Intern’s PerspectiveDaniela Martinez
I came to the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery looking for experience, but I know I will be leaving with a lot more. I’m from Mexico and I came to Los Angeles for 3 months before starting college where I will be studying Art History. I wanted to find a place where I could learn from this field and to experience what is like to be part of a gallery or museum. This was the perfect place for it.
When I arrived the exhibition Here was being set up, so I got to see the process that goes behind an art show. My first assignments consisted on proofreading and organizing papers, which made me realize that what we see as the result is just the tip of the iceberg; with months of planning, paperwork and organization needed in order for everything to function. While doing this, I was in the front desk, which helped me learn much more about the gallery, the park and the show since I was the one explaining it to the public, the interaction and questions I received from visitors helped me expand my knowledge of this space.
Here curator Steve Wong gave some of the interns and volunteers a tour of the exhibition, explaining the pieces, why he chose them and how they all come together. This insight helped me understand better the LA’s art scene, and it was exciting to see the thought process of the curator, especially me wanting to be a curator someday. The opening soon arrived and all the planning finally came to reality. We, the staff, were rotating and helping in different areas. I supervised some of the art work ensuring that nothing got damaged, later I helped at the bar, and finally I worked in the front desk. Helping during the opening was a wonderful experience where I got to see how an opening works and was also able to meet some of the artists.
Later, having the gallery open to the public, it was a whole different experience being here, I think the best part was to see the response and how the people interacted with the art works. While this was happening I also got to be involved in other projects. One was about marketing for social media, I made a list of official and unofficial holidays and wrote down ideas of artworks to post in some of these days. Another one consisted on researching articles of the artists displayed on Here and finding the contact emails of the authors.
Overall it was a very enriching experience that showed me different sides of the work that happens inside an art gallery, I will be forever grateful for the opportunity of being here, for meeting great people and being able to learn from them. I know all the experience I gained here will be useful for my future work and projects. I love LAMAG’s goal of making art accessible for anyone, helping the public and the artists, and I know this is something I want to have in mind in everything I do.