Interns interviews – Museum Career Internship Program

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.

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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.

rebecca afam photos-86 — “I am very engaged in this internship because I get a real feeling, knowledge, and experience in how the museum works.” —Sayquan Prescott

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.

**“working in this department it is interesting and enjoyable to learn different stuff relative to money and donors. I can get more experience to interact with different people and** **work** **evaluating surveys.”—Saki Nakanishi**

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.

**“Working in the Library and Archives I’m able to get more information about artworks and how both departments work–it is very important to me.”—Kyle Castro**

Photos by Miguel Medina and Natalie Beall

By Miguel Medina

I interviewed Chris Sanchez Suarez. He is working in the Public Programs department with Theresa Rodewald, who is the Adult Public Programs Coordinator. He is working with the new exhibition that The American Folk Art Museum is going to have called Made in New York City: The Business of Folk Art (March 19, 2019- July 28, 2019) Made in New York City: The Business of Folk Art. He is responsible for reading some books about the history of folk art in New York, the curatorial statement, and the checklist for the exhibition. After he finishes reading, he will write articles about what he thinks of what he read and send these articles to Theresa. He will help Theresa develop some public programs that will assist people of different ages. In these public programs, he will help the audience by explaining these programs, passing the microphone, papers, and answering questions. Also, he will promote and share what these programs are about with other people, and he will find out different ways to present and engage with more people in these programs. As we know, each human being is different and we have different ways to learn or be interested in public programs. When these programs are finished Chris will read the surveys to learn what the audience thinks of these programs and what positive changes to do for the future.

“I love it because it is nice talking and working with people of different ages and I really enjoy reading [so] much stuff.”—Chris Sanchez

Tyrese Henry is working in the Education department with Rachel Rosen who is the Director of Education. He will help with different ideas to improve workshops, educational programs that will assist people of different ages, and family programs. Also, he will create three family programs for the upcoming exhibition at the main museum, Made in New York City: The Business of Folk Art. In these educational programs, he helps the audience by explaining these programs, some artworks, passing colored pencils, sheets and answering any questions.

“I have a lot of freedom to explore my own ideas of how to educate people and how these educational programs work. It is fun and informative to interact with people of different ages at the museum and seems their passions for the art world.”—Tyrese Henry

Family programs

Children programs

Adrien Bryant is working in the Collections department with Ann-Marie Reilly who is the Director of Collections and Exhibition Production and Judy Steinberg who is the Collection and Exhibition Manager. This department includes the warehouse or storehouse of the museum, where are all the artworks are saved and preserved. Every day she is doing something different– on spreadsheet days where she works on compiling information on previous, current or upcoming exhibitions. Other days she assists with pulling pieces of art for new exhibitions and loans (when the museum lends works of art to other museums for exhibition), photography of artwork or condition report. She has to be very careful when she moves the works of arts so as not to damage them or make them fall.

IMG_20190415_195626_583 — “I love this department, it is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done. I get to absorb all this knowledge and experience around me. Being able to work in the art field and be around people who share similar passions as I do is amazing. It is a game changer.”—Adrien Bryant

Kristin Townsend is working in the Curatorial department with Steffi Ibis Duarte who is Assistant Curator and Stacy Hollander who is the Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, Chief Curator, and Director of Exhibitions She is working on the new exhibition in the Self-Taught Genius Gallery called “New York Experienced.” Before the installation of the exhibition, she helped to measure and to think about where the works of art looked best. In addition, she added information about the artworks on the curators’ computer program, TMS (The Museum System) and is learning how it works. When the curators are going to have a new exhibition, Kristin is able to observe the process. How do they think of a topic and title? artworks will they include, and will they borrow some from other museums? Also, she helped Stacy with the wall text for “Made in New York City: The Business of Folk Art” as researching and paragraph phrase some information. She working on an interpretive text for Steffi on Ralph Fasanella’s Pie in the Sky. She has been researching him and his background because the library has a lot of information about him. In addition, she is helping with some field trips for visitors to the gallery, she tries to be available to answer any questions they have about the work. For group tours, she tried to give them a more in-depth talk on the backgrounds of the artists and shed some light on why they make the art that they make

Photos by Miguel Medina and Natalie Beall

Photos by Miguel Medina, Adrien Bryant, and Kristin Townsend