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: ...

I found this opportunity when I reached out last year to a MICA Alum whose most recent position was at MacMillan, but completed the Barefoot Books internship in the past. I wanted more insight into the publishing industry and she had indicated that the program was a valuable experience. I submitted my website portfolio, made it through the final interview rounds where I highlighted my improvement over the year within my work, how I have researched the company and what I could contribute to them all while highlighting my passion to make a difference in the publishing industry. I got my offer letter about a week later. Barefoot Books is an independent children's book publisher based in Concord MA whose mission is to publish books that open kids' hearts, minds and worlds. There is a strong encouragement and advocacy for more representational diversity and educational concepts within the books they publish. My responsibilities included designing graphics for marketing and promotio...

This semester, I got to work with Baltimore Tree Trust as their communication design intern. I was lucky enough to meet my supervisor, the senior communications director at Baltimore Tree Trust, at the fall semester Practice and Pie event hosted by Career Development. Immediately, I became obsessed with Baltimore Tree Trust and the work they do for the Baltimore community. Baltimore Tree Trust is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that is focused on providing trees, environmental education, and career pathways in forestry to the Baltimore community. The bulk of what they do revolves around their team of Neighborhood Forestry Technicians – an awesome team of people born and raised in Baltimore who go out into the community and plant trees in neighborhoods that need it most. Beyond just planting trees, Baltimore Tree Trust also provides educational resources on the importance of green spaces in urban environments and seeks to unite different Baltimore communities through city greening. ...

Over the summer I worked as a Public Programs Intern for NURTUREart in  Brooklyn, NY. I met the executive director and gallery manager during the Fine Art  Review at MICA. Christopher Ho, who was one of my instructors, and is currently  the president of the board for NURTUREart later mentioned that they were looking  for a summer intern. At his suggestion, I wrote an email to Will Penrose, the  executive director with my resume, a cover letter, and professional references. After  a phone interview, I was offered the position. NURTUREart is a nonprofit gallery and arts organization that has been  operating in for 20 years. They focus on exhibiting work by emerging artists and  curators, and lean towards showing more experimental and challenging works,  since they do not rely on sales. They also have several youth education programs in  Brooklyn schools that provide opportunities for all grades K-12. I worked directly...

The Maryland Science Center is an interactive museum aimed towards kids and teaching scientific concepts. They were looking for people to help conceptualize and fabricate new exhibits, working with the in-house fabrication studio. I had a lot of experience with what they wanted, particularly robotics, coding, installations, and 3D modeling, and I love science and science education. I applied via the internship faire. My direct supervisor was Jessica Ann, who was the head of Exhibit Fabrication. They ran the whole department, as well as outreach to other departments and managerial stuff.  When I arrived, a new exhibit had just been completed. So, I ended up doing a lot of  fixing and developing on prototypes. My main task was completing these “light wands,” a  casing for handheld LEDs that could light up an exhibit. Since kids would be tugging and pulling  on the cables, durability was essential. I went through 4 iteration...

  My name is Syehyun Lee (Sean) and I am a rising junior Film and Video major in Maryland Institute College of Art. During the summer of 2016, I was a Video and Marketing department intern for Dasan Education, a company based in Seoul (Gangnam), Republic of Korea (South Korea). When I was a high school student, I went to Dasan Education Institute to study for the SAT and TOEFL for the American University, so I had always wanted to work at Dasan company when I get old enough to work, and summer 2016 was the time! What Dasan company does in South Korea is launch decent SAT, ACT and TOEFL Academy (Institute) sites in large cities in Korea. They also have two international middle and high schools in Seoul, South Korea. I can say that all the huge companies have video departments for recording something. In Dasan Education Company, they need to record all the lessons of SAT, ACT, TOFEL, and AP subjects for merchandizing; they sell to students who really want to study outside ...

My name is Margaret Huey. I'm a rising senior illustration major with a Culture and Politics minor. For the summer of 2016, I interned at the Office of Public Programs at the Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington, D.C., a subset of the Smithsonian specializing in Asian art. I've had an interest in museum work and dreamed of working for the Smithsonian for most of my life. I've also been working increasingly more with Asian diaspora in my illustrative work, so applying to Freer-Sackler for an internship was an exciting prospect.  The application process was rather straightforward through the Smithsonian's SOLAA system which enables users to also browse and apply for a myriad of other internships within the Smithsonian Institution. I was eventually contacted by Grace Murray and Matthew Lasnoski who became my supervisors during my internship when they noticed my application and thought I would be a good fit for the Office of Public Programs.  I p...

My name is Akea Brown and I am junior Photography and Humanistic Studies major. I spent this past summer interning at Art With A Heart, as a community service intern. I found out about the internship while looking through the MICA Network and applied for an interview. I interviewed about a week later and was given the internship the same day. Art With A Heart, is a non-profit organization, here in Baltimore. Their main focus is to positively impact the community through the creation of art. There are many branches of the organization, including the Job Program, which helps homeless and underprivileged youth learn to be professional and market themselves as artists. The youth program, brings together high school students from public and private schools, who otherwise wouldn’t have met, and have them tackle issues about race, politics, and gender, utilizing their different perspectives. The Public Art branch acts as the face of the organization and handles all of the projects out in...

I`m Mengyang Wang from Illustration Practice. I am an international student. Since I want to gain some working experience and improve my language skills during the summer, I checked the MICANetwork website to look for some internship positions. I found an internship as a gallery guide at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. I prepared all the documents I would need and, after a phone interview, I was informed I got the internship. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, named after the founding donor Joseph H. Hirshhorn, belongs to the Smithsonian Institution and is located in Washington D.C. It houses more than 12,000 pieces in its collection and aims to exhibit both modern and contemporary art works. A gallery guide`s job is to help audiences have a better understanding of the artworks through conversation. There are two ways of guiding: one is daily guiding which means approaching viewers randomly and speaking with them while the other way is to lead a schedul...