Has this experience been a rewarding one for you? Why or why not? How has the reality of the internship matched or contrasted with your expectations? What is the most important learning you did during your internship?
This experience has most certainly been a rewarding one for me. I have met so many interesting people, gained invaluable skills that I can use in the future in both school and the workplace, and had a really interesting and unexpected journey of tasks.
When I first started the internship, I did not expect it to be as dynamic as it was. Each intern at the museum had such a passion for art and the projects they were working on that it inspired me to put that same energy into my projects at the museum. I didn’t expect to make friends that I would like to keep in touch with, or to enjoy arts and crafts so much. A huge part of prototyping activities is engaging in arts and crafts, whether that is in the production of a prototype or its testing. As a kid, I never enjoyed art class or crafts that much, so it was such a pleasure to get to connect with that part of myself while prototyping, and see that not only is making crafts valuable, but it is fun.
The learning that I will take away from this internship involves how to interact with people in a workplace environment, how to get the most out of a “job,” how to manage schedules and workloads, and perhaps most importantly, how to pick something that you really enjoy doing.
In professional communications, you have to be assertive, yet willing to compromise. This also goes hand in hand with getting the most out of a job or career. You have to be willing to dive in to your tasks, but also have to be willing to pull back when necessary because of financial/other constraints.
Managing time and work was a particularly useful piece of learning I will take away from this internship. Though the experience was worth it, it made my schedule infinitely more complicated, forcing me to evaluate every piece of my schedule, with school, activities, and everything else outside my internship, along with the work that had to be done alongside all those things.
However, the most important thing I will take away from this experience is that it is entirely possible to stumble into a job or career that you did not expect to like but ended up being passionate about. You have to keep an open mind. I started this internship because I wanted to get experience in the business of art, but what I got was much more than that. I discovered a passion I never knew I had.
What have you seen or experienced in your internship that has inspired you the most on your own artistic journey? Has this experience changed your artistic ambitions? How?
The most inspirational things that I have witnessed during my internship have always revolved around children and their experiences with art. I love hearing kids say things like “This is the best museum!!” or “Best day ever!” Art museums sometimes have the stereotype of being boring, and exclusively for academics and adults. This is simply not the case. Anyone can connect with art if they are given the right opportunities that are thoughtfully prepared with the ultimate intent of engaging them in art.
It has shown me that art is most valuable when people of all ages and backgrounds are truly connecting with it, and this new insight has most definitely changed my artistic ambitions.
Since starting the internship, I have had a few new opportunities to create films, alongside the film about the museum that I am completing for my internship project. In my process of working on the film about my division of the museum, my eyes have been opened to the incredible impact of art. I am more excited than ever to create films pertaining to art and its profound effect on individuals and communities.
I may even want to pursue an art career on the institutional level, such as a career at a place like the Denver Art Museum. There is a culture of pride among artists who avoid institutions, but at a place like the Art Museum, amazing things can be done simply because of the increase of resources that are available to artists and people in my department who create activities based on art. I’ve had a lot of fun and learned a lot as I completed various prototypes of the bingo board, and it is something that I could potentially see myself doing in the future. I had never thought of working at a museum as a creative career, but now I have seen first hand how many opportunities for creation there are.
How is your internship project going? Describe the progress of your project. How did the conversation about your project go with your sponsor? (If you haven’t discussed the project with your sponsor yet, how do you plan to do so?) Did they have good insights into how to improve or expand the project? How does your project bridge what you do at your internship and what you like to create for yourself? Has your relationship with your sponsor evolved as you have engaged in a creative dialogue about your project? Are there any challenges you are experiencing planning or doing your project?
My internship project is moving along at a slow yet steady pace. So far I have taken a variety of b-roll footage from First Free Saturday, and at the moment I am sorting through it, deciding next steps. I know that I need to conduct some interviews with some interns and Meagan, so I am also in the process of constructing interview questions that will evoke the story I want to tell.
I did talk about my project with Meagan and it went quite well. She thinks she can even use it to promote her program, which will be a useful thing that I leave for the museum to have and use, a legacy of sorts. So far, she hasn’t suggested expansion of the project, and believes that I am on the right track. However, I am sure she will have some useful feedback that I can utilize to improve the film as soon as I have more to show her.
The project is a perfect way to connect my work at the museum with my personal creative interests. I love filmmaking and finding stories to be told. Telling the story of the impact of my program bridges that love of storytelling with the work that I do to help the program run. However, I don’t really engage in creative dialogue with my sponsor. This is because my sponsor is not an artist in the sense that I am. In its own right, designing activities for families based on art is art, but it’s not my art.
The challenges I am experiencing have to do with scheduling. I have a very busy schedule myself, and I’m glad I had time to get some b-roll, but I anticipate that it will be a challenge to find time to get interviews done, especially since all the people at the museum have intense schedules. Then, it will be a challenge to find time to edit it, but I will be committed to putting together some sort of product by May.
I am learning a lot from this project and hope to leave an impact at the museum.
What is the difference between working on personal art projects and working in a creative business? What have you learned about working in a creative business?
Personal art projects involve personal commitment. They are about doing art for the sake of art and there is no particular goal besides personal satisfaction of completion of the project. With a creative business, it’s not about art-making all the time. It’s about logistics, collaboration, and most of all, MONEY!
I’m not saying that’s the goal of a creative business. Here at DAM, I have observed that the entire staff realizes the purpose of the museum: to help all kinds of people connect with art. Money is definitely not the motivator. However, it plays a huge role in planning projects for the museum. Where will we get the materials? How much will it cost to get the materials and to use them long term?
After working on the birthday party bingo board for a few weeks, it is now time to put together a budget for the entire birthday party, which includes what it will cost to make the bingo cards, and what it will cost to run a puzzle activity in which the kids will draw on blank puzzles, drawing inspiration from contemporary art. The key when thinking about materials and execution is maximizing function, educational value, and aesthetic, while simultaneously minimizing cost.
I would love for my bingo board to be professionally made based on my prototype: with a sturdy body, tactile squares, and a built in method for “marking off” squares (bingo sliders). However, it will likely come down to cost, which is why I have to present alternative methods of executing the building of the boards. This differs heavily from personal art projects, because were I doing something like this on my own, I wouldn’t have to worry about alternatives or how much it would cost to produce X number of bingo boards.
The bottom line is, money talks no matter what kind of business you’re in. This is a valuable lesson to learn now as I move into the work world. Aim for your vision, but don’t feel discouraged if you have to scale it down because of a budget.
How do people at work treat you? How does it make you feel? If you have an intern one day will you treat them the same? What have you learned so far from your co-workers and sponsor?
I have been pleasantly surprised to find that I am mostly treated by other museum employees as an equal, rather than a subordinate. My sponsor, for example, has been treating me as a thought partner on the bingo board project, recognizing that in the realm of creative projects my contributions are just as valuable as anyone else’s. In short, I am evaluated based on my ideas and not my status. Honestly, this is an amazing feeling, slightly unexpected too.
If one day I have an intern, I believe I would treat them the same. I would want them to feel like a valued member of the team, and like their ideas are significant to me and the rest of the employees.
I’ve learned so much so far from the people in my internship, both other interns in the crop of spring interns, and my sponsor. I’ve learned about the value of teamwork and what amazing things it can accomplish. In all my years of public schooling, I have seldom worked on a team project where I felt that all of the members of the team were assets and that the work was being split fairly. The team of interns is certainly the best team I have ever worked on. It is a group of highly competent people who work incredibly hard. The work is shared extremely fairly and we bounce our ideas off of each other as they get better and better. From my sponsor, I’ve learned how to communicate professionally and be in a creative meeting, or any meeting for that matter. These are certainly skills I can take with me into my adult life.
Ultimately, I feel valuable to the museum, and I also feel like my experience at the museum is proving incredibly valuable to me.
How do you feel like your internship is going so far? What are the highlights and the “lowlights”? Do you feel like you are making connections with your co-workers? What can you do to improve your experience?
Thus far, my internship has been an incredibly educational experience. Every day is an opportunity for learning, whether that means learning how to communicate with new professionals I meet or learning how to offer and receive feedback on projects.
The main highlight has definitely been working on the bingo card for birthday parties at the museum. For one, it has allowed me to be creative and learn more about contemporary art and the concepts that it typically contains, which has been fascinating. Secondly, it has allowed me to work closer with Dejon, a delightful great grandmother who tells stories of her grandchildren and her days as an art dealer. Her insights she shares from experiences with her grandchildren can be wonderfully applied to the activities we design for younger children. Last of all, this project has made me feel successful. Meagan and I met last week about the project and she loves my ideas and wants me to make a more concrete prototype for it, move it out of the conceptual stage and allow an actual product to materialize.
The one lowlight would have to be doing prep work. It’s hard work, monotonous and repetitive at times, even though it is essential to keep our program running smoothly. Even so, I don’t mind it a whole lot because usually I do prep work on volunteer Wednesdays, which is a fantastic time to meet and chat with people who do incredible amounts of work for no personal benefit, simply because they believe in the museum and what it does.
To improve my experience, I could take out more time for creative projects, as that is the most enjoyable aspect of the internship. However, the other duties are vital to Family and Community programming, and I am striking a healthy balance between jobs I have to do and jobs I want to do. I can’t wait to move forward with my current creative project and move on to the next one, hopefully leaving some sort of legacy at the museum.
What are you responsible for at your workplace? What do you think is your main contribution to your work site? What do your day to day duties look like?
At my workplace I am responsible for making sure materials are prepped for all the activities in the gallery spaces, maintaining these activity spaces, and working collaboratively on creative projects that I pursue and that I am assigned. Of course, as there is a team of interns, we all share these responsibilities fairly equally, and we work together on a lot of this. A typical day at my internship goes something like this. I walk down the stairs of the entrance on Bannock, scan my badge at the door, and say hello to the security guard on my way in. I then check in with the other interns to see what needs to get done and what everyone is working on at the moment. If it is Wednesday, that usually means we are doing prep work, which involves a fair amount of cutting paper and sharpening pencils or putting together craft kits for children. If it is Thursday, afternoon rounds usually need to get done, which means walking throughout the entire museum, replacing materials in the activity spaces and tidying them up. This gives me a chance to chat with gallery hosts about what went on in the museum that day. After rounds, I sharpen all the dull colored pencils that I collected. Next, when all prep work and rounds are handled, I have some time to work on creative projects. Right now, I’m working on a bingo card inspired by our contemporary gallery, for use at kids’ birthday parties at the DAM. My main contribution along with new ideas for this project is just a positive attitude and a willingness to be helpful and get things done that need to be done.
How do your actions affect your workplace? Do you contribute positively? How do your co-workers actions affect your internship? Which co-workers are you connecting with?
I believe that the actions in my workplace contribute to a comfortable, well-functioning environment. I am always asking what needs to be done or how I can help someone with another task. When there is not a group task I need to be working on, I now work on my creative project, which contributes to an over all environment of productivity. My co-workers are all incredibly productive, and we work well as a team. They are always helpful when I have a question, and the new interns in particular all work together very well to figure out things that we don’t already know and come up with good ideas together. I am connecting with Dejon, an intern who is a lot older and wiser than me. She used to be an art dealer and work in galleries. Now that she is retired, she is doing the internship as more of a hobby, and a way to continue contributing in the art world. I learn a lot from her about her perspective about art and art around the world as she is incredibly well traveled. The people I am making connections with and meeting are only enhancing my internship. I have been given the opportunity to meet new people and gain new knowledge from people who have interesting backgrounds in art. I can learn a lot from my responsibilities in the workplace, but even more from the people that I am surrounded by. I hope to continue making positive contributions and build more connections with the people around me.
What was the best thing that happened this week at your internship? How did it make you feel? What else makes you excited about your internship?
The best thing that happened this week at my internship was volunteer Wednesday. On one Wednesday a month, volunteers come and help the interns with prep work. They work like machines! It was so interesting to learn the background of all the volunteers and what brought each of them to volunteer at the museum. It is also wonderful to see people that in some form or another have an appreciation for art so deep that they would give so much of their time to cutting out paper or putting together goody bags for kids. One woman had been volunteering at the museum for 25 years! Listening to them talk about art and different exhibits they had seen also got me excited about learning more about the art that’s around me all the time in the museum. The volunteers coming also meant less stress for the interns. I am super excited to start working on the more creative side of things at this internship: coming up with ideas for activities for the kids, etc. I’m starting to have ideas about what project I will be doing for BBTA, and what things I might be working on for projects at the museum. Doing prep work for the activities and doing maintenance on the activity sites throughout the museum has been a great way to learn about how it all works and see first hand how the families interact with spaces in the museum. That being said, I’m excited to move on to more creative aspects of the internship.
What did you learn from your first week at your internship? Did anything surprise you? Who did you meet and what do they do? Did you engage in any code switching?
The first couple weeks at my internship was a lot of me getting to know my duties and how to get around the museum. The interns do a lot of upkeep of the activities for kids, and this involves knowing what activities are on each floor and where they are located. There has been a significant amount of me wandering around looking for these places, talking to gallery hosts, just trying to get acquainted with where everything is. I was surprised at how much freedom is given to the interns. We are expected to find out what needs to be done and make sure it gets done, yet we are not kept to a strict schedule, so this allows for a lot of exploration, interaction with other employees, and self-motivated work. I’ve met security guards, gallery hosts, other interns, and administrative people that are higher up. I’ve learned that everyone’s role is important, and that even though the museum seems like a big place to work with too many employees to ever get to know all of them, you learn people’s names quickly. The badge with the green lanyard is an invitation to say hi and have a conversation, or ask for help, even if you don’t know the person’s name yet. The other interns work together and talk about their own passions in different areas of art and it’s interesting to see what happens when we put our heads together. I cannot say that I have code-switched unless interacting in a professional manner with my sponsor. Interactions with other interns are generally casual. Over all, these first couple weeks at the internship have been a great learning experience already.