International Museum of Arts and Sciences Internship- Mariapaula Vargas, Week 1

 

Week 1: July 5 - July 12

Mariapaula Vargas
7/5 Day 1

Holis! Today was my first day as an intern at the International Museum of Arts and Sciences (IMAS)! I was very excited to start working but still a little sad about leaving D.C. Howeverrr, I was reviewing the newsletters my boss gave me and saw the YAP member from the 2022 cohort's article! I recognized some faces that I hadn't the first time reading the section which motivated me to start writing my own article for the newsletter. My boss (she's amaaaazing) is the director of the marketing and developing here at IMAS, so she introduced me to the platforms they use such as Microsoft Teams and other resources like the planning app. With that, I was presented a document they use as a tool for content planning! Since I work with marketing and development, I carry the museum's IPad around and take pictures of potential content for their social media. It was really cool taking pictures of the art while getting to analyze it further. One of goals by the end of this internship is to really examine and comprehend each art piece here in IMAS. Near the end of the day, I was able to sit in on a meeting between my boss and the director of the curatorial team! It was really cool to hear behind the scenes like the format of the exhibits and the relay of information between different departments. Overall, today was a great way to kick off my internship and can't wait to see what else I'll learn!
-Pau💕





7/6 Day 2

Hello!!! First of all, I drove to work today from home which is like 30 minutes away! I was really excited and came into IMAS with a huge smile! I was also excited because my boss had told me the first thing on her agenda for today was a meeting discussing a grant. She invited me to sit in, and of course, I said yes! All of the department heads met together in the library to talk over a grant application, so I was able to receive insight on how non-profit organizations get funds. The project they needed a grant for was superrr cool! It is a press print workshop for students; they're able to create different designs or utilize former ones in order to decorate shirts and/or tote bags. As they were talking about it, I remembered when we did workshops in the learning lounge, specifically the city planning since we were really able to get in touch with our inner artist. The meeting was very interesting, and they explained what they were talking about to keep me in the loop. When the meeting was over, they told me I could take books from the library since they're trying to clean it out. There was sooo many old books, but they were cool. I ended up taking one book home; it's a book about art history (I've become very interested after visiting so many museums). I also went back to the library later by myself to work on my newsletter after taking more pictures and publishing content on Instagram! The library was nice and quiet! As I was working, my boss messaged me about a visit they were going to have. The catering restaurant for their annual Collage GALA was going to come and sort out layouts. I went and listened in on the conversation, and it was interesting to see how museums are so versatile and can be transformed into many different things! Today was a success😁!!!
-Pau💕


7/7 Day 3

TGIF! Today, I came in a bit earlier than my boss, so I was able to open her office door. I realized I wanted to start my blog today; I brainstormed a few ideas and looked at a lot of entries from alumni like Brendaaa! I finally concluded I wanted to do a daily entry hence this format. In reality, I wrote the blogs of the past 2 days today. I'm so excited to publish these blogs and look over my colleagues' posts! The Collage GALA is coming up really soon (I won't be able to attend since I'll be at UT already😢) so tickets are going out! I was able to be a helping hand as they asked me to write the names of the guests on all the tickets they purchased. When I completed that small task, my boss told me I should get the visitor experience, so I did! I went to the Ann Moore Art Studio and got to play with oil pastels. Today's project was to replicate the pieces from the Picasso exhibit here at IMAS; I actually did a good job and made new work friends!
After my lunch break, I decided to go to the library and work on this blog and my newsletter. I also read some magazines my boss gave me that give her inspo for the newsletters they publish here. I also paid a visit to the Biozone which is the home to some animals. I got to meet Ryujin the bearded dragon! I'm really looking forward to the weekend and have some assignments planned for next week!
-Pau💕









7/10 Day 4

Hiii! Today is Monday, and I am ready for this week! I started off the day by writing my newsletter article because I felt like I wasn't making much progress. I asked my boss if I was going to have a word limit since I was just writing away. When she told me there was one, I had to calm down a bit and really take into account what I was going to write. I also took a reading break during my lunch hour! Tomorrow is the day I complete my community outreach project which is a story time; I am so excited! I also visited the campers and took some pictures. This week's camp theme is dinosaurs, so they're doing activities that revolve around things like paleontology and volcanoes.I was able to sit in on their volcano experiment after their presentation learning about the different types. The campers had a lot of fun with their experiments because they got to wear an apron and goggles; I really enjoy that they are teaching them new things in fun ways because learning should never ever stop!!!
-Pau💕









7/11 Day 5

Hello, blog!!! Today was suchhh a fun day! I had my community outreach project today as I mentioned I would. The story time went very well! There was 12 kids in total, and they were all very intrigued in the book. They were all super excited to color and were very talkative with me. I just HAD to color with them! While the kids colored, I went and spoke to the parents about YAP just in case they know someone who is eligible to apply. I spoke to this one man who had worked for the Smithsonian back in the 90's! He asked me what and where I was going to study, and it turns out he was a journalist before he got into academia! He had so many contacts for me but specifically connected me with a journalist who graduated from UT Austin! It was truly a serendipitous moment. I felt confident speaking to the man, and I honestly owe it all to YAP🙌. I learned to network and be open to speaking to random men(I would've never spoken to random men before). These connections are sure to help me in the future, and all the alum that we met in D.C. are evidence of that. After the story time, I went back to the museum as my boss let my friends come over for a tour(IMAS was not open to the public)! They had a lot of fun and confirmed that they would be coming back! Since we had IMAS pretty much allll to ourselves, we were able to play in the Seed to Table area which is sooo cute! We "shopped" and "cooked" with all the toys! It was truly an amazing day and learned many new things from how to engage kids to how body heat can be used to make music! Overall, my first week has gone super duper well, and I can't wait to continue learning!
-Pau💕 



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