Rachel Dines '07
Sudbury, MA
Art History Major
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
When I found this internship, I knew that it would be absolutely perfect for me. I have dreamed of working for the Museum of Fine Arts for years, and this internship also gave me a chance to combine my loves of Studio Art, Art History and Childhood Education. During my internship I worked in the Studio Art Camp, ages 6-11. For nine weeks I went every afternoon to work at the camp, which was held in studios in the attic of the museum. Each week we had a different theme, such as "Museum Menagerie" or "The Art of the Ancient World." I assisted the teachers in teaching the lessons, supervised the art projects and helped with the gallery tours. I also developed my own lesson plans that I taught to the students and ran the "after camp" program. As a result, I learned a lot about art education and the inner workings of the art museum.
One definite highlight of this internship was being able to work with so many different teachers with different backgrounds. They each had their own style of teaching, their own philosophy and I learned something different from each of them. One very specific highlight of the summer was when I got to teach the class for a whole day. I did a lesson on Greek and Mayan jewelry (we made Mayan Bar Bead bracelets and Greek coin necklaces), and I think the projects came out really nicely.
My studies of art history were extremely helpful for this internship—when we got into the galleries to look at the art, I had a good amount of background on most of the works, which I used as a resource in our discussions.
This internship greatly exceeded my expectations. I didn't know I would learn so much about working with children and about art history—the teachers I worked with were so wonderful and knowledgeable, mentoring me about heir fields. They were not only interested in the education of the kids in the class, but they wanted me to learn and grow from this experience as well.
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