Studio Art was excited to host the ‘Plan Your Summer’ an internship informational event this past Thursday, January 27, 2022. This event allowed all of our majors to come and hear about internship experiences as part of our new requirement – Praxis in the Arts. Praxis in the Arts is an opportunity and requirement that majors gain experience in the field of the creative Arts, with a required 80 hour minimum of praxis experience.
We are so fortunate that the Knowlton Center for Career Exploration has partnered with us, and supports students with funding for those internships that would otherwise be low or no pay to students. This is a great equalizer in the pre-professional training world, and an opportunity we want all of our majors to have access to.
At our Thursday event this past week, Knowlton center reps Jessica Hall and Michele Doran were present and invited students to make connections with them. They are looking forward to helping with strategizing and planning towards internships, and other experiences that will make students better prepared for the world post-graduation.
At this event, we also had the pleasure of local artist Amanda Love attending via zoom and inviting students to work as an artist assistant on works that she will be fabricating this summer for installation at Dawe’s Arboreteum. Shruti Shankhar, BFA ’21, was in virtual attendance as well, and shared her experience of interning in the Education department at the Columbus Museum of Art. This experience led to her now permanent position at the museum, where she has been working since August.
We also got to welcome our next Columbus Creative in Residence team, Alfredo Weeks and Lara Alsoudani from Columbus-based design studio, Fringe 22. They welcome students reaching out to them if they are interested in gaining experience and seeing how to engage with a social impact design mission.
Students also got to hear from fellow students about their own experiences with internships! Anya Nelson, Deborah Garner, Yuan Liu, Maddie Kuentz, and Charlie Song all shared experiences — ranging from Arts administration at Columbus-based Contemporary Art Matters gallery, to graphic design, camp counsellor and arts teacher to photography assistant for a commercial photographer. Rising Senior, SophieTight said, “It’s super helpful to get rid of the ‘starving artist’ stereotype. It also helps show us creatives that there are roles out there in every genre.” Current Senior and BFA candidate, Deborah Garner, states of her experience interning this summer at Camp Asbury and the new Praxis requirement, “This program (Praxis in the Arts) is helpful because it provides clarity towards what I want to do once I graduate. I’m not as nervous for the future because of these experiences.”
