As someone who is hoping to pursue a career in the art industry, working as an Exhibitions Intern at the Bates College Museum of Art has given me exposure to the process and challenges of putting on an exhibit as I have learned about the inside workings of acquiring and exhibiting art.

Over the past few weeks I (along with three other interns) have been working on the upcoming Barbara Morris Goodbody Collection which features photography. My main task is to research and write exhibition catalog entries about each of the artists which has been a challenging yet rewarding process. Challenging due to the difficulty I have been faced with in finding information about some underground artists, yet rewarding as I have learned so much about photography by studying artists and analyzing their work.

After I complete my research on an artist and their upcoming exhibited piece of art, I then compose two short paragraphs in order to illuminate readers about the context of the artwork they are looking at. Depending on the artist and their work, the information I decide to write about varies. The main things I take into consideration when writing my exhibition catalog entries include artist/object information, visual descriptions, art history, current art issues, artist/viewer perception, and interpretation. By writing about these different disciples I am able to cater my entries to the artist/artwork’s strengths as well as ensure that my writing has variety in regards to what I talk about.

Aside from the work I have done discussed above, I have also had the opportunity to intimately interact with the current exhibition featuring Lesley Dill and the works of art in storage. In fact on my first day interning at the museum, when we were learning how to carefully handle artwork, I was lucky enough to hold a Mary Cassatt and Albrecht Durer print! However, the most valuable aspect of the internship so far has been working under the tutelage of Anthony Shostak and Dan Mills. Both are extremely knowledgeable and passionate about what they do which inspires me to keep doing what I love (in terms of my passion for the arts) in hopes that I too can one day work in a museum setting.