of the organization; each day was quite different and required a different set of skills.
One of the most fruitful
experiences I had at this internship was the informational interview I conducted with the director, Allison.
She founded Recess from the ground up when she was just about my age and less than a year
out of graduate school. She was generous with her time and information during our
conversation, and hearing about the process of beginning a non-profit was insightful. More broadly,
interning at Recess has provided me with a new understanding of the logistics of running an
organization reliant on grants and fundraising. This experience has solidified my interest in
artist-centric curatorial work. I am most excited by smaller scale institutions that have the
flexibility to incubate experimental projects and the agency to make decisions directly. Recess
represents the type of institution I would like to eventually work within, and the opportunity to
intern there this summer has been incredibly rewarding.
