Sheena Crawley, Studio Art and Economics '13

My name is Sheena Crawley and I am a double major in Studio Art and Economics.

I would have to say that my favorite artist is Pablo Picasso.  I feel like his art walks the line of abstract art even though he was one of the most important artists responsible for the cubism art movement.  I enjoy how I have to take time to analyze his artwork in order to appreciate and understand all of the elements that are working together.  I see his work as visually challenging and I like a challenge.

 My responsibilities at the Phillips Museum consist of maintaining the website, including setting up the website’s configuration, and adding all of the text and photographs.  I am also responsible for using social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr to interact with our community outside of the museum.  Lastly, I help to promote and document the exhibitions and events to the community through making videos from exhibition receptions, adding photographs from the exhibitions to our social media outlets, and making all information from past exhibitions available on the website in an organized exhibition archive.  During my time here I have worked on the Outdoor Sculpture Map on Google Maps, archived all past exhibitions since the 2007-2008 school year on the website, created videos to recap receptions and gallery talks for exhibitions, and created web banners to advertise current ongoing exhibitions.  Now that I am leaving this position, I have also begun to write a Digital Media Manual to help the next incoming intern when they begin to work.

My favorite thing about this job is that I am always busy working on something.  I enjoy having multiple things to work on because I am able to take a break from one task and work on a different one.  I also like how some of my responsibilities are routine, but then I get to work on various projects, which makes things exciting.

What I find most challenging is editing information that has gone onto the website.  Often, there are small mistakes that are easily missed, particularly misspelled names and dates, so it is important to take your time in transferring information to the website and make sure you double check everything.

 This job has definitely given me technical skills in learning how to use InDesign and learning more about Photoshop.  I have learned that research before planning and organizing projects is helpful for the final outcome and that multitasking is an essential skill for any job.  This job has also taught me that the work each employee does is very important in developing the museum to its full potential and that my input and opinion is helpful even though I am just an intern.

I am most looking forward to being the new graphic design intern here at the museum.   I believe this opportunity is very important in developing skills and experience that I will need in the future.  I will accumulate great print pieces that I can add to a growing portfolio and I will finally get a real taste of what it is like to be a graphic designer.