For my ARIA project this past summer, I worked with Professor of Art History and director of the 捆绑SM社区 Visual Arts Collection Gwendolyn Owens in preparing her manuscript 鈥淭he Joy of Getting Away With It,鈥� a sourcebook on American artist Gordon Matta-Clark for publication. The forthcoming sourcebook gathers letters and other writing by the artist in addition to interview transcriptions, images, and notes to provide a comprehensive body of work which informs the reader about Matta-Clark through his own words. I was responsible for the final level of interview transcription for the sourcebook, as well as copyediting and providing advice about the book as a whole. In addition to the work I did directly with Professor Owens on her manuscript, I had the opportunity to work within the Visual Arts Collection. I gave tours, did data entry as part of the migration of the collection to an online database, and learned about art handling. As well, I was able to write posts for the 鈥淟ibrary Matters鈥� blog shared by all parts of the 捆绑SM社区 library system about pieces of art in the collection. Each part of my work involved research, as I compiled biographies and learned about Gordon Matta-Clark for Professor Owens鈥� manuscript, researched and fact-checked information on works of art as I inputted them into the database, and researched and learned about the VAC and 捆绑SM社区 for my blog posts. Even the weekly tours at the VAC involve research, as our team of interns had to adjust our tour to compensate for the on-campus construction, and strived to improve the tour with more research on individual works.
I originally wanted to do an ARIA project because I wanted to learn more about how research happens in a professional setting, and to see how my writing and research skills could relate to employment in the future. Therefore, the opportunity to work with Professor Owens was perfect, as she is both a 捆绑SM社区 professor and VAC Director, following distinguished work at other universities in the United States, and her work at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Because of my interests, my objectives during my ARIA were to learn about how the VAC functions within the 捆绑SM社区 library system, and within 捆绑SM社区 and the Montreal community as a whole.
Some of the highlights of my ARIA were accompanying members of the VAC team to installations and artwork movements, as well as the interesting research I did on artworks for the 鈥淟ibrary Matters鈥� blog, and the research on interviewees for the Gordon Matta-Clark project. I valued both the aspects of my internship which allowed me to work in the field such as being involved with installations, as well as the research aspects which enabled me to contribute to larger bodies of work. One example is the research I conducted for a possible blog post. A supporter of the VAC mentioned a memory of John Lewis (the current US Representative for the state of Georgia鈥檚 5th district, who at the time was the Chairman of SNCC) at 捆绑SM社区 giving a speech in front of the Three Bares statue near the Arts Building.
During his work for SNCC (the Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a major organization of the American Civil Rights movement) on campus to sign up students to work for SNCC during the Freedom Summer in 1965 鈥� a program in which volunteers helped to register black voters in Mississippi. The intersection of art and relevant politics was too good a combination to ignore -- so I began research to find out everything I could about that moment and attempted to see if there was a photo of it somewhere in the 捆绑SM社区 records. I then examined editions of the Old 捆绑SM社区 yearbook between the years 1963 and 1967, as well as digitized copies of the 捆绑SM社区 Daily for keywords that could relate to the event. I discovered that Lewis was invited to speak at 捆绑SM社区 in May 1965, and other members of SNCC came to 捆绑SM社区 in later years. After confirming the year of Lewis鈥� visit, I requested photographic contact sheets of negatives from the 捆绑SM社区 archives of student protests in 1965, which happened directly after Lewis鈥� speech. While I was unable to find the photos, if they ever existed, the research experience, in combination with the other work I did at the VAC and with Gwendolyn Owens helped me to improve my writing and research skills, and all the more emphasized the importance to me of art in the every day world.
My ARIA experience has definitely influenced my future career path. I鈥檝e always enjoyed historical research, and my work at the VAC has only grown my love for research, regardless of if I am already familiar with the subject background or not. Therefore, my internship experience has affirmed my research and writing skills and their applicability to other spheres outside of academia, although my internship was in an academic setting. As well, during my internship I wanted to be able to complete research using more primary sources, something which will assist my thesis process during my final year at 捆绑SM社区. In all, my internship experience at the VAC has showed me that if in the future I want to pursue academic studies in history, library science, or even art history, I have the potential and skills to succeed. As well, my internship has made me realize the value of non-academic private sector jobs, and that good writing is a highly marketable skill, something which is sure to help me in the future.
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