The.. Getty!

This Monday (July 13th), we Getty interns made a trip out to the LA Getty Center for the Getty Foundation's M(ulticultural)U(ndergraduate)I(nternship) Arts Summit. 

Dang, that sounds fancy. 

It was basically a career day / meet-all-the-other-100+-Getty-interns-day. 

Janet Mota who works at the botannical garden was kind enough to drive. 

I'm so glad I had the chance to meet her. She's gonna have the best time in Spain!! 

I wish I had applied for a study abroad program... =(

But back to our trip:

The welcome speech was quite informative... 

It really helped me realize that I was very lucky to be a part of this internship.

I didn't realize just how expansive this program was until I saw the map on the powerpoint presentation showing all the different organizations/galleries/museums that employed Getty interns. It was funny to see our learning community so isolated from the rest of the organizations, being so inland.

We then took a group photo, which was amusing. It reminded me of our photoshoot with John the first day of work =) 

I wish that the tables hadn't been so long for our lunch group. The people around us were really loud, so I basically tried to read people's lips as they spoke and nodded along. I wish that I had gotten to talk to the rest of the interns in our learning community. I remember meeting a couple of them at our first hub meeting a couple weeks ago. Oh! It was nice to see Ghada from First St. Gallery again. 

After lunch began the career sessions. There were around 20 (maybe a little less) sessions, and sadly we could only pick 5. They varied from topics such as "curating exhibitions," "museum education," "advocating for the arts," "designing exhibitions," "being a professional artist," "conservation," "historical preservation," and etc. The "designing exhibitions" session was VERY popular. I was rejected twice =(. For the last session, they increased the size of people allowed to 20, but knowing my luck, I probably would have been number 21 =/. So I just decided to sit in on the "advocating for the arts."

My favorite session was "museum education" with Asaka Hisa of the Santa Monica Museum of Art. I am amazed with the amount of creativity that goes into creating programs for museum education. I don't know if I, myself, could ever come up with such brilliant ideas, but I would LOVE to be a part of organizing and carrying out such programs. The one example that I enjoyed the most was Ms. Hisa's bike ride. [link below]

(http://www.smmoa.org/index.php/programs/group/1/3)

After noticing the popularity of cycling in LA, she planned a bike ride that began and ended at the SMMoA, while stopping at various art-related organizations along the way. 

I wonder if such an event could be planned around the 5-C's... hm.. 

Using people's interests and relating them to the museum!! Genius!! =)

SMMoA also has a book club (http://www.smmoa.org/index.php/programs/group/0) that features novels recommended by artists. I would definitely read a book that Allison Torneros (my favorite artist currently) recommends. 

The conservation session was equally interesting. Ellen Pearlstein and Allison Lewis (who graduated from the Getty-UCLA conservation program) spoke to us about the field of conservation. They also shared with us some of their favorite projects in the past. I had some more questions to ask about their work, so they were kind enough to give me their cards and offered to answer them through email. I should get on that... maybe after I finish this entry (which is taking me a surprising long time to write).

[One thing that I am realizing throughout this summer and meeting with various members in the art community: people are so nice!]

Although it was a bummer that I didn't get to go behind the scenes and get one of those cool-looking security passes for the "designing exhibitions" session, I really enjoyed the entire day. 

I wish had been able to roam around the Getty more, but sadly there was only enough time for a tour of the garden. [Did you know that the artist has the workers pick every-other-leaf off the trees at the beginning of the winding road? I believe it was for the shadow that they cast on the lawn.. but still.. that's pretty intense.] Apparently, the best view of the garden is the second floor of the East Pavillion. 

I, of course, fell asleep on the way back home. I think I can fall asleep in any moving vehicle. 

I didn't take any pictures, because I didn't want to look like a newbie tourist. But I was itching to whip out my camera... 

I can't say that all the career sessions have helped me make up my mind about my future (it's such a daunting topic/decision that needs many more hours of deliberation), but at least I got to brag to my friends that I was one of the special 150-ish students who got to roam the Getty on a day it was closed for "normal visitors." haha. just kidding........ kinda. 

Wow this was a long entry.. I'm sure it's teeming with grammatical errors and I see a lot of red underlining. It's like Blogspot is yelling at me to fix them, but.. too bad Blogspot. I'm tired.

Today: I finished my 10th kimono today! Yeahhh! Thank you Patricia for helping me take pictures and teaching me how to distinguish a plum blossom from a cherry blossom. I learn new things everyday =).