On a sweltering summer afternoon, Erin Hoey ’16 and Abigail Rodriguez ’16 painstakingly work to conserve a vital piece of Scripps College history: the pond and fountain in Seal Court.
The art conservation majors remove and polish the tiny mosaic tiles covering the fountain’s walls, patiently buffing and cleaning the colorful pieces one by one while a white tent offers protection from the sun.
“We’re conserving this for future generations of Scripps students,” said Hoey, a Wilson summer intern at the Scripps College Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery. “This is my first time actually conserving art, and I like the hands-on experience.”
With hundreds of competing applicants from college campuses across the country, landing a paid art internship at the gallery is a coup, and the gallery’s six summer interns plan to make the most of the experience. They’ll learn about career opportunities in the art world by networking with established artists, conserving art pieces on campus by hand, and helping gallery staff prepare for upcoming exhibitions.
The summer internship program provides access to a wealth of unique work-based learning experiences. For the past 22 years, the gallery has worked closely with The Getty Foundation to offer the Multicultural Undergraduate Internships Program to three highly-qualified college students; according to Getty guidelines, these internships are “intended for members of groups underrepresented in the professions related to museums and the visual arts, particularly individuals of African American, Asian, Latino-Hispanic, and Pacific Islander descent.” Winning candidates can either research works of art and write about them for publication or conserve pieces of art; they also assist in creating an exhibition by actively participating in the process from curation to installation. This summer, the gallery is pleased to welcome Abigail Rodriguez ’16, Kahea Kanuha PZ ’14, and Sunny Zheng, a junior at Haverford College, as its 2014 Getty interns.
Through the generosity of alumna Jane Hurley Wilson ’64 and Michael Wilson, the gallery provides two additional on-site internships to Scripps students. The Wilson internship, also in its 22nd year, exposes its recipients to experiences in the fields of arts administration and art conservation; this year, the summer interns are Eliza Lewis ’17 and Erin Hoey ’16.
Students may also apply for a Mellon Undergraduate Research Fellowship to pursue a specific research project. This year’s Mellon Fellow, Taylor Carr-Howard ’17, is writing about the photographs in the gallery’s permanent collection in preparation for a future exhibition at the Clark Humanities Museum.
Scripps encourages students to pursue internships to explore fields of interest, gain career-related experience, and apply classroom instruction to real-world situations. In 2014, 86 percent of the Scripps graduating class completed an internship as an undergraduate.
About the Interns
Taylor Carr-Howard ’17
Mellon Undergraduate Research Fellow
As a Mellon Undergraduate Research Fellow, Carr-Howard has been sorting through 40 cardboard boxes brimming with the personal and professional writings of 20th-century American photographer Dody Weston Thompson. Carr-Howard has read articles written by Weston Thompson, as well as handwritten letters and old exhibition brochures. The archives were recently donated to Scripps College by the Thompson Family Trust, made possible in part by Michael and C. Jane Hurley Wilson ’64.
“As an art history major and a photography enthusiast, researching the life and work of Dody Weston Thompson and her photographs sounded like a perfect opportunity,” says Carr-Howard, an art history major from Kansas City, Mo. “I have learned a tremendous amount in the past few weeks. Through the field trips we’ve taken, the articles we’ve read as a group, and the people we’ve met, I’ve gained perspective on the different jobs in the arts.”
Erin Hoey ’16
Wilson Intern in Arts Administration and Art Conservation
Wilson intern Erin Hoey ’16 has been busy with several campus art conservation projects. Hoey and Getty intern Abigail Rodriguez have traveled to Hollywood to work in the studio of object conservator Donna Williams, who is showing them how to remove layers of over paint on the Romeo and Juliet bas-relief by sculptor John Gregory. The bas-relief normally hangs in Sycamore Court.
“This will help me get more internships at bigger institutions,” says Hoey, an art conservation major from Los Altos Hills, Calif.
Eliza Lewis ’17
Wilson Intern in Arts Administration and Art Conservation
Eliza Lewis ‘17, a Wilson intern in arts administration, has kept busy writing wall texts for upcoming gallery exhibitions, as well as helping the staff install gallery pieces and cataloging archival resources. For now, Lewis has not declared a major, but the internship has encouraged her to consider art history.
“Seeing people – some close to my age – pursuing a career in the arts has motivated me to start thinking about what I want to do,” says Lewis, who is from Andover, Mass. “Throughout this internship, I have seen a lot of art in museums and the everyday world, and I have noticed I think more critically about why I see something in a certain way.”
Abigail Rodriguez ’16
Getty Multicultural Undergraduate Intern
Getty intern Abigail Rodriguez ’16 and Hoey are cleaning and waxing the bronze fawn figure in Stewart Garden and cleaning the sea lions in the fountain in Seal Court, as they work with object conservator Donna Williams. They are also assisting Scripps artist and alumna Victoria Henshaw Sheldon ’79 in repairing the fountain’s mosaic tiles.
“This experience has been invaluable, as I have worked alongside a professional while learning contemporary methods in art conservation,” says Rodriguez, an art conservation major and chemistry/anthropology minor from Fresno, Calif.