INTERNSHIP STORIES

Curatorial Internship at a Non-profit Arts Organization I had originally first gotten into contact with AED last school year through the EDS program. Through that class, I was able to meet the director of operations at AED. After the class I reached out to who would be my supervisor to participate with more hands-on experience through this internship. Arts Every Day is a non profit organization dedicated to advancing equitable access to arts education in Baltimore City Public Schools. Some ways they achieve this is through art experience/materials funding, teacher professional development, and the 10x10 exhibition. This exhibition is the project I would be working on. This is an annual exhibition hosted by AED where Baltimore City students and teachers alike submit artwork to celebrate the creativity that is abundant within our community. This year's exhibition theme is “Culture: Symbols, Rituals and Heroes.” “Arts Every Day is proud to present its 9th Annual 10X10 Exhibit titled: ...

Summer Internship at the BMA The first time I heard about this position was through a MICA email announcing that BMA was open for Summer intern applications. I had been actively looking for internship opportunities and had a strong interest in the BMA, so I immediately decided to apply. I was responsible for drafting proposals for grants and sponsorship applications, communicating with colleagues in various departments, and gathering information to strengthen the proposals. One challenge I faced is how to effectively translate creative ideas from the programs I hear about into compelling proposals for potential funders and donors. I was also assigned the task of creating forms to track potential funders, which involved using specific software for data collection. Overall, the work is both challenging and rewarding, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. So far, I am most proud of my growth in writing, research, and communication skills. I have become more confident in both re...

  Curatorial Practice at Pazo This fall, I had the incredible opportunity to intern at Pazo Fine Art, a leading contemporary art gallery in the Washington metropolitan area. I discovered this opportunity through my program director, who encouraged me to reach out to the gallery’s owner and director. From the very beginning, the owner was warm, welcoming, and supportive, setting the tone for an enriching and inspiring experience. Pazo Fine Art , founded in 2020, has quickly established itself as a dynamic presence in the art world. With locations in Kensington, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.'s historic U Street corridor, the  gallery is dedicated to showcasing innovative exhibitions across  various media while amplifying the voices of underrepresented  artists. Under the owners thoughtful leadership, the gallery  explores influential movements like Neo-Geo, Color Field, and  Light and Space, blending historical reevaluation with contemporary abstraction. I w...

Over the past few months I was keeping a personal log of all the available internship and job opportunities within my area of interest. However, none of the internships I found caught my eye. I took inspiration from my friends who were applying for more extravagant internships to finally start applying to places. Through my search my love for printmaking had resurfaced and I stumbled upon Flatbed's internship. I applied through their website and had a brief interview with the head of lithography printing/education supervisor. Flatbed Press is a community and professional print shop with a gallery component. The press was started and is currently run by an intaglio printmaker. The owner and my supervisor work as the shop's professional collaborative printers working in monotype, relief, intaglio, and lithography. Flatbed also hosts regular workshops and classes taught by local printmakers and artists I reported to both the owner and my supervisor although I believe I was technic...

The Washington Printmakers Gallery is an artist-run gallery founded in 1985 that houses contemporary fine art prints and photographs. It now has a membership of local and national printmakers, photographers, and book artists. They host juried shows, both group and solo exhibitions, workshops, classes, talks, and outreach programs. The gallery also houses bins and flat files with artist’s prints and photographs. When I first heard about the Washington Printmakers Gallery, it was through my dad who was interested in visiting the gallery with me over summer break. When researching on their website, I noticed that they offered internship opportunities for academic credit. I decided to reach out and after a few exchanges, we discovered that my advisor and a professor were members of the gallery for many years. With this connection, I managed to secure an interview as well as the request of my art in person. I arrived with my art and was accepted as an intern almost immediately. We decided t...

 I first found out about this opportunity through the Gallery’s instagram page. I was already following them because I had some artwork in one of their previous shows, and so I emailed them and said I was interested in the intern position that they had open. They asked for a resume and an interview, and I ended up getting the position. The owner of the gallery was my direct supervisor, who organized all of its events and coordinates with artists in order to hold shows at the gallery. I also did some work with another supervisor, who handled a lot of the gallery’s more technical work involving spreadsheets and advertising. On slower days, I worked the front desk at the gallery, and helped talk to other artists and potential customers, and helped to sell artwork. I also helped some with setting up their website and stock-keeping. Additionally, I was able to help out with some of the remodeling and setting up for their latest exhibitions, namely, I helped to organize the resident arti...

I had the honor of being the ArtTable fellow at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The opportunity was presented to me by my program director. ArtTable is a professional organization dedicated to advancing the leadership of women in the visual arts. Through this organization, I applied to the Studio Museum in Harlem. The Studio Museum is the nexus for artists of African descent, locally, nationally, and internationally, and for work that has been inspired and influenced by Black culture. It is a site for the dynamic exchange of ideas about art and society. The selection process was competitive and long. I had to submit a written application, and from there the committee at ArtTable decided whether to send my application through to the Studio Museum. Once my application was selected, I began the interview process. This entire process took 2 months. When working at the museum I worked on two major projects. My first project was supporting the Curatorial collections team in the ongoing maintena...

Hamiltonian Artists' mission is to build a dynamic community of innovative artists and effective visual art leaders by providing professional development opportunities and advancing their entrepreneurial success. Through a two-year fellowship program they produce group shows and solo shows to help build a solid foundation for emerging artists. A professor from one of my courses works at Hamiltonian Artists and reached out to me at the end of the course if I would be interested in an internship. During my internship I would report back to my supervisor with tasks I was assigned to and we would discuss program planning for the future. I was involved in a variety of projects like managing donor and board member Thank You letters and learning about the Bloomerang database. I also helped plan programs for kinetic members which is a sales and lending program on cultivating the next generation collectors. The mission of the program is to connect artists and collectors in such ways as cond...

Creative Alliance is a non-profit arts organization with a location in Baltimore, Maryland. They host exhibitions, resident artist programs, workshops, live performances and community events. I found out about this internship opportunity through a MICA Career Fair. There I talked to the someone from Creative Alliance. After our short conversation, I sent my resume and cover letter to apply to the curatorial internship position. I had a second meeting with them and we decided to move forward with the internship.  My supervisor oversaw the operations of exhibitions and its related programming, including managing the resident artist program. The resident artist program is a housing/residency program. Artists apply to the program, pay subsidized fees for housing and studios in the Creative Alliance building and receive professional support and exhibition opportunities in return.  As a resident artist coordinator, I interviewed resident artists about their needs and used this infor...

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...

This summer, I interned for the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Media (PCA&M) an organization dedicated to the promotion of the arts. This non-profit hosts an exhibition space that showcases anywhere from one to three exhibitions at a time, in addition to a school that offers a wide array of classes to both children and adults. The school offers a variety of classes, including ceramics, metalworking, screen printing, photography, and more. While researching internship opportunities in Pittsburgh, I came upon a posting for an Exhibitions Intern. I was unaware that the posting was from 2016, however, I was able to get in contact with the Gallery Programs Manager who was enthusiastic about my interest. After some correspondence and a phone interview, I was offered a position as an Exhibitions Intern. I was supervised by the Creative Director. The focus of my internship was on preparing and assisting with the upcoming exhibition, which featured seven sol...