Name: Jadyn Anderson
Class Year: 2028
Major: History of Art
Minor: Museum Studies
Internship Organization: Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
Internship Title: Research Intern
Location: Omaha, NE
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!
This summer, I’ve been digging through Bemis’ physical archives of exhibition catalogues, interorganizational communications, artist records, and more. While I create an inventory of our archive, I’m searching for information about the history of Bemis, such as interesting exhibits, community outreach initiatives, and notable individuals that the gallery has worked with. One of my favorite artists, Hiroshi Sugito, was a Bemis artist in residence in 1996, and I was so excited to find an interesting quote from him in the archive. The gallery’s curator, Rachel Adams, is planning to use the information I find for upcoming projects in celebration of Bemis’ 50th anniversary.
Why did you apply for this internship?
I’ve helped out at Open House Open Studios, an event where our artist-in-residence (AIR) studios are open to the public. Two of this summer’s AIRs have been working on tangible models of botanical drawings.
I was an intern at Bemis last summer where I primarily organized digital records. Though the work I did was in communications rather than with art directly, the gallery environment I was in confirmed my love for, passion for, and desire to work in art spaces. I was thrilled to be accepted back this summer for a museological research role where I could explore my interest in how art spaces influence and interact with their communities.
What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?
In my field, I’m interested in the ineffable and ephemeral, what cannot be archived, and rethinking the constraining effects of hypercategorization in museum spaces. I wasn’t sure what task Bemis would assign me this summer, but I certainly wasn’t expecting my role to be so intertwined with these interests. Working with Bemis’ archive has helped me confront the grey area between a demand for systematization and what I consider a necessary shift away from methodologizing art history.
What is most rewarding about your internship?
As I’ve pored over decades of faxes between Bemis and other art spaces, I’ve gathered so much insight about how exhibitions come to be. I’m pursuing a career in curation, and the amount of coordination and collaboration required to put on a show can feel daunting, but I understand the process better now that I’ve seen the behind-the-scenes operations and what timelines tend to look like. I look forward to bringing this insight to my museological studies and future career.