This week by Kimberly

week seven / July 27

When we interviewed for this internship I remember hearing comments from Robin about how incredibly busy we would be. I also remember thinking I have a child and I just finish graduate school, could I really be busier than that. Well, one MIGHT have much bigger demands of their time. That is the truth. To prove it, I am publishing my calendar this week.

Monday July 27:

8:15 – Arrive at work early. Today Monica H. and I ran a Cy Twombly based project for the Intergenerational program.  It was a good group and they accepted working on an art project without a table in stride.

10:00 to 11:00 – Art from Many Places tour with 6th through 8th graders. Note: this was the most challenging tour group I’ve had and Robin followed me for an evaluation. In addition, the group was 30 minutes late and I had to chop half of my tour

1:00 to 5:00 – Begin planning for hour long adult tour with Becca next Monday. Practice Art from Many Places for tomorrow. Probably need to select some new objects to talk about. Finish planning and researching for ABC’s animal tour on Wednesday.

Tuesday July 28:

10:oo to 11:00 – Art from Many Places tour. Bonus! I was able to share this tour with Monica H. Collaboration is good

1:00 – Evaluation with Annie.  We had a half hour chat about the internship.  This experience has been impressive.  I can’t believe the things we have accomplished in a short time.  It is incredibly well organized.  Honestly, I can’t believe how much they trust us just to go learn through experience.

2:00 – Social with interns from photography as well as prints and drawings.  I got a luscious mango smoothie kind of thing.  Soak up the sunshine, chill for an hour, next.

3:30 – Museum practices seminar with Conservation.  Conservation is amazing!  Funny story, this morning a couple of us went to Van Gogh’s bedroom with our tour group only to find a blank spot on the wall.  What do you think the first thing we saw was?  Yep, Van Gogh’s bedroom.

Evening task: finish and practice ABC’s Animals in Art tour.  Work on Art in the Garden if time permits.

Wednesday July 29

10:00 to 10:45 – ABC’s animals tour.  This group ended up being much smaller than was planned.  Becca and I got to do the tour together.  Again, yippee.

11:00 – Locate all artworks for Art in the Garden tour tomorrow.

1:00 – Work on Art in the Garden for tomorrow

2:30 to 4:30 – Museum practices seminar with Contemporary Art.  This was incredible.  I think getting a walk through with curatorial staff before we start touring would be a great thing to do.

4:30- Meet with Robin. Discuss tour she observed.  We talked quite a bit about chaperone’s.  Yes, they do make a difference.

Evening task: practice Art in the Garden for tomorrow

Thursday July 30

9:00 – Practice Art in the Garden with Becca

10:00 to 11:00 – Art in the Garden. The group was small enough for Becca and I to do this tour together. This was the best tour I had all summer. The chaperones were great, the kids were great, the artworks were lovely. Yeah

1:00 – Let the joy from the morning tour spill over into the afternoon.  Think happy thoughts as I plan for the Family Gallery Walk and the Adult tour.

Afternoon: work on adult tour for Monday and Family Gallery walk for tomorrow.

Friday July 31

9:00 – I have this morning to finish planning my adult tour.  I am talking about Joseph Cornell, Martin Puryear, and Jeff Wall.  I’m apparently in love with Jeff Wall because I use Poppies in the Garden or The Flooded Grave on every tour.  I think it might be a good idea to run through my family gallery walk a couple of times.

1:30 – Walk around the museum and recruit families for the Family Gallery Walk.  I meet a really nice lady who was here with her three children.  She told me all the artworks her kids had seen in school that they were looking for.  I told her I would show her where to go to find them between stops on our tour.  I got all proud when I realized I actually know where most things in the museum are located now.

2:00 to 3:00 – After some confusion about who was taking which group our tour got underway.  This was another extremely fun tour.  I modified the art in the garden tour and everyone really seemed to enjoy it.  I think gardens are something most people have some experience with and find it easy to talk about them.

3:00 – Keep working on adult tour for Monday.

5:00 – Go home, make food, work on tour.

This weekend: Practice for adult tour.

As you can see, there isn’t much space in this schedule for walking around the galleries to just look at stuff.  There is also precious little down time when you aren’t here.  It is an intense experience but worth every nail biting second.