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Katzenberger Internship Projects

Katzenberger Internship Projects 2013

Project 1: Comic Art Drawing Digital Presentation
National Museum of American History
Supervisor: Joan Boudreau, Curator, Graphic Arts Collection

The Graphic Arts Collection, now a unit of the National Museum of American History, was founded in the 1880s. Its mission was, and still is, to increase and diffuse knowledge about printing and printmaking, through the products and the technologies of those trades.

Along with collections of international prints from the 15th to the 21st centuries, and other associated collections and related tools and equipment, the holdings include some-800 camera-ready, pen and ink, comic art drawings. These drawings were prepared in order to be transferred to printing blocks and plates for the production of newspaper comics between the early 20th and 21st centuries. Their subject themes run the gamut of literary categories from action and adventure to science fiction.

The Katzenberger Intern’s project duties would be:

1) to research the history of comic artists represented in the Graphic Arts Collection, NMAH;

2) to select and digitize drawings of the artists and their work;

3) to write short biographical sketches of each artist and captions for the drawings selected; and

4) to prepare these materials for publication on the National Museum of American History Web site, http://americanhistory.si.edu/

In the process, the Katzenberger Intern would enhance his or her research skills using local research repositories.

The Intern would also learn more about web site production and the art of writing museum‐quality labels and captions.

The Intern would also be exposed to the work of some of the finest American comic artists.

The Intern should be well‐organized, detail‐oriented, and generally familiar with photography and digital media.

 

Project 2: Immigration/Migration Street Art
National Museum of American History
Supervisor: Lauren Safranek, Project Coordinator, Smithsonian Immigration/Migration Initiative

The Smithsonian Immigration/Migration Initiative is a multi-year project to explore and interpret answers to the following questions:

  • How have socio-cultural processes such as assimilation, hybridity, and cultural pluralism interacted together to form American individual and group identities?
  • How did the historical United States emerge out of so many diverse cultures from around the world?
  • How and why have migrations of all kinds fueled the fundamental dynamism of American culture and society?
  • What do attitudes and policies towards successive waves of migration tell us about the nation that America has aspired to be and how those aspirations have changed across three centuries?

Among the initiative’s goals, we are working to:

  • Mount a multi-year anchor exhibition at the National Museum of American History with changing topics and curated contributions from the public ( 2015/2016) Working Title: Routes/Roots: The Nation We Make Together
  • Present a Smithsonian Folklife Festival Program in 2015 for the fiftieth anniversary of the Hart-Celler Act that will focus on immigration in contemporary America
  • Conduct a national collecting effort to add new objects, images, oral histories, and first person narratives, making the Smithsonian collection more inclusive
  • Develop curricula and innovative activities aimed at young adult, family, and enthusiast audiences to connect with their personal journeys of discovery about family, memory and identity

Many units of the Smithsonian are working together to meet these goals. The team is made up of members from the National Museum of American History, the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the National Museum of Natural History, the Latino Center, the Asian Pacific American Center, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, and Smithsonian Affiliations.

Our Katzenberger Art History Summer Intern will explore the possibility of placing street art on the grounds of the National Museum of American History to accompany the opening of the NMAH exhibition. The intern will prepare a report on the history and current trajectory of street art and artists, with a concentration on street art that deconstructs experiences of immigrant and migrant American communities. The report will include how other museums have engaged with street artists around the world. Research will also potentially include an opportunity to interview actual street artists in the Washington DC area. The intern will engage with the exhibition’s intellectual framework and recommend possible artists and next steps. The results of the report will be featured on the initiative’s website and social media.

 

Project 3: Picturing the African American Experience: 150 years of Photographs from the Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Supervisor: Dr. Jacquelyn D. Serwer, Chief Curator

Research for the last NMAAHC Pre-Building Exhibition

The Katzenberger Intern for this project would work with the chief curator to finalize research and select the images for this last temporary NMAAHC exhibition before the Museum’s 2015 opening in the new building. The photographs will be drawn from the Museum’s Center for African American Media Arts (CAAMA), a signature collection of photography, film, and digital media. The chosen images will reflect each of the three content areas of the new Museum: History, Culture, and Community. The result will be a powerful exhibition that provides both an overall introduction to the new museum and a preview of its rich collection of photography.

 

Project 4: Image and Identity: The Representation of African American Women during the Black Arts Movement (1965-1976)
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Supervisor: Dr. Tuliza Fleming, Museum Curator

Image and Identity: The Representation of African American Women during the Black Arts Movement (1965-1976), is a discreet project designed to identify, compile, and summarize a cache of information (articles, books, and published interviews) concerning the various constructions of the African American female image by black visual artists between the years 1965 and 1977. In addition to conducting primary and secondary research, the project also requires the intern to compare and contrast the representation of African American women by both male and female artists of African descent within the context of the of era’s social and political environment.

The resulting research and analysis will be incorporated into the narrative script for the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Visual Arts Gallery, scheduled to open in 2015.

 

Project 5: Documenting Traditional Artists at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Supervisor: James Deutsch, Program Curator

Since its inception in 1967, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival has presented roughly 180 different programs that have helped promote the understanding and continuity of diverse, contemporary grassroots cultures in the United States and around the world. Most of these programs have featured traditional artists working in a variety of media, including ceramics, glass, leather, metal, paper, plants, stone, textiles, wood, and more. Documentation of these artists exists in the form of photographs, audiovisual recordings, and some written material, but there is no comprehensive history of the artists and the work they have produced at forty-six different Folklife Festivals.

The Katzenberger Intern’s project at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage will be to:

1) conduct research on the artists who have appeared at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival since its inception and (based on the Intern’s own particular interests) select at least one artist (or group of artists) for more detailed research and study;

2) identify, select, and digitize documentary materials (photographs, audio recordings, videos, etc.) of this particular artist (or group of artists) and their work at the Folklife Festival;

3) write short biographical sketches of the artist(s) and captions for the photographs selected; and

4) prepare these materials for publication on the Folklife Festival’s Web site. For two recent examples, see http://www.folklife.si.edu/education_exhibits/malian_bogolan/index.aspx and http://www.folklife.si.edu/education_exhibits/art_of_tattooing/index.aspx.

In the process, the Katzenberger Intern will enhance her or his research skills, not only with archival materials but also through interviews with members of the Festival’s curatorial staff, both past and present. The Intern will also learn more about Web site production and the art of writing museum-quality labels and captions. Moreover, the Intern will be exposed to some of the finest traditional artists from around the globe: i.e., those who have been selected by curators to participate in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the world’s largest festival of its type. The Intern will also have an opportunity to meet (and perhaps document) many of the artists who will be participating in the 2013 Folklife Festival (June 26–June 30 and July 3–7).

The Intern working on this project should be well‐organized, detail‐oriented, and generally familiar with digital media. However, experience with specific digital media management systems (such as Adobe Bridge) is not required.

 

Project 6: The Will to Adorn: African American Identity and the Aesthetics of Dress (a 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program)
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Supervisor: Diana N’Diaye, Curator

The largest and most visible project of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage is the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The Festival is a living exhibition staged on the National Mall that brings traditional artists together for demonstrations, discussion sessions, and informal interaction with each other and the public. Curator Diana N’Diaye is currently working on the 2013 Festival program titled The Will to Adorn: African American Identity and the Aesthetics of Dress, which seeks to document and present the diversity of the African American community through the lens of cultural aesthetics and traditional arts of the body, dress and adornment. African American body arts include the design and construction of clothing, hair and headwear (millinery), jewelry, cosmetics and other arts applied to the body by trained and self-taught artisans skilled in these traditions. Grounded in the cultural aesthetics of their clients, master designers and stylists of the head and body exercise their knowledge and skills to innovate as they cater to these distinct African American community tastes. The Festival program will take place from June 26-30 and July 3-7 and will feature over 90 artesans, musicians, and performers.

The Katzenberger Intern’s duties would include

1) Preparing short artist bios for website and presentation materials

2) Assisting in the set-up and arrangement of artesans’ presentation “studio” spaces before the Festival

3) Working directly with artesans during the Festival to open and close their areas, and facilitating interactions with the public

4) Writing several blog entries for the project along topics of interest to the intern, featuring a particular artist or community of style.

5) After the Festival, write a report examining some of the presentation practices observed at the Festival

6) Assisting to Catalogue photo, audio and video resources after the Festival.

This internship would be a great fit for those interested in public programming, fashion as art and/or traditional artists. Candidates should be well‐organized, detail‐oriented, and able to work outdoors during the summer.

 

Project 7: Photo Collections Research for National Zoo’s 125th Anniversary
National Zoological Park
Supervisor: Susan Ades, Director of Exhibits

The Department of Exhibits at the National Zoo seeks a candidate to work on a summer project in 2013 researching the Zoo’s photo collection for significant, historical images of the Zoo. The Zoo’s 125th Anniversary is in 2014. As part of its celebration, the Zoo is planning a small exhibit of historical zoo photography, to be installed in its Visitor Center. The Department of Exhibits is responsible for all interpretive materials at the Zoo, including graphics, hands-on exhibit components, sculptures, computer interactives, and wayfinding.

The Zoo has been open to the public since 1889 and has a very large photography collection, from glass plate negatives to high resolution digital images. The collection comprises hundreds of thousands of images from a variety of photographers. The intern would work with the Zoo’s photo collection manager and begin sorting through the older works in the collection, looking for images that best show the Zoo’s history and are of sufficiently high quality for exhibition. Topics include landscape, architecture, animals, staff and connections to Washington, DC. In addition to researching the photo collection, the intern will write catalogue entries for selected images.

The outcome of the summer internship would be a catalogue of images with text that would become the basis of the anniversary photography exhibition. Ideally, the intern would have a knowledge of photography and a background in digital imagery. The intern will report to the Director of Exhibits.

 

Project 8: Artists’ books at the Smithsonian
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library
Supervisor: Anna Brooke; in cooperation with Janet Stanley and Doug Litts: Head Librarian, HMSG Library; Head Librarian, Warren M. Robbins Library, AFA: Head Librarian, AA/PG Library

Several art libraries at the Smithsonian Institution have artists’ books in their collection, including the libraries for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Museum of African Art, and the American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery. Broadly, artists’ books have been defined as “A book or book-like object in which an artist has had a major input beyond illustration or authorship: where the final appearance of the book owes much to an artist’s interference/participation: where the book is the manifestation of the artist’s creativity: where the book is a work of art in itself.” The libraries have been working to provide greater access and exposure to these “hidden collections.” This project will introduce the intern to the field of artists’ books and provide exposure to DC area collections. The intern will then be given a selection of artists and artists’ books to research in further depth. Interns will have the opportunity to work at SI Libraries as well as other Washington, DC area collections. Resulting research will then be used for future initiatives, including blog postings on the SIL blog, exhibitions, and online access tools.

 

Project 9: Garden History Research and Public Outreach
Archives of American Gardens
Supervisor: Cindy Brown, HCME Manager and Education Specialist

Please describe the proposed internship project, include any relevant background information on the function of your department or office:

In addition to enriching the Smithsonian experience through exceptional gardens, horticultural exhibits, collections, and education,” Smithsonian Gardens oversees the Archives of American Gardens which preserves and interprets the nation’s garden heritage. The Archives underscores the importance of gardens in the American experience, especially how people use, transform and enjoy their surroundings.

The Archives of American Gardens offers landscape designers, historians, researchers, and garden enthusiasts access to a collection of approximately eighty thousand photographic images and records documenting historic and contemporary American gardens from the 1870s to the present. While the bulk of the Archives consists of photographic images, it also includes a wide range of written documentation, drawings, plans and business files. Garden files include correspondence, articles, bibliographic citations and garden documentation forms completed by volunteer researchers.

The internship is located in the Horticulture Collections Management & Education Branch of Smithsonian Gardens which manages the Archives of American Gardens and the Garden Furnishings and Horticultural Artifacts Collection, oversees the internship and fellowship programs, and develops educational programming for Smithsonian Gardens, www.gardens.si.edu.

To contribute to Smithsonian Gardens’ Community of Gardens initiative, the intern’s major project will be to conduct research and write about garden history and design by exploring the role of art in public and community gardens. Community of Gardens is a soon-to-be-launched web and app platform for the public to share stories about gardens and green spaces in their community and explore garden stories others have shared. The intern will conduct research in the Archives of American Gardens as well as seek out a small number of other exceptional gardens for submission to the Community of Gardens database. In particular, the intern will develop a small online exhibit that explores the role of art in public and community gardens for the new Community of Gardens website. The final product will consist of images and short text labels exploring the historical and cultural significance of art in community gardens, as well as the larger theme of art and gardening. Additionally, the intern will also create photographic and written content for the Smithsonian Gardens blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

This article is an example of the type of stories we are hoping the intern will uncover: http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/thedirt/article/Art-filled-community-garden-a-fitting-legacy-3185382.php#photo-1808165

The research project will appeal to art history students with an interdisciplinary approach to their studies, especially those students with courses related to landscape/garden studies, history of photography, public history, museum studies, or museum education or have an interest in any of these areas of study.

Successful candidates must demonstrate attention to detail, excellent organizational skills, a comfort with technology and online databases, and an enthusiasm for history and research and/or engaging the general public in the work of archives, museums and public gardens. In addition, experience with social and digital media will be helpful. Basic training will be provided on Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver; any prior knowledge of these programs would be an asset.

This project takes place at the offices of Smithsonian Gardens at Capital Gallery Building, 600 Maryland Avenue S.W., Suite 3300, Washington, D.C. 20024

 

Project 10: Cataloguing & Examination of Black Fashion Museum Collection
Museum Conservation Institute
Supervisor: Mary W. Ballard, Senior Textiles Conservator

The Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute is a central research laboratory for works of art and artifacts. The scientists carry out research pertaining to the preservation and degradation of museum collections. The conservators deal with unusual projects and treatments that are outside the normal scope of work for museum conservators at the Smithsonian museums or for ‘orphan’ museums that have no conservator with such a specialty.

The proposed internship project:

Interns participating in this joint project between the Museum Conservation Institute (MCI) and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) will assist conservator Mary Ballard from MCI in the accessioning, preliminary condition reporting, photography, and re-housing of the newly acquired collection from the Black Fashion Museum. This is one of the largest collections of clothing and accessories designed or worn by African Americans. The role of black women in fashion design is not widely known, but a number of seamstresses were expert designers and/or from a family of seamstresses, tailors, designers or furriers in their own right. Couturier quality dress was collected by Black Fashion Museum founder Lois K. Alexander. From pre-Civil War times to the 20th century, high style evening gowns and day wear were emphasized, together with costume worn by entertainers-The Broadway costumes of The Wiz are included, along with those of chanteuses like Eartha Kitt. In addition to gowns and furs, there are shoes, hats, handbags, and other accessories.

Because these are primarily 19th and 20th century fabrics and accessories, interns will have the opportunity to learn textile conservation skills and also museum collections management about a range of American and European materials. They will be helping the National Museum of African American History and Culture organize its largest collection to date. A small research project may be organized if time and opportunity permit. The summer interns will be expected to learn about cataloguing and examination reporting, to assess damages to garments, to learn about stain removal and to become moderately proficient at identifying repairs, renovations, and discolorations.

Students will be expected to learn and carry out some microscopy (and photomicrography) to identify fibers, to confirm their fiber identification with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)—learning that method of analysis as well. They will be expected to familiarize themselves with AATCC Technical Manual methods of fiber identification, the von Bergen/Krauss text, etc.

They will be expected to learn about pest control and pest monitoring, the bionomics of insects that harass museum collections.

This summer internship introduces the summer intern to the field of conservation and restoration in the museum context so that he/she can subsequently apply for further internship training by building on the skills and experiences acquired in the Textiles Conservation Laboratory at MCI.

The ideal summer intern would have an interest in costume and costume history or theatrical costume work, have good hand and machine sewing skills, some art history, some studio art, and some chemistry or biology at the college level. An interest in black social history and culture would be helpful but not required.