INTERNSHIP STORIES

I heard of this opportunity through my illustration professor. I was really excited for this opportunity so I quickly created a tailored portfolio and submitted my application with my fingers crossed. I was really hoping to get accepted because this internship sounded like a great opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and collaborate with other artists. About six weeks later, I got an email and I signed an acceptance form. I worked with several other interns. We had three advisors who taught us a lot about professionalism and ecology and helped by giving critiques throughout the process. The organization we partnered with is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and our point of contact was a BLM archaeologist. Our point of contact worked with 30+ Native American tribes to protect and sustain public lands and foster an interest in our national heritag e. Our group traveled to Dolores, Colorado, to experience the land for ourselves and make signs for the park that would withstand th...

I found out about the Conservation Internship for Broadening Access (CIBA), through the Smithsonian’s internship opportunities website. I was looking for conservation experience as I plan on pursuing it in graduate school, so I looked up several museums online until I found this one. The Smithsonian is one of the largest national research and museum networks, they provide research and educational opportunities, as well as maintain a vast public museum network. I was specifically placed at the National Museum of American History (NMAH), which specializes in objects and stories pertaining to American History. Specifically in the Paper Conservation Lab, we worked to maintain, repair, and store paper objects of American History.  My responsibilities centered around learning and practicing conservation and preventative conservation skills, including page repair, rehousing objects, testing inks, and cleaning objects. The specific projects I worked on were: repairing the Mack McCormick pa...

I learned about this internship through the Practice & Pie event. I was spotted by someone who told me that an employer liked my handknit sweater, who then directed me to them. She connected me with this artist after the event and I later introduced myself via email. My supervisor is a working artist who addresses and creates conversation around racism in America–with a focus on Baltimore, through craft. Many of her works are woven photography, repurposed ‘trash’ items such as plastic bags, caution tape, and more recently fruit bags. She uses various weaving techniques, hand-sewing, and other innovative joinery to create large sculptural works. My responsibilities were mainly to assist with making tests, or sketches, as she calls them. “Sketches” were like prototypes of larger works or playing around with materials. The sketches I created served as smaller models for larger projects, scalable measurements, potential joinery methods, and/or to learn about the characteristics of the ...

I found out about this internship as I was scrolling through the website for my school work. The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) holds a strong place in my heart, but I never thought about interning there as it doesn’t have a connection to my major. It was a stroke of luck that I manage to secure it as I found it three days from the application deadline date.  My amazing professors were extremely kind and helped me write a letter of recommendation (I found out later it was my letters of recommendation that pushed me ahead of everyone else). Otherwise, using the 3 days, I asked as many people as I could to read through all my materials, including Career Development and my Academic Advisor.   NMWA in Washington, DC champions and supports women artists. It is the only museum in the world solely dedicated to women artists. They feature a variety of art forms, mostly focusing on contemporary art. The department I worked in was Digital Engagement, this applied...

My name is Cynthia Fang and I am a senior Art History major with concentrations in Painting and Curatorial Studies. During the summer of 2018, I had an internship opportunity at Art at Work , a corporate art consultancy in Washington D.C. The company attracts a diverse pool of clientele, ranging from esteemed law firms to corporate real estate companies. I met Judy Sherman, the principle of Art at Work, through Jackie Milad from MICA’s Career Development office. During fall of 2017, Judy was looking for a curatorially-driven student to select artworks for Exelon Corporation’s trading floor at the Inner Harbor. Jackie, who had known my interest in curation, kindly informed me about the opportunity and asked if I was interested in being involved. Long story short, Judy and I had an amazing collaborative experience and finished the artwork selection with no hassle or stress. Through the opportunity, I had gotten a slight glimpse of the life of an art consultant; I left ...

My name is Sukhmani Kaur and I am a Junior Art History major. During the Summer of 2016, I was a Gallery Intern at the Cuevas Tilleard Projects, a gallery based in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City. I have always been interested in curatorial practice and careers within a museum setting. After taking an Intro to Curatorial Studies class at MICA during spring 2016, I decided it would be interesting to gain experience in a commercial gallery. So towards the end of the semester I started researching gallery intern positions on the New York Foundation for the Arts website. After an extensive search I applied to Cuevas Tilleard Projects in the Lower East Side. Cuevas Tilleard stood out to me from the many galleries that fill NYC streets because it was fairly new (they opened in 2014), the team was small, and they primarily focused on young and emerging artists based in painting. After sending in my resume, cover letter, and a brief explanation of why I was interested in...

My name is Jennifer Hynson and I am a senior Art History major concentrating in Sustainability and Social Practice. During the summer of 2014, I worked as an intern for BusFarm, Inc., a local food market and non-profit focusing on food security and education in Richmond, Virginia. As a Sustainability and Social Practice concentrator, I’ve spent much of my time at MICA working with issues surrounding the health of our environment and how we interact with it and have slowly expanded my definition of the title “artist” as I spent more time working hands-on with the community around me. I knew the organization from its mobile market/classroom’s visits to public events and retail areas on weekends, so when I decided I wanted to gain some experience in this area, I knew where to look. BusFarm, Inc. would allow me to continue working with the issues of sustainability that mean so much to me as well as continue to expand my role as artist in a greater context. After emailing wit...

I am Aubrey Vinson, a rising junior Art History major, concentrating in Curatorial Studies. I interned at Gallery 1301 in the summer of 2014. I actually found this internship through a friend; it seems simple and coincidental, but word of mouth is very important in the art world. I got the employer’s contact information through this friend, and sent him an email with my resume and some information about me. I actually didn’t hear back at first, but I went to the gallery’s first opening anyway. I met the owner, Joe Bradley, then and he knew exactly who I was and apologized for not responding. We arranged to meet that weekend, and after a brief, relaxed interview, I had an internship.     How I found this internship is fairly representative of my experience at the gallery, and with Joe. It’s a very relaxed and friendly environment, and I was always given a lot of respect and influence in the gallery. There’s a very small staff, all of which are practicing local ...