The Experiences of the interns in the Different Departments at the American Folk Art Museum

By Miguel Medina

The American Folk Art Museum has different departments, and one of those departments is Marketing and Communications. The Communications department is responsible for communicating and providing information about all new events, programs, and exhibitions to members, the audience, and associates of the museum. Marketing is about promoting and selling some products such as tickets to exhibitions and programs. Nowadays, social media has a lot of influence on how we learn about information in the political, economic, and educational fields. 

Today, I interviewed some of the interns, and my first interviewee was Sayquan Prescott. He is working in Social Media and Communications area with Kate Merlino, who is the Director of Communications and Marketing. he is also working with Cristina Marcelo, who is the Social Media Associate. Sayquan is going to have different projects, but he is currently learning new vocabulary and a professional way to use Social Media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as publishing information to support the museum and make it more popular. Social media is a good tool for posting information about what is going on in the museum at it’s our two locations. 

My second interviewee was Saki Nakanishi is working in the Development department with Riham Majeed who is the Development and Membership Associate. She has to add donors’ information in The Raiser’s Edge program. Only people who work in the development department have access to this program because it holds the personal information of many people such as donors, members, and the museum audience. to keep The purpose of Raiser’s Edge is to communicate, update information and send museum supporters letters about what is going on in the museum. She also has to read surveys of members and future members at the main museum and add their personal information too.

Kyle Castro, who is working in the Archives and Library area with Andreane Balconi, who is the Digital Asset Manager, and Louise Masarof, who is the librarian. In the archives, Kyle has to make photocopies of artworks and put them in a specific place. Also, he has to label some paper and rights of archives of artworks and assign an inventory date. He uses a website to describe the artworks and upload the copyrights of some artworks. Also, he has to update information in the museum’s library website and, in the library room, he has to label books and magazines, and place them in order on the shelves.  

Photos by Miguel Medina and Natalie Beall