The Valerie J. Maynard Foundation

The Valerie J. Maynard Foundation is dedicated to sustaining, expanding, and preserving the legacy of Valerie J. Maynard, her art, and her ideals. I got started with this internship through an initial connection with a photographer at a show opening in New York in February. We later connected in May through Instagram where I eventually interviewed for a position. At The Valerie J. Maynard Foundation I worked alongside board and foundation members as well as other legacy interns.

Some of what my role and responsibilities included was cleaning, organizing, and archiving art materials, sculpture, tools, and photography within the home studio space. I also helped with creating an archival organization system to preserve archival artwork materials and worked on administration aspects like file naming and archiving. I attended group meetings to work with board and foundation members, and legacy specialists and interns to assist workflow and give updates. After a work session each day I would document tasks that were done for the foundation and record the locations of items. 

I am most proud of my skills in connecting with folks by pushing myself out of my comfort shell. I was able to have new experience of being a part of the inaugural cohort of legacy interns. This experience has given me a clarity of what kind of artist I hope to be that is committed to building community and working collaboratively with others and leaving behind a legacy of great character, reverence, and using my voice to advocate for the well being of those subject to the margins. I have left this experience with a stronger confidence in wanting to pursue being an educator as Valerie was with how she was committed to sharing skills with her community to support the growth of the next generation of artists.