Month: September 2019

Q&A with Traveling Exhibitions Intern Erin

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At International Arts & Artists, we support the development of arts and nonprofit professionals through our internship program which offers hands-on experience under the mentorship of seasoned staff. Students currently enrolled in museum studies and arts programs, as well as in related fields, have the opportunity to contribute to a variety of projects that support the advancement of cross-cultural understanding in the arts, both nationally and internationally.

Meet Erin, Traveling Exhibition Service Intern at IA&A. Erin is currently studying art history at University of Maryland, College Park and has recently curated an exhibition on campus focused on domestic art practices. Keep reading to hear more about Erin's internship experience at IA&A and plans for her future career.

 

How has art impacted your life?

Growing up between Baltimore and Washington, DC, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by art in more ways than one – my parents took me to museums and art festivals relatively often when I was young and many of the people in my family either paint, draw, or sculpt. As a result, I’ve been interested in creating and experiencing art for most of my life. I’ve met a lot of friends either through taking studio classes together or bonding over museum trips, and I think that art has played a major role in shaping my career interests and expanding my world view.

 

Why were you interested in working with us at IA&A?

I was initially drawn to IA&A after visiting your gallery, IA&A at Hillyer, during a DC Art Walk last year. As an art history major with an interest in museum studies, I hope to pursue exhibition development as a career. I thought that the internship opportunity with IA&A’s Traveling Exhibition Service would be a wonderful way to get hands-on experience working with exhibition managers, all while learning more about traveling exhibitions specifically. I also wholeheartedly support IA&A’s philosophy of developing and circulating a diverse range of exhibitions both throughout the US and abroad. I think accessibility to art is incredibly important, and I was deeply interested in supporting an institution that values bringing art from a variety of cultures and time periods to communities around the world.

 

What projects did you work on during the internship? 

I had the opportunity to assist on a variety of projects, including identifying potential exhibition venues for Spirited Things: Sacred Arts of the Black Atlantic, researching themed exhibitions that could be developed for travel, updating exhibition venue and contact databases, and brainstorming ideas for possible anniversary exhibitions that could be developed in the future. In addition to these exhibition-related projects, I also got the chance to work with primary sources relating to IA&A’s Hechinger Collection. One of my favorite aspects of this internship was reading old letters and combing through archived notes written between artists and collector John Hechinger. Using these materials in combination with online research, I was able to update some of the biographies for artists in the collection.

 

What was an important skill you learned during the internship?

Something concrete that I’ll definitely take away from this internship is the ability to navigate large exhibition databases. Learning how to use Access in relation to organizing and researching visual art venues was an invaluable experience, and I’ll be able to transfer this skill to a multitude of art-oriented internships and job opportunities in the future.

 

How will your internship experience at IA&A influence your academic goals or career?

Interning with IA&A this summer has helped solidify my desire to work at a small visual arts-oriented non-profit organization. I’ve always been interested in museum and gallery work, but interning at IA&A has made me appreciate the value of being part of a smaller arts organization, as opposed to a larger institution.

 

What will you be taking with you from this experience?

One of the most important things I’ll be taking away from this internship is an understanding of how much individual time and effort goes into the “behind the scenes” of planning and marketing traveling exhibitions. Before starting at IA&A, I only had experience working with exhibitions that were designed for a specific venue. I knew of traveling exhibitions, but I didn’t have a well-rounded understanding of the differences between planning and executing a one-venue exhibition and one that would travel to multiple locations. Interning at IA&A has made me appreciate how much effort goes into preparing an exhibition “for the road,” whether it be the amount of marketing and outreach, the logistics of shipping and crating, or the work that goes into drafting and editing all of the materials that are associated with each show.

 

What’s next for you after the internship?

Following my internship at IA&A, I’ll be starting my final year as an undergraduate art history major at the University of Maryland, College Park. I’ll be writing my honor’s thesis and serving as the Student Gallery Manager for the University of Maryland’s Stamp Gallery, where I had the opportunity this summer to curate Radical Threads, an exhibition focusing on domestic art practices. I’m also beginning the process of applying for Master’s programs focusing on art history and museum studies, and I’m looking forward to pursuing a career in the museum/gallery sector!

 

What advice would you give to someone interested in interning with a nonprofit organization?

Definitely do your research – familiarize yourself with the overarching goals and philosophy of the organization, look into any permanent collections they hold, and don’t be afraid to ask questions! The easiest way to learn about what to expect from an organization or their internship opportunities is to talk to the people who work there.

Want to intern with IA&A?

#AskaCurator with AMA’s Adriana Ospina

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#AskaCurator Day is an annual social media event that aims to stimulate dialogue between the public and museum curators. This year, we asked Adriana Ospina, Curator of the Permanent Collection at Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC, to share some insights and answer questions about her curatorial process. Adriana is currently working with IA&A’s Traveling Exhibition Service to develop Cultural Encounters, a contemporary exhibition about Asian diasporas in Latin America and the Caribbean, helping us further our mission of promoting cross-cultural understanding in the arts.

Keep reading to learn about Adriana's current projects and how she became a curator.

What inspired you to become a curator?

When I began to work at the AMA | Art Museum of the Americas, I worked very closely with the curator of the permanent collection. I found it fascinating, the way in which she would tell stories about the museum collection. Every exhibition offered a totally new narrative, even ones that included the same pieces. Right then, I realized that I wanted to do similar work. She became my mentor, imparting her knowledge about this trade. A few years after she retired, I formally became the curator of the collection.

Woman speaking to people in museum gallery

 

What is the most memorable exhibition you have curated?

The most memorable exhibition so far is Cultural Encounters: Art of Asian Diasporas in Latin America & The Caribbean, 1945-Present, funded in part by a research and planning grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is a very large-scale project that I have been working on for more than five years. I traveled around Latin America—to five countries—for research, and met in person and by email more than 40 artists, or their families. I have already written more than 50 texts for the project, and during this time had two babies. I can’t wait to see the exhibition realized and installed next year! The exhibition opens in May 2020 at the Morikami Museum in Delray Beach, Florida.

How do you decide which artwork will go on display in an exhibition?

It is a balancing act. There are many aspects to be considered. Once I have the theme of the exhibition, I usually make a large preselection based on the general idea. Then I narrow it, based on the aesthetic that we’re aiming for.

Sometimes, as in the case of Cultural Encounters, the exhibition could include an array of aesthetics that match very well with the overall subject. Other times, I look for a particular feel for the exhibition, or particular media.

I also try to balance established artists with up-and-coming artists, who may be doing great work but haven’t been recognized or exposed as much. One of the most important things is to strive for a balanced gender representation, which we sometimes achieve with greater success than at other times.

If the installation is going to take place at the AMA, and if it features pieces from our collection, I map out the layout in my head, and once we physically place all the artworks into the galleries, I start working with them in the space. Sometimes, right in that space is where I see that some pieces are stronger or weaker than I had believed. So, distribution becomes key in the final selection of the pieces.

If you could work with any artist in the history of art, who would it be?

Manabu Mabe, Solemn Pact, 1980, acrylic and oil on canvas. © OAS AMA | Art Museum of the Americas Collection.

That is a very difficult question; I have many different favorite artists, but I would love to work with one of the artists in Cultural Encounters, who has passed away. His name is Manabu Mabe. He is a Japanese-Brazilian artist whose family I met in São Paulo, when I went there to conduct research for the exhibition. It was fascinating to hear his wife talking about her husband’s work, and how he approached his practice. He arrived in São Paulo with his family at a young age. His family first came to work on a coffee plantation, and later they owned a plantation, but Manabu didn’t want to follow in the family trade and decided to become an artist, developing in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s a deep gestural abstraction, departing from Japanese calligraphy. He also became a great supporter of and guide to many Japanese artists who developed fruitful careers in Brazil. After visiting his studio and meeting his family, I would love to have been able to work with him for a retrospective exhibition. He is an example of a very important and understudied artist.

What project(s) are you currently working on?

I am currently co-curating the next exhibition at AMA, Home + Place: Visual Memory, with Olga Herrera, independent curator and scholar. It’s an exhibition of the work of Dominican artists Iliana Emilia and Scherezade Garcia, opening on September 26, 2019. Another exhibition that I’m co-curating—with Hilary Hatfield, President of Art Collector's Athenaeum—is a dialogue exhibition between DC-based artist Freya Grand and AMA’s permanent collection. I am also co-writing with Olga Herrera a paper on the Bolivian artist Maria Luisa Pacheco for the next College Art Association Conference in February 2020.

IA&A's Traveling Exhibition Service manages over 30 traveling exhibitions each year, with 15 to 20 exhibitions on view at any given time in museums around the world. Since 1995, IA&A has organized over 770 exhibition presentations at museums and cultural institutions in all 50 states and in numerous foreign countries. Collaborating with curators at museums around the world allows IA&A to offer a wide range of exhibitions that align with our mission, meet the needs of museums, and give the public access to diverse art. Thank you to Adriana for sharing her expertise with us!