This is the next installment of a weekly interview series, on the Culture Comment blog. It’s called “Behind-the-Scenes.” Each week, we’ll discuss new facts and information about the people that make the Walters Art Museum tick. Now, let’s meet Kat Buckley.
Gary Vikan: What do you do at the Walters?
Kat Buckley: I am an intern in the Family Programs of the Education Division. I spend a lot of time helping to plan events, such as family days. I research performers, gather info and try and recruit the best ones to come to the Walters. I also occasionally help out with the summer programs, which can mean anything from fetching emergency art supplies to sitting with kids and helping them brainstorm ideas.
GV: How did you get this internship?
KB: I applied online for the internship at the Walters. I needed two letters of recommendation, a motivation letter, my transcript and resume. I was abroad at the time I was applying, so I had a phone interview, rather than a face-to-face one. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was late for the interview! I was really nervous afterwards and thought I definitely would not get the internship. I suppose that sometimes things work out anyway!
GV: How did you get involved with education?
KB: I had an internship with a Baltimore non-profit organization called Nana Projects. Every year, Nana Projects puts on a Halloween Lantern Parade. After helping out with the parade, I became interested in community events.
Bozo Prison by Laure Drogoul
I am also a Maryland Institute College of Art Art History Major with concentrations in Curatorial Studies and Book Arts. We have a course called Exhibition Development Seminar where the class puts on an exhibition , and my class put on Follies, Predicaments and Other Conundrums: The Works of Laure Drogoul. I was placed on the education team, which meant that I would help to create and run public programs. The mentor for the education team was Walters’ Manager of Family Programs Emily Blumenthal. She used past Walters’ programs as examples and models for us to base our programming on. I was inspired by what she taught us. The overall exhibition was a great success, and I had a very enjoyable experience. I decided that I would like to learn more about what it is like to work in education.
I took another class at MICA entitled Art, Architecture and the Open City. We spent a lot of time in that class talking about the idea of an Open City. It means to evoke the idea of a city that is diverse, friendly and holds events for its citizens to come together and interact with one another. The best example I can give of an Open City is Sesame Street. Sesame Street is diverse; its citizens all know and care for one another. This class furthered my interest in how public programming can help a city to come together and better meet one another.
GV: So, you have a strong interest in public programming?
KB: In Summer of 2009, MICA sent me to Leadershape. Leadershape is a 5-day program where students from all over the country come together in a mansion in Allerton, Illinois. The students bond, share ideas, and give advice on how each participant can make their ideas into reality. Leadershape encourages its participants to make a “Leadership Blueprint,” which outlines what they think is the most important thing they can do right now and how they can get started on making a difference. For this blueprint, Leadershape encourages its participants to think big, beyond their college and to their city, or even their country. My main focus was, predictably, public programming and how the world, but particularly Baltimore, could have more of it. All of this comes together to form why I decided to pursue an internship at the Walters.
GV: What projects are you currently working on?
KB: I am currently working on finalizing performers for our family festival during the upcoming Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toy in the Attic exhibition. All the performers center on themes of magic, wonder and amazement. It was particularly fun for me to put together these performers, as I happen to know quite a few circus-acts in the Baltimore area. I spent some time following a band that encourages its audience to dress up and perform with them, from living statues to hula-hoopers. Also, during my time planning the Laure Drogoul exhibition, we booked performers who were friends of Laure for her monthly 14k Cabaret, which led me to better know the performance artist scene in Baltimore. When I found out that we were planning a family day around this theme, I could not believe my luck. It was almost as if this internship was fitted just for me, like a glove!
GV: What are your plans for the future?
KB: My time is nearly up as an intern here at the Walters. I really enjoyed it, and it has led me to pursue public programming in other forms, as an extension of my art. I really believe that public programming allows the people of a city to come together and enjoy one another’s company. I am originally from an area immediately outside of New York City, and New York constantly has weird and fun events that bring its citizens together. Inspired by this, I am currently planning a Bubble Battle for September 18 in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Bubbles are cheap and easily accessible, which gives it the spirit of an open city event. I chose the Inner Harbor as it is a spot where many tourists come, and I think it is time the citizens reclaimed it as their own space. I hope to show whoever visits the harbor on that day that the people of Baltimore can come together and have a good time just blowing bubbles and to inspire the city to hold future events that echo the themes of this one.
If you or someone you know is interested in an
internship at the Walters Art Museum, there are more details on our website.
Do you have a question you would like to ask Kat? If so, let’s hear about it in the comments!
Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum since 1994, has been with the Baltimore institution for more than 20 years. A native of Minnesota, Gary received his B.A. from Carleton College in 1967 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1976 before working as Senior Associate for Byzantine Art Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.