The Institute of Contemporary Art Miami is a privately funded museum that features
established as well as up and coming contemporary artists. It is also one of the only museums in
Miami that grant free admission. This summer, I interned in the education department of the
museum. The education department at the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami has many facets. The education
department hosts Family Day on every third Sunday of the month, where families are
encouraged to visit the museum and take part in curated educational art activities that relate to
either a theme or a special exhibition at the museum. Although this is not solely what the
department does or is responsible for, the overall aim of the education department in the museum
is to make contemporary art more accessible to more students, whether it be through local
education organizations, programs or schools.
I have worked with the Institute of Contemporary Art since I was a sophomore in high school. Once I graduated, I was asked to be brought in as a contractor to implement a portfolio prep program that I had already piloted on my own at a local library the summer before. By this point I had already met and established relationships with most of the staff and programmers at the museum, one of which was my direct supervisor, Morel Doucet, an alum of both my former high school and an alum of MICA. I reached out to Morel during the MICATalks event about taking up the portfolio prep teaching position again and also inquired about any other opportunities to work in the museum for the summer. He told me to speak to Lisa Fernandez who then offered me an internship position through the education department.
Since both my supervisors had different roles in the museum, my responsibilities were
often broken up by scheduled tasks. One of my main responsibilities at the museum was assisting
in the summer immersive tours. What makes these tours immersive is that they are
taught through the inquiry method; this means that instead of lecturing, we prompt the students
to investigate and we encourage curiosity by asking specific questions about the works and the
intentions of the artist. This summer I took part in giving over 20 tours during the duration of my
internship. Aside from touring, I worked
alongside Morel to brainstorm and write out lesson plans for workshops and for immersive tours
in the museum, writing and editing blurbs for programming and sending out confirmation emails
from the 20+ sites we were hosting for the tours. Alongside Alyssa, I worked on Family Day
event activities and prepping. In the weeks leading up to Family Day, I was in contact with the volunteers to make sure they knew where to go and what to do. On Family Day, I was in charge of directing the
volunteers to their tasks and setting up the signage around the museum. Throughout the day I
helped the families carry out the activities, alongside the volunteers and then help deinstall the
room at the end of the day.
Another part of my internship was being aware and knowledgeable of the artists on
exhibit at the museum. Upon my arrival, the Visitor service team sent me the powerpoint
presentations that the tour guides use to study the work on exhibit and tour the public with. These gave me a base for the tours I
took part in teaching, the lesson plans I wrote up, the presentations I had to create based on these
artists and introducing these ideas to the students from the portfolio prep program. Towards the
end of my internship, I had the pleasure of taking part in co-teaching the portfolio pre 2-week
program for middle school students who aspire to apply to
magnet art high schools. During the duration of the program, Jacob Marrero, Glysed Barboza
and I partnered in creating a curriculum and lesson planning two weeks for these students. A few
of the points we emphasized were the elements and principles of design, color theory, contour
drawing, perspective, thumbnail sketching, self portraiture, personal narrative, critiquing and the
theme of this year’s program was identity. Throughout the program, there are multiple
mini-projects and lessons and then one personal project at the end for a final exhibition.
Working as an intern with ICA, everyday I learned something new. My supervisors guaranteed that either through experience or conversation, I would continuously learn about the museum, non-profits, being a practicing artist, outreach, teaching or knowledge on how to function as a working adult. Touring allowed me to understand the works of Ettore Sottsass, a very important designer, Paulo Nazareth, a very politically influential multi-media artist, Guadalupe Maravilla, a performance artist who combines the divine with the scientific and Eric Paul Reige, an influential performance artist. Being that I make wearable soft sculpture and also enjoy doing performance art, learning about these artists have allowed me to understand and consider how wearable sculpture and soft sculpture, specifically, can be considered of high-esteem and have served as an example of how I can showcase this kind of work in a museum. Working on the production and execution of Family Days was humbling: being so directly involved with children and their parents allowed me to have a direct line of impact in terms of the educational activities and opened my eyes, even more, to the power of outreach. Lesson planning alongside Morel has allowed me a crash course on not only the artists on exhibit, but also art history, science and politics. I feel as though I took a class this summer on political science and art matters. Working at the ICA has allowed me to regain confidence in the fact that art and artmaking is impactful and can transcend the white esteemed wall in a gallery. I have a more clear idea of what I want to do with my MAT degree once I graduate MICA: possibly work in the education department in a museum, where one would have more lee-way in terms of teaching non-traditional material in more innovative ways. As a result of this internship I have refined my public speaking skills, I have fine-tuned my writing skills, and have learned to work with younger children.
I have learned a whirl-wind of information regarding how a non-profit, privately funded museum functions, how an education program within this kind of museum thrives, the logistics of making a project and how it gets carried out, how to give tours and give lessons based on the inquiry teaching method--which has proven to be more effective-- and understand more succinctly how I would like to move forward both as a creator, a student and an educator. I have also created a network of educators and artists that I feel have given me pools of advice that I can confidently take into my next steps as a student and creator.
