The three summer interns at the David Owsley Museum of Art celebrated their hard work at a public presentation on Wednesday.
About 20 people showed up to listen to history graduate student Jennifer Tellman discuss her time planning tours focused on adopting and adapting cultures, senior photography major Rochelle Martin talk about developing writing in the museum and senior art history major Ivana Armstrong explain the exhibition she is planning about the classical components of 1890s French posters.
Armstrong said the first step in planning her exhibition was increasing her knowledge of the French culture at the time.
“It was definitely different than I had been envisioning when I first came into it, but all of the research was exactly up my alley,” she said. “That and learning to write in a clear and concise, very brief way made it not only a fun, but a great learning experience.”
More than a dozen posters are at Armstrong’s disposal to use in the exhibition, which opens on Aug. 23. Her initial plan was to play off the sexualization of women, but she adapted her plans to fit the posters she had.
The interns checked in with museum officials once a week to discuss the progress on their respective projects. Armstrong met with Carl Schafer, associate director of the art museum, to talk about her ideas and what direction her exhibition was taking.
One of the biggest problems Armstrong said she faced was the lack of information on some of the posters.
“We have one Russian poster that we just recently figured out who the artist was, but we had no artist and no title,” she said. “We had some pieces that we didn’t have information about, some where the information was rather scarce, so filling in the gaps there was fun, but definitely challenging.”
Her favorite piece was a promotional poster for the play “Lorenzacchio” by Alphonse Mucha, which featured Sarah Bernhardt, a woman who played the lead male role.
“Not only is the image monumental and beautiful in every way, it’s interesting to learn about Bernhardt, who was kind of a pre-first-wave feminist,” Armstrong said. “She had interesting ties with not only Mucha, but also [Henri] Toulouse-Lautrec, one of the other artists. It’s interesting to see the connections that are between all of the artists and the people that they depict in the posters.”
Armstrong said even someone with no background in classical culture or French posters will be able to take something from her exhibiton.
“A big concern of mine has been to make sure that this was accessible to all people, whatever knowledge base you come with,” she said. “Come with an open mind and a willingness to simply look and experience these posters for what they are.”
Armstrong said getting to know the other interns was the best part of her summer at the museum.
“They are fabulous people working with these individuals that know so much and have been in this museum that is really a gem in mid-Indiana and has all of this information that is usually overlooked by students and the community,” she said. “It’s a wonderful resource and they’re in it up to their elbows and understand every aspect of it.”
Tania Said, the director of education at the museum and the adviser that the other two interns checked in with, said the variety of majors among the interns was a benefit.
“With the photography major and the history major this summer, it was nice to illustrate to the public through the intern showcase that we would be welcoming to anybody,” she said. “I never want to deter people away because you never know what kinds of things are going to be cooking behind the scenes.”
Said said the interns have a good degree of control over their projects
“I lay out a few options and I say, ‘This is what I think would work really well based on your knowledge and experience and what the museum needs,’” she said. “Usually people say, ‘It sounds wonderful, I couldn’t have imagined that.’”
Internships at the museum used to be very informal, but have developed into a more set program in recent years, allowing staff to prepare projects they think would best suit the interns.
