Blog Post # 9 I April 6, 2015
There is no particular thing at my internship that has prompted a sudden change in my mindset of my future; however, my entire experience at the Denver Art Museum has opened my mind into a whole new different world. My entire life, I have believed that I could never have a job in the artistic industry because if I did then I would end up becoming a starving bum on the street. Even during our class discussions with Nate, I noticed how he said that the creative industry is extremely competitive because you get paid to do something you love. So initially I was scared to intern at the DAM, not only because it was going to be a new experience but I was going to learn that my fears about jobs in artistic industry would be confirmed. However, after interning at the DAM, my fears were erased. After interning at the DAM, I have seen that the artistic industry is not only about the main artist; it is about everyone who supports the artist or the pieces, anyone who curates around art pieces, anyone who tries to create interactive activities around art pieces, anyone who helps illustrate a room to fit to the standards of certain pieces, and much more. Since the DAM has hundreds of employees, I was able to see all these types of people and more are integral to its operation; even if one employee is missing, it is evident that something in the museum was missing. Interning at the DAM has made me want to further my education in the arts and allowed me to have more faith in myself. So I have now decided that I am not going into engineering to appease my parents because I know it will not be a self-fulfilling job but I am hoping to go into architecture in order to have self-fulfillment, have a job in the creative industry, and still incorporate my love for math and science.
Blog Post # 8 I March 23, 2015
The difference between just working on personal art projects and working in a creative business is that personal projects are personal. The only person that needs to be pleased when the project is done is you; you dictate the entire project to your liking. However in a creative business, your project needs to appease your intended audience.
Once you enter the business world, in my opinion, it seems as though the close, personal connection to your art piece is somehow severed. For example, when I create a piece in my art class and if one of my friend’s asks if they could have it, a little part of me wants to say but a large part of me screams no. This is because I cannot just let all my hard work end up on a random shelf. But if you were to create a commission, right off the bat you have to sever the connection to your artwork. This does not necessarily mean that you will not put much effort into the piece; it just means that you do not want to pour your entire soul into the piece. Moreover, since it is a creative business and business entitles profit, you, as the artist, really need to look at the needs of the intended audience. So personal projects do not entitle that revenue but I think they entitle more self-fulfillment because they allow you to explore new mediums and really pour your soul into a project.
By interning at the Denver Art Museum, I’ve learned that usually everything you are creating has to cater to a collective interest. When we are coming up with new ideas for interactive programs we need to find out if a variety of people will like it, would it be easy to do, how much prep work goes behind it, can anyone do it, etc. Interning has essentially taught me that you cannot only think of yourself, that you always need to think of others’ opinions.
Blog Post # 7 I March 17, 2015
One of the greatest reasons why I love being an intern at the Denver Art Museum is because all the workers are incredibly nice and friendly. Before my internship, I was a bit fearful that people would treat me a bit harshly since I am just an intern and still in high school; however, I soon learned that there is no one at the museum that is treated with more respect or with more care. This is because everyone at the museum is valuable and integral to its operation.
Moreover, since I mainly work in the Lower Level of the North Building, I do not see that many other museum workers but when I go up to the galleries, all the docents, curators, security guards, and other museum staff all ask how my day is going, if I am having fun working at the museum, if school is going well, and several other questions. I used to hate small talk but at the DAM, I have grown to like it because it allows me to better understand my co-workers as well as gain more knowledge about the museum.
I know that before interning that I was very fearful of how my superiors and co-workers would treat me, so in the future I know that I will treat my future intern with the utmost respect and gratitude since they ultimately do the grit work or the work that no one really wants to do. I would want to make them as comfortable and happy as I am at the DAM. I would hope that my future intern would love their internship as much as I love mine.
Blog Post # 6 I March 9, 2015
I do not think that I have made any tremendous contributions to the DAM because I feel like I have not completed any large project that has made any profound and positive impact to the museum. My main contributions are to do rounds and to prototype for future events. Although rounds are always successful, I do not think I have been too successful in prototyping. The process of prototyping is quite fun because I am able to play or experiment with a variety of art supplies – which is an artist’s dream – but I often feel like I do not know how to create an activity that a range of ages could do or the activity that I do create is not up to the creative bar. Although, everyone is open to any and all ideas, the expectations that I have heard from museum visitors just makes me wonder if the activity will actually please them or will they see it as generic and predictable? I know I sometimes I overthink things and maybe this is one of those cases where overthinking is bad but I just want to meet the expectations of my mentors, co-workers, and most importantly the visitors. However, I think after a few more weeks or after viewing more activities, I will be able to have better definitions of expectations, predictability, and how the activity should look. So I am neither proud nor unhappy about my contributions to the DAM. I just feel that I should take more initiative in prototyping for future events so that I feel more useful to my department.
Blog Post # 5 I March 2, 2015
I love my internship! Although it was not exactly what I expected, it is amazing in its own way. When I first did rounds, I thought it would be tedious but these little tasks are surprisingly relaxing and allow me to see the museum through the visitors’ eyes. They also allow me to really explore the museum; every time I do rounds, I see a new engagement activity or a different art piece that I had never really noticed. For example, on the second day that I did rounds, I noticed that the enormous painting on the sixth floor was a family painting but every face was exactly the same – even the grandparents and babies.
When I first started my internship, I was a little fearful about communication with other interns and other museum staff because I am quite timid. However, I soon learned that my fears were futile because everyone at the museum is extremely nice and welcoming. On my first day, I was surprised that the other interns and education facilitators actually knew who I was and knew how to say my name and actually said it correctly. This was because I had assumed that most people did not regard interns as anyone important but in our department, interns are seen as vital or integral to the whole operating system of the museum. Since I have been at the museum for over a month, I think I have been able to form great relationships with my co-workers because we all work together in bettering the museum experience, are all very open-minded about any ideas, and just generally love art.
I think the only thing that I would do in order to improve my experience at the DAM is I would do or would want to do more research projects that our department could use to create more engagement studios or activities because I like to do research in order to fully understand what is occurring around me.
Blog Post # 4 I February 25, 2015
My main contributions to the Denver Art Museum are to do rounds and to prototype. As I said before, rounds are extremely important to the museum, so I usually have to do them twice a day. This is because rounds allow the museum to keep a high standard of interaction with visitors as well as have a high standard of cleanliness. On first free Saturdays or “first frees,” as I like to say, we have to do rounds at least three times a day and we need at least three people doing rounds at a time. On those Saturdays, I am basically doing nothing but doing rounds in the Hamilton building. We have to have three people doing rounds at a time because the museum is too huge for just one person to cover. We also are basically doing rounds all day because there are so many people using the interactive stations that they tend to get very messy after several uses.
The other half of my contributions are to prototype. When I first heard about prototyping, I thought I was going to be a guinea pig for activities, not be the creator and the tester. Prototyping is actually very fun because I am able to use several different types of mediums and even use materials that I have never heard of to create an interactive activity. The only issue I have with prototyping is that I never know whether or not what I create is up to par with the expectations of my superiors and the museum visitors.
Blog Post # 3 I February 19, 2015
One of the most important things that Nate asks of us is to practice mindfulness. He even gave us a card with “mindful” questions so that when we go to our internships we will always have a clear and open mind. So anytime I attend my internship at the Denver Art Museum, I try to practice that mindfulness and have positive actions. Since my main job is to do rounds, I go around the museum and clean up and restock the engagement stations like the postcard station, so that when a museum visitor comes to the station, the station is clean and ready for the museum goer to enjoy. Although, this does not seem like it would affect the museum, it actually does. If you do not hold the museum at a high standard then neither will the museum goers. This allowed me to really understand that any institution or organization is a team effort; not any one person should shoulder all the work. My contribution has been very positive to the museum because I aid in keeping the museum’s prestige and I am also allowed to learn about several different art techniques and classic and contemporary artists from all over the world. Since art is renowned for its relaxed and lively nature, it is no surprise that is incredibly fun to work at the museum. My co-workers make my internship more enjoyable because they are very open and inclusive, which allows me to be more inquisitive and creative. They also always make sure that I am meeting my goals. Any day I come to my internship, they all ask me how I am doing and if I am enjoying my internship, if I have any questions, if I have any new prototyping ideas, etc. The friendly environment that they create makes me very grateful for this opportunity to learn more about my potential artistic future.
Blog Post # 2 I February 2, 2015
After spending my first day at the DAM getting trained, I felt more than ready to begin actually working. This week at the DAM, I got there a little earlier than expected but I was just so excited to begin working. The first thing I had to do was rounds, which allowed me to wander around the museum, appreciating all the wonderful and beautiful museum acquisitions and organize interactive areas. Although this task seems tedious at first, I can appreciate doing it because several museum-goers come to the museum to and want to make post cards or make designs on tapa paper and I would like every goer to enjoy their visit as much as I enjoy working there. However, my favorite activity of the day was finally beginning to prototype. I had previously heard several positive and amusing things about prototyping from Laura, Lindsay, Jodie, and Kim so I could not wait until I could begin working on it. The project, we are currently working on is prototyping for a Create-and-Take in the summer which is based off of wax flowers art made in Latin America. As I began prototyping, I was had no idea on how to begin so I used Pinterest for inspiration. Luckily it worked and I was soon inspired. I began working on melting crayons, die cutting beeswax sheets, and even molding and melting wax from the Laughing Cow cheese.I liked working with the die cuts because they are so precise and organized, so it makes the perfectionist inside me very happy. However, using it was sometimes difficult because the waxes sometimes were too thick to be cut or were so sticky that they remained on the cutting sheet. I only worked on prototyping for about an hour or so but I thought it was incredibly fun and it allowed my creativity to flourish as well as allowing me to aid the museum.
Blog Post # 1 I January 26, 2015
I’ve been going to the Denver Art Museum since I was eight and since then, I have been to the museum approximately over thirty times; however, being behind the scenes of it, opened my eyes to a new side of the museum. As I entered through the orange gates, I mistakenly badged in at the wrong door but was very excited to begin my day. I was greeted by my mentor Kim, a fellow intern, and a facilitator. After settling in, I went up with Kim and Ali, the facilitator, to Fox Games by Sandy Skoglund to set up a “Create-and-Take” box. I thought it was interesting that even though I’ve been to the museum so much I’ve never actually seen nor been a part of any of the family programs. I also learned that each program and project has so much thought behind them and they all have great degrees of innovation and creativity.
After that Kim went over the educational projects that were in my training binder. After discussing them, I was surprised by the amount of programs that involved the community and how important inclusiveness is to the DAM. Some examples are they have several monthly programs for families – not just children, they are trying to make the museum completely bilingual since Denver has such a great Hispanic and Latino population, they try to encourage all types of parenting and learning, they even plan out what brand of colored pencils they use around the museum (they don’t like to use Crayola pencils around the museum because it promotes a kid environment rather than an all-inclusive, creative environment).
The other half of my day was spent with Kim and rounds training. We had spent over two hours walking around both buildings, learning about each station and I was surprised about the amount of learning stations around the museum (there’s nearly one on each floor) and the importance behind each one. As we walked through the halls, Kim pointed out so many “hidden” closets and I thought it was just an interesting part of buildings’ architecture. During my training, Kim also showed me the Prep Room, which is a room filled with all types of arts supplies; it reminded me of a mini Michaels room. Even though I’ve only spent only two days at the DAM so far, and they were only for training, I’m very excited to begin doing rounds, prototyping, and be a part of the education department.
BBTA Intern Work Site 