Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA)

Hello everyone! It's Dania. I hope you are all enjoying your internships as much as I am mine! #SLCYAP2016

And so my two hour trip to my new internship begins as I "tap" my card at the local North Hollywood Metro station. I get on the subway to connect to the Blue Line train. An hour and a half left, and I go through the best and worst areas Los Angeles has to offer: Santa Ana, Compton, Wilmington, and finally, Long Beach. What a ride for the ultimate culmination in seeing the Pacific Ocean to my right, within a vibrant, diverse city with much to explore, and to my left, there it was: the big, geometric building, with blue blocks, a small cascade, a reflecting mirror, a metal rhinoceros, among the many intricate art pieces in its surroundings, and a sign celebrating the twentieth anniversary of MOLAA: Museum of Latin American Art.

 

I walk past the tall palm trees, and enter the glass doors. I am warmly greeted by the front desk, and soon, the Curator of Education, Gabriela Martinez, and the Education Programs Coordinator, Nalini Elias, come down to meet me. "At MOLAA, we all wear many different hats," they told me, and already I was excited. We sit down in the library and they explain the wide variety of activities I would be leading and facilitating. "Don't worry about being too formal, being by the beach, there is definitely a much more laxed vibe." 

It is my first day on the job, and I go upstairs where I am escorted to my own cubicle! Oh boy, I thought. I'm gonna be sitting here all day, you know, your typical intern. Nalini with her cheery youthful personality settles my worries and assures me that I would get to experience it all. She introduces me to everyone, all so kind and welcoming, willing to help whenever necessary. Next, I have my picture taken and within minutes, I am given my own identification badge. I am led downstairs to the art studio. I look around, every cabinet labeled with every medium crucial for any artist's masterpiece. I am emailed a list of tasks I will be responsible for, mostly in preparation for the coming Summer Art Camp and the new exhibit; Artist's Assemble, an empowering collection of contemporary comics. I create colorful badges for the campers with everything at my disposal: tape, glitter, markers, paint, oil pastels, etc. Another one of my tasks includes decorating the bland lecture room to be used during camp activities. I honestly did not remember the last time I had picked up a paint brush. While being an admirer of the visual arts, my personal abilities in high school had been dedicated to the performing arts. This would be interesting, I thought. Then again, as every real artist knows, beauty is subjective. And on the wall I read a poster with a poorly written statement and a happy face: "I can draw crappy and be happy." I guess I never really bothered to unleash my creative side onto paper, simply because I thought I wasn't skilled and therefore would not enjoy myself as I would doing other things. "I don't want to micromanage you," I am told. I have so much freedom and flexibility graciously granted to me, and one artfully inspiring room to myself to get the job done. Surprisingly, time flies, as I play my favorite music and enjoy my peaceful lone time and the therapeutic motion of every stroke, and every picture that pops in my head to be transmitted onto the room decorations. I gradually hang them up on the walls: Latin American flags, a Bienvenidos sign, and other posters and collages.

  
  

 

It's lunch time, and I decide to walk down the street to the beach. The coast's wind blows through my hair, here the temperature much cooler than the valley's, the salt water smell reaches my nostrils, the warm sand on my feet, the seagulls sound in the distance, and the vast ocean before me. Every lunch since then, I'd indulge in the beautiful blue skies and picnic by myself at the shore. Gladly, I;d enjoy the characteristic Southern California day in my final weeks before moving to the small bucolic, seasonal small town of Hanover, New Hampshire.

   

I return and am given the tedious task of removing the vinyl writings on the walls of an exhibit to be substituted with the new one. I scrape off every descriptive paragraph. "Don't worry," they tell me, "you will get to learn how to apply it too, an important skill for museum work." I get the chance to look through the galleries and the beautiful sculpture garden filled with succulents outside. In the coming days, I would work on the camp program (good thing I was on Programming team during Washington Week) and parent packets with information to be distributed. Furthermore, I'd help the curator of the new exhibit with administrative documentation such as the artists' permission and release forms. And yes, I'd make some copies and "typical intern work." I really didn't mind what I did, as time flew by, and I enjoyed partaking in different activities and not a single lagging task for eight hours. 

 

In the museum, art workshops and tours are hosted throughout the week, there is a lovely gift shop, and a delicious Latin American cafe. I look forward to the coming weeks with the art camp that includes activities from hands on art projects, science experiments, culinary projects, Zumba, capoeira, art analysis, field trips to popular outdoor venues in Long Beach, and much more! The age group ranges from 5 to 12, but I still get to join the little ones!!

I feel blessed to have the opportunity to intern in the only U.S. museum dedicated to modern and contemporary Latin American art. There is a wide variety of exhibits exploring identity and Latin American movements. There are so many great events like the Lucha Libre event, filled with actual matches, galleries, and face painting, there are art film screenings, discussion panels like one titled, "Plucking Frida," going beyond the typical figure that comes to mind when thinking about female Latina artists, and so many more. Overall, MOLAA is a very relaxed, fun, yet structured, and well-rounded environment with passionate staff members that I am so happy to be a part of. I am learning so much, and my supervisors are very wise, intelligent, organized, empowering, and creative young women. I am confident that this experience is building me up in unique and useful ways for my coming months in college. The liberty and space I am given for the tasks at hand have allowed me to be more responsible and willing to take initiative in exuding my own creativity. This week I learned not to settle for a destination as a goal, rather to keep moving, the journey is worth it all, and change is good. I have come to realize that the more we go beyond what makes us comfortable, beyond our presumed capabilities, the more we can become grounded in who we are and what we wish to do.

"De Chile Mole y Dulce" by Cintia Segovia
This collection of photographs was initially part of the "Who are you?" exhibit. Now, part of MOLAA's permanent collection. this is one of my favorite pieces that highlights the contrast of diverse looking Mexicans with the single general stereotype as represented by the mustache and sombrero. I can relate to this because many say I do not look Mexican, when there really is no such narrow labeling.