Art History

Summer 2010 – Madeline Turner

Spider by Louise Bourgeoise

Before this past June, I really had no knowledge of contemporary art. I thought I couldn’t understand it and, therefore, I often chose not to deal with it. However, over the summer I had the amazing opportunity to immerse myself and develop my appreciation for the contemporary art world.  This immersion I speak of took place at the DIA:Beacon in upstate New York. At DIA, I interned for the education department and helped develop a proposal for a revamped tour plan for K-12 students. Our primary goal in creating this new tour was to make sure that we would never lecture the students. The artists exhibited at DIA, which include powerhouses Louise Bourgeoise, Andy Warhol, Michael Heizer, and Donald Judd, have created works that can take on so many different meanings to different viewers, that we decided the best way to let the students view the work was by emphasizing the individual experience. One of my favorite moments at DIA occurred when I was observing a tour for a group of eight year-olds. They just seemed to get it. The kids interacted with, played around, and experimented with works like Fred Sandback’s yarn installations and Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses. This singular experience and my experience at DIA as a whole exposed me to the idea that art is really for anybody as long as he or she has an open mind. This coming fall I will be continuing my work with the museum by guiding tours every Saturday. I am so grateful for not only having had this summer experience, but also for finding a place that will help me continue to grow as a member of the art world.

Summer 2010 – Nicki Stein

The Edward Gorey House exterior

This summer I worked as an intern and docent at the Edward Gorey House, a small museum dedicated to the life and work of the somewhat eccentric, wholly fascinating author and illustrator, Edward Gorey. My love of Gorey’s bizarre, sometimes nonsensical stories and blackly comedic, seemingly anachronistic illustrations, have only been enhanced by the small strange details I’ve learned about his life through docenting and conversing with the directors of the museum. His undying and life long love of cats, his penchant for memorizing his favorite soap operas line by line, as well as his insatiable interest in literature from all corners of the world. I got to know the people who knew Edward in his lifetime as well. The director of the museum, Rick Jones, was a close friend of Edward’s and was actually sitting in the room with him when, in the year 2000, Edward Gorey threw his head back laughing, promptly had a heart attack and passed away.

Working in a small museum environment has been extremely rewarding to me, as I have been able to work so closely with the wonderful people who run the museum, and have such close contact with the artworks as well as with the Gorey enthusiasts who come from all over the world to see the place where he spent so time cross-hatching and inventing story after story. I was even able to aid in organizing the Gorey House’s annual children’s event, “Fantastagorey: A Children’s Day Celebration.” Introducing a new generation of fans to Gorey’s work and legacy was a joy in and of itself.

Ombledrum, The Edward Gorey House Cat

Working in this museum I feel I’ve gained more than just internship experience. I’ve gained close insight into the life of a man whose work I have long admired. It’s not often that one gets to so intimately observe the life and work of a favorite artist. I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work at the Edward Gorey House, which has allowed me to explore the world of museum work while simultaneously exploring the strange universe once inhabited by Edward Gorey himself.

Summer 2010 – Clare Conniff

Clare and the other students with family and friends of the program's director.

My Summer 2010 plans fell into my lap in the form of a mass e-mail from a professor. After quickly filling out some applications and emailing the director of Sinergie, an art restoration program based in the Puglia region of Italy, I found myself spending the month of June in Altamura, a small city near Bari, Italy. I have been interested in art restoration for several years, but I had written it off as something I would have to wait until grad school to do.   Instead, in Altamura I found myself working hands-on with extremely damaged canvases and wooden statues that were 300-400 years old. Tonio, the program director, gave us instructions and demonstrations and then allowed us to not only try the work by ourselves but to do the vast majority of it on our own. In addition to the education in restoration techniques, I and the other students working with the program also found ourselves immersed in the culture of Southern Italy. We stayed in a 40-room villa in the countryside that, although sometimes quiet at night, was a hub of activity. Everyday we encountered Tonio’s friends and family, children and adults taking English courses, and farm workers employed by the villa’s owner who wanted to see our work and interact with us. All in all, I have never had a more productive, educational, and fun summer.

Summer 2010 – Nicolette Cook

During this summer I had two internships, one working with Gwen Spicer, a textile conservator in Delmar, NY and the other working with Hallie Halpern, a painting conservator in East Chatham. With Gwen I was able to work on a late 18th – early 19th Century 13 Star Whiskey Rebellion Flag, a 1863-64 silk flag gifted to the 4th Colored Regiment of the United States from the Colored Ladies of Baltimore, a 1940s handmade satin wedding dress, a 20th C wool coverlet, as well as construct mannequins for settler and Native American replica costumes. With Hallie I assisted her with cleaning and consolidating a large Chinese propaganda oil painting on canvas from the 1960s showing Mao Zedong climbing a hill surrounded by men of the working class. Both internships were interesting, informative and taught me a great deal about how private conservators work.  I will definitely be working with them again in the near future.