Release Date: June 20, 2013

National Gallery of Art Awards 16 Summer Internships to an International Group of Students from Ten States and Three Foreign Countries

Washington, DC—The National Gallery of Art welcomed 15 graduate students and recent bachelor's degree recipients to participate in its 2013 summer internship program. They are joined by a Culturex Fellow funded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. The international group was selected after a competitive application process, and includes individuals from ten states and three foreign countries. The nine-week internships began on Monday, June 10, and will conclude on Friday, August 9.

The nine-week summer internship program provides the opportunity for graduate-level and postgraduate students to work on projects directed by a Gallery department head or curator. Interns are chosen for this rigorous program based on a strong interest in museum work, outstanding academic achievement, and letters of recommendation, among other relevant criteria. In addition to placements in traditional areas—curatorial, education, conservation, and administration—the Gallery also offers internships in horticulture, graphic design, architecture, publishing, archives, music, and public safety. As part of their regular work schedule, interns attend a biweekly seminar that introduces them to the broad spectrum of museum work and to Gallery departments, staff, functions, and programs.

Support for the internship program comes from individual gifts and endowment funds, and the program is administered by the department of academic programs in the division of education. Information about the summer internship program, as well as other Gallery internships and fellowships, is available at www.nga.gov/opportunities/interns-and-fellows.html or by calling (202) 842-6257.

2013 National Gallery of Art Summer Interns
Heather Courtney
Toronto, Ontario
Heather received a BFA (sculpture/installation) from the Ontario College of Art & Design and is currently pursuing an MA (photographic preservation and collections management) at Ryerson University. Previously, Heather interned at the Archive of Modern Conflict, Toronto and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Next fall, she will be a graduate intern at the Getty Research Institute at the Getty Center, Los Angeles. This summer, Heather will assist the department of photographs with the cataloging and researching of photographs recently acquired by the Gallery.

Davida Fernández-Barkan
Madison, Wisconsin
Davida received an AB (history of art and architecture) from Harvard College and an MA (curating the art museum) from the Courtauld Institute of Art. She has interned at Tate Britain, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, and most recently, the National Gallery of Art in the departments of modern art and modern prints and drawings. This summer, Davida will continue assisting the department of modern prints and drawings with the upcoming exhibition Yes, No, Maybe: Artists Working at Crown Point Press.

Amy Hughes
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Amy received a BA (literature) from New College of Florida­ and is pursuing an MA (art history) and an advanced certificate (conservation) at the Conservation Center at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. Previously, she interned at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan Library & Museum, and Daria K. Conservation, LLC. This summer, Amy will assist paper conservators in organizing and cataloguing items in the Paper Sample Collection of historic and contemporary artists’ drawing and printing papers.

Emily Izzo
Indianapolis, Indiana
Emily recently completed a BS (arts management) at Indiana University Bloomington. Previously, she worked as a special events coordinator at Indiana University Art Museum. This summer, Emily will help conduct special events and assist with archiving digital and film photography of such events.

Christophe Jivraj
Toronto, Ontario
Christophe received a diploma (film studies) from Centennial College, a BFA (photography) and MFA (photography) from Concordia University, and is currently pursuing an MA (photographic preservation and collections management) at Ryerson University. This summer, he will work with the photograph conservation department on a multi-institutional interdisciplinary study of platinum and palladium prints.

Marina Kliger
Brooklyn, New York
Marina received a BHA (fine art, material and visual culture) from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MA (modern art) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently a PhD student at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. Previously, she interned at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. This summer, Marina will catalogue and digitize rare French and Belgian reproductive prints.

Craig Lee
Arlington Heights, Illinois
Craig received a BA (art history) from Dartmouth College and an MA (decorative arts, design history, material culture) from the Bard Graduate Center. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Delaware. Previously, he interned at Fallingwater, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Hood Museum of Art. Craig is a recipient of the 2013–2014 Ailsa Mellon Bruce Predoctoral Fellowship for Historians of American Art to Travel Abroad from the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art. For his summer internship, Craig will review files, construction plans, and progress photographs to produce materials showing the development and evolution of the Gallery’s master facilities plan projects.

Austèja Machelaitè
Šiauliai, Lithuania
Austèja received her BA (art history) from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MSt (history of art and visual culture) at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford. She held the Michael Bromberg Fellowship in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. Most recently, Austèja was the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation Curatorial Intern at the National Gallery of Art. She will begin coursework for a PhD (art history) at the Courtauld Institute of Art this fall. This summer, Austèja will assist with the cataloging of the Kainen Collection.

Justin McKinney
Calgary, Alberta
Justin received a BA (English) from the University of Calgary. He is currently pursuing an MLIS (archival studies) at McGill University. This summer, Justin will assist with the review and evaluation of film elements from documentary and educational films produced by the National Gallery of Art.

Maureen McVeigh
Cranston, Rhode Island
Maureen received a BA (double major, art history and Italian) from Mount Holyoke College. She is currently pursuing an MA (art history) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Among her many internships, she was the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Intern at Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. This summer, Maureen will integrate new systematic catalogue research into the curatorial files and update bibliographic and provenance information in the collection database.

Hayley Prihoda
Cary, Illinois
Hayley recently completed a BA (history) from Indiana University Bloomington. She has interned at the IU Bloomington Office of Sustainability and at the Royal Academy of Arts. This summer, Hayley will assist with the overall horticulture operations and the preparation of a history of horticulture at the National Gallery.

Elizabeth Simmons
Huntington, West Virginia
Elizabeth received a BA (communications) from Miami University and an MA (art history) from Indiana University Bloomington. She is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow (art history) in the PhD curatorial track at the University of Delaware. Previously, Elizabeth was a Fess Fellow at Indiana University Art Museum. This summer, Elizabeth will assist in updating collection records according to recent catalogues raisonnésand other art historical research.

Spencer Wigmore
Elk River, Minnesota
Spencer received a BA (art history) from Carleton College and is currently pursuing a PhD (art history) at the University of Delaware. Previously, Spencer was the Weitz Family Intern at Joslyn Art Museum. This summer, he will assist in research and organization for an upcoming exhibition on nineteenth-century American landscape photography.

Justina Yee
Boston, Massachusetts
Justina received a BA (double major, sociology and political science) from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently pursuing an MA (art history) at Indiana University Bloomington. She previously interned in the Office of the Governor of Massachusetts. This summer, Justina will assist the art information program by working with volunteers, presenting gallery talks, and researching and preparing responses to written requests about art from the general public. She will also work in the department of teacher, school, and family programs assisting with the National Teacher Institute.

Hannah Yohalem
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Hannah received an AB (history of art and architecture) from Harvard College. She is currently a PhD candidate (art and archaeology) at Princeton University. She has interned in the education departments of the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and in the department of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This summer, Hannah will assist with planning and research for an upcoming exhibition and publication devoted to early American modernism.

2012–2013 Culturex Fellowship, Spanish Ministry of Culture
Maria Alberola Boada
Madrid, Spain
Maria received her BA (art history) from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and her MA (art history) from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Most recently, she was an exhibition coordinator at the Museo del Prado. From January through July, she will assist the department of exhibition programs by conducting research for a film project on Diaghilev and the department of modern prints and drawings by cataloging recent acquisitions.