Monday, June 23, 2014

3) Overcoming Obstacles

It has been a few weeks into my internship and everything has been very enjoyable. For the most part, my experience has been stress-free. Probably the biggest obstacle at first was learning people’s names and where they sit in the gallery.  After delivering mail and running errands for people I have become familiar with mostly everyone I work with. I have learned that it is important to speak up if I have a question or need clarification rather than being shy and not understanding. Oftentimes people assume you know how to do something when may not.  For instance, I was asked to find an artist’s CV, not knowing it stood for Curriculum Vitae (an overview of an artist’s professional history and achievement). Don’t be intimidated to ask for help!

Sometimes, the workload is light and I am not asked anything to do. Rather than waiting for someone to give you something to work on, I have learned to go around asking people if there is anything they need help with. One project of mine was to update the exhibition histories in alphabetical and chronological order, and by gallery location. At first, this seemed overwhelming but as I figured out an approach to organizing the hundreds of shows it actually became quite fun and interesting. I was able to really study up on the history of the gallery as well as it’s artists. Through such obstacles, I have had the opportunity to learn and do so much more with my time at my internship.


Feedback from one of my employers: “You take the initiative to do projects and also to do projects that are not even given to you (i.e. organizing the storage closet without us having to ask!)  You are super enjoyable to be around.  You're enthusiastic to help and learn.  You're always researching art when there is downtime.  You even stayed late for the Akris event AND came in to work on a day when you did not have to be here.”  I am flattered and equally happy to be here.

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