PERKS OF WORKING AT AIC

So, I'm not sure if it has been quite stressed enough - but I LOVE THIS JOB. In addition to seeing amazing works of art all day, every day - having a back stage pass to the museum is almost worth more than the art itself, metaphorically speaking that is...

Over the course of the last four weeks, we have had regularly scheduled museum practices seminars in which different departments have come to us, as well as welcomed us into their spaces letting us quite honestly pick their brains on the ins, outs, ups, and downs of working at this institution. So far we have met with

• Mark Pascale, curator of Prints and Drawings, 
• Bob Eskridge, Executive Director of Museum Education
• Public Affairs and Marketing
• Development
• The Teens and Library Program
• Kate Bussard and Liz Siegel, curators of Photography
• Conservation

and that's only the beginning - we have yet to meet with Contemporary Art, Security, Art Packing, and the director of the museum Jim Cuno himself!!! In case you can't tell - I really, really, really like the Museum Practices Seminars. Don't get me wrong, touring has been an absolute blast, so has the research, but understanding how the museum functions is completely fascinating.

Some highlights of our meetings have included:

- Telling PR/Marketing about our twitter and having them in return give our twitter unbelievable press.
- Seeing some of the amazing creative work done by the high school interns through the program After School Matters.
- Going into the refrigerated rooms in photography with the curators (I SAW A BOX OF CINDY SHERMAN'S AND ALMOST CRIED) - they store the black and white photographs at about 60 degrees fahrenheit, and the color photographs at 40.
- Jen receiving a copy of the book published from the Victorian Photocollage Exhibition, because she loved it and Liz Siegel curated it.
- Having Mark Pascale pull out two different editions of rare Toulouse Lautrec posters, a Degas pastel drawing, Bruce Nauman color screenprints, a Charles Ray marker drawing, a Miro print - and we have been invited to come back and have prints pulled out for us (I know I want to see some Warhol!!).

Toulouse-Lautrec, Aristide Bruant in His Cabaret, 1893

Edgar Degas, Landscape with Smokestacks, 1890

Bruce Nauman, Study for Holograms, 1970

Charles Ray, Untitled, 2003

- Getting a private walk/talk from Mark Pascale at the See America First Exhibition.

- Seeing Manet's Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers both on the wall and up close and personal in restoration mode at Conservation.

Edouard Manet, Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers, 1865

- Seeing the lovely Chagall Windows being cleaned in preparation for their return to display this coming fall!! 

Marc Chagall, America Windows, 1977

- Getting several different scientific and historical private consultations on works being cleaned, restored, and prepared by preparators in Conservation.

And we still haven't seen it all! We also had the opportunity to attend a Town Hall meeting in the Fullerton Auditorium, which was totally and completely AWESOME. Basically, representatives from various departments present to other employees updates, ideas, new exhibitions, and marketing campaigns. It was really, really, really cool.

What I'm trying to say is - the behind the scenes aspects of AIC are just as fascinating and interesting at the works in the galleries. Learning day by day all that goes into the functionality of the museum is one of the major perks of interning here, and for that I and the other interns are completely grateful! 

Best Intern Duo Part II

David recently published a blog entry about how he and I make the best intern pair ever, which at this point I have to agree with. We both think well on our toes, have great senses of humor, and love talking about art with anyone who will listen.

Oh and we accidentally wore the same exact outfit to work today.

Call it fate, or maybe just a real appreciation for salmon colored bottoms - we were all very surprised and mortified to walk into the docent room and realize that we have been spending a little too much time together...

Tales from the "Plus One"

The "Plus One" is finally coming out of the woodwork and onto the blog! I know I've been a little slow on this, but am excited to finally write an entry! To clarify, I'm a little separate from the other interns - I'm here as the guinea pig (or "Plus One") for a budding partnership with Randolph College, and are doing other projects in addition to giving tours.

While my "home" is in Teacher Programs, I've gotten a taste of all divisions of the department. I was trained with the other interns (the whirl-wind two-week department overview!), but have been doing various projects and workshops. One thing I've been doing a lot of is working the Artist's Studio with Family Programs, which is fun. It's so interesting to observe parents work with their children on art projects. Some just sit there and read, or get on their phone. Others help their children and make suggestions. Some try to make the project for them, or tell them how to create it. Others make one themselves, and get REALLY into it. My favorite though, are the adults who come in and are pleasantly surprised by the project. I introduced the activity to a group the other night, and told the adults with the children they could make one too. One woman in particular denied pretty firmly that she would participate ("oh, I'll just let them have fun"), but at the end of the night they were one of the last tables still working. I went over to tell them it was getting time to clean up, and the same woman looked up at me (surprised that the time had gone by so quickly, I think) and said exasperately, "Creativity takes time!" Why yes, yes it does.

Another program I've participated in recently was the Digital Storytelling workshop with Teacher Programs. This was tons of fun - I went up into the galleries with them the first day, and listened to some of their insights on contemporary pieces. It was good to hear some new voice, and since many of them were art teachers they weren't afraid to approach (at least not that I could tell). I also helped to answer technological questions when they were creating their own Digital Stories. (as a side note: if any future interns are reading this I hope you have some experience on a Mac; if not get some ASAP). Surprisingly it took a good deal of time, as many had never used a Mac computer before so that was a challenge. Nonetheless, it was rewarding to see how creative and nicely done their own digital stories were, especially for only having a few hours to work on (and some had never used the programs!).

One similarity I have with the other interns is that I'm also giving tours. I've given a total of 2 (one student, one adult) with two more of the same type to go! As I've only given two, I'm not sure which audience I like better (I should probably have a bit more experience before I judge that), but my adult tour today went pretty smoothly. The tour was on Asian Art, something that I have no formal training or background in. Yikes! Luckily, the audience was very engaged and made my job pretty easy. Annie was also a great support, and I learned a lot just from watching her interact with the audience.

Next week, amidst all the craziness (another teacher program and more on-going projects), I also have an ABCs tour with little kids with Kate. I am SO EXCITED! After hearing all the other interns talk about how adorable the younger crowd is, I can't wait to see for myself!

Best. Intern Pair. Ever.

Over past few weeks the more Sandy and I gave tours the more we realized that we were not only the coolest intern pair ever, but that we also had a lot in common. Behold the similarities:

Royal Lineage

Sandy and I have both descended from a long line of Chicago High School Kings and Queens. Sandy was voted Prom Queen and unsurprisingly lists this major accomplishment on her resume. I believe this is what separated her from other applicants during the interview process and the main reason she was able to land this internship. I was voted Prom King when I was in high school. Coincidence? Don’t think so. The AIC knows all.

We are both Mexican*

* I am 31/32nds Mexican. Sandy is 1/4 Mexican. Together we make nearly 1 and ¼ Mexicans.

We both love bagels.

Plain bagels, raisin bagels, everything bagels, onion bagels, cheese bagels, cinnamon bagels, plain bagels, shrimp bagels, shrimp stew, shrimp and rice, bagels with chives, bagels with cream cheese, bagel sandwiches, You name it, we love it.

We both love fashion.

Cool kicks, shades, hats, shirts, the list goes on and on.

We both love animals.

We love them as pets, we love eating them, we love wearing them, we love talking about them in art...

But most importantly, we both love art.

We love to create it, study it, and share our love for it with others. That's the main reason why all of the interns are able to work so well with each other and why look forward to coming in to work everyday. The last three weeks have featured a great run of touring in pairs with students of all shapes and sizes, from the littlest and most adorable 4 years olds to the slightly more “intimidating” middle schoolers. But next week that will all come to end as we will both be sent off into the world to tour on our own. I can already feel the separation anxiety…

From overbearing chaperones to touring solo!

Jen and I had quite the interesting tour this afternoon. Our group consisted of 4th through 8th graders, but a majority of the students were in the 6th to 7th grade range. They were a particularly smart group, but for the first half of the tour, while Jen and I were asking what we thought were interesting and engaging questions, we were met with crickets! They looked interested in what we were saying, but the students seemed intimidated to say anything at all. This was particularly evident when we got to Seurat's Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Not only is this painting one of our most famous pieces, but the teacher/lead chaperone of the group also told us before the tour that the kids were very excited to see the pointilist piece that they had discussed in class.

Jen & I used the same "Technology & Innovation" tour that we blogged about before, and we noticed that the lead chaperone began to hijack our tour towards the end of our discussion of Caillebotte's Paris Street, Rainy Day. We're on a fairly tight 1 hour schedule for student tours, and we normally plan to talk about 6 pieces for about 10 minutes each. When we got to the end of the Caillebotte, and Jen was about to tell the kids to pick up their stools to move on to the Monet painting, the chaperone stepped in with, "I just want to say a few more things about this piece before we move on." My first thought was, "Sure! Why not. Maybe they're learning about something in particular in class." About three minutes later, after a *riveting* discussion of repetitive shapes, we moved on.


When we got to the Seurat piece, all of the kids got excited and took their seats. They sat patiently and listened to Jen talk about Pointilism and innovations in optics during the late 19th century. The students all seemed a bit too intimidated to say much about the piece, even though they had already discussed it in class. I began to notice that the chaperone was looking impatiently at the kids, and leading some of their answers to Jen's questions. Finally, Jen got the kids to open up by talking about the different animals in the painting, namely the monkey on a leash in the front right corner, which a few of the kids had made curious comments about. Toward the end of the discussion, yet again, the chaperone said that she wanted to say a little something. She stood up and asked the kids, "Where does your eye go first when you look at this painting?" One little boy said enthusiastically, "the monkey!" and a few other students nodded. The chaperone then said, "No! Look at the little girl in the white dress. That's where your eye should go first."

Watching this lady tell her students that they were experiencing Seurat's iconic painting incorrectly really upset me. The last thing that we want to do on our tours is tell kids that there is a right and a wrong way to talk about and experience art. Everyone should be allowed to look at things differently, and our discussion of each piece allows the students to listen to each other's different points of view. A little girl next to me turned and whispered in a downtrodden tone, "My eye went to the monkey..." I reassured her (fairly loudly) that everyone sees different things, and that it was perfectly fine that she saw the monkey first. I tried not to belittle the chaperone's comment, so I asked the little girl what she thought about the girl in the painting, and got her to talk a bit about that. The chaperone then proceeded to tell the kids "facts" about the painting that were just plain wrong (ie: "The little girl in the white dress is the only figure painted not in a pointilist style." ...excuse me?). Jen and I looked at each other and mutually understood that we had had enough.

We quickly moved on to the Modern Wing, and discussed the Bonticou and Richter pieces. Since the chaperone didn't seem to know much about either of these objects, she sat back and let the kids talk more. These two pieces, by *far*, were our two most successful pieces of the day. We got the kids to talk about the different materials in the Bonticou, and how its context within the Vietnam and Cold Wars added to its symbolic meaning. We talked about photography and painting in Richter's Woman Descending the Staircase, and got the kids excited about glamorous celebrities and digital photography's role in pop culture today. It's amazing how far these kids pushed these pieces' meanings on their own, without needing much help from the chaperones (or us!).

In these past five weeks, I've learned some valuable lessons. Here are a few of the things that I would like to pass on to future interns about school group tours:

• When you prepare a tour for a group of thirty 5th-8th graders, don't be shocked when a group of forty 3rd-6th graders show up. Flexibility and improvisation are invaluable skills in this job, but they also make it much more fun.
• Be prepared to lengthen or shorten your tour at will. Not only do groups rarely show up on time (sometimes half an hour early, sometimes half an hour late), but you also may end up spending 15 minutes having kids pose as characters from the Seurat painting, and end up with minimal time to spend talking about O'Keefe.
• Note the attention span of the group and go with it. Sometimes kids will think that every word coming out of your mouth is pure gold, and other times, you may as well be speaking Latin. If they look engaged, stick with it. If they look bored, either spice it up or move on.
• When invited to happy hour with the staff....go!
• Make your intern team a collaborative one. I can't tell you how helpful it is to have a group of 7 people to bounce ideas off of!
• Don't let the first two weeks of training scare the crap (and fun) out of you. Touring with real kids (as opposed to your peers and supervisors pretending to be kids) is much less nerve-racking and intense.
  
• Use your lesson plan as a loose guide. Don't be upset if you've created a series of elaborate open ended questions meant to uncover the great ideological mystery behind Hinoki's tree...and you just don't get to it. Adjusting to the types of things that seem to interest the group and making sure that they take something valuable away from it is much more important.

Now that we all have our 2 weeks of training and 3 weeks of partnered touring under our belts, I think that I can speak for all of the interns when I say that we are all equally nervous and excited to start touring solo. It's been pretty nice having a right-hand-(wo)man who can keep track of time, help corral the little ones and, of course, make sure to jot down the ever-entertaining comments from the kids.

Here are some photos of the interns from the past few weeks:

David, Maya, Meghan, Adrienne & I at the Taste of Chicago

Natalie, Sandy & David at lunch in the Lurie Garden

Jen & Maya enjoying lunch in the Lurie Garden

The "lazy river"/"best place to eat lunch ever" in the Lurie Garden.

Maya getting comfy and researching in the docent room

Jen & I hamming it up for the camera

Sandy, Me & Natalie at a Caribou concert @ Pritzker Pavillion