I am beyond grateful that I had the opportunity to intern in the Stanley’s Learning and Engagement department this summer. I was able to learn more about the inner workings of the museum and got to help with events that connected with the community. In this blog post, I will reflect on what I did this summer at the Stanley Museum of Art. 

I began my internship with a lot of drawing! I was tasked with making banners that kids could color at Arts Fest. I spent some time in the galleries and picked out works that highlighted the Stanley’s collection. I pieced them together, basically creating giant coloring sheets, adding in blank spots for people to add in their own art. I ended up making four 3x6’ banners, and they all got colored in! It was great fun watching both kids and adults enjoy coloring in the art. It was also a great way to encourage families to visit the museum since it was the beginning of the summer, and lots of people were looking for things to do with their young ones. I ended up editing pictures I took of the blank banners and turned them into a coloring book, which apparently “flew off the shelves.” 

Just a few weeks later, I also helped out with the Stanley’s booth at the Block Party. The idea was that people would make a “collaborative mural” on the pavement with chalk. I chalked off a boundary for the mural, but by the end of the night, it had been completely filled in and was extended far beyond the original boundaries! Moral of the story: don’t box people in when you give them chalk. 

I had the great pleasure of helping Jackie Biger, Associate Professor of School Librarianship, with a Keith Haring Curriculum Workshop. Art teachers and school librarians from the community came together to plan a lesson inspired by the Haring mural, A Book Full of Fun, which was made at Horn Elementary in Iowa City, as well as local Iowa City muralists. It was so fun to work with such awesome people and get to watch them put it all together. My role was to take notes, add my own thoughts, and clean up the lesson and all of the documents and presentations afterward. I pulled a lot from my existing knowledge from art education courses, but it was also really interesting to see how a museum could work with public educators to fill the gap between a museum and a classroom. This fall, art teachers and librarians in the district will be teaching the lessons that came from the workshop, and I will have the chance to visit a few classrooms and help with any needs the teachers might have. I will also work to turn the lesson into a format that will go on the Stanley’s website and be accessible to anyone! 

I created some helpful guides for the docents. I was asked to create a standardization guide which informed docents on things like what a land acknowledgment is and appropriate, inclusive terms to use. I also made a pronunciation guide for works currently in the galleries. It was interesting to put myself in the shoes of a docent giving a tour and to think about what might be helpful for them to have. 

Lastly, I lead a Stanley Creates workshop where we looked at the Keith Haring exhibit and how he captured movement, and then went outside and danced to his mixtapes. We outlined our dance poses, and filled them in. I was ecstatic to see both kids and adults dancing! Overall, this was such an awesome experience, and I learned so much. It was great to be at the Stanley, but especially great to experience a museum in a community near and dear to my heart. I am continuing on to my fifth year at UNI. I will have my BFA thesis show at the end of the fall, and student teach in Omaha in the spring. I am excited to bring museums into my future classroom, and who knows, perhaps I will work at one someday.