Supervisor Spotlight

My most direct supervisor, Dana, is the Curatorial Coordinator for the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA). On a day-to-day basis, she manages all the moving parts that make a museum exhibition happen. This includes everything from coordinating with lending institutions and artists, planning travel itineraries, and meeting with everyone from the development staff to installation staff to make certain that all deadlines are reached, the exhibition is promoted well, and everything stays within budget.

The thing which dominates her daily work is organization, which works well with her personality style and work needs. Since taking on her position, Dana has instituted a number of vital tweaks to the system by which exhibitions are organized, including a number of checklists, and much more constant communication at all levels of the museum to see that everyone's needs are being met.

Dana's education came from ASU in fine art photography, and during her time pursuing her undergraduate degree, she interned at SMoCA in the very same position where I currently am. Overall, this has given her a very unique perspective on how to manage my own internship and that of my fellow interns. I have felt over my time that this has led her to be much more deliberate in laying out tasks for me to complete, so that I may understand all of the facets of curatorial work in the museum world. In the interim though between her undergraduate studies and working at SMoCA, Dana spent time as a photography teacher at Metro Arts, an arts-focused charter school in central Phoenix. There, she exercised her more traditional photography skills, but here is more able to utilize her general skillset for coordination and management, while still working in the arts. This path speaks to me, as while I do have a particular interest in one area (public policy/urban planning), I can use those skills in another arena, even one related to the arts. As demonstrated by her career path, oftentimes it is not your specific education that leads you to your eventual career, but the contacts you make along the way, and the skills which you develop.

Seeing the many contacts Dana must maintain in order to fulfill her job description is, honestly, at times a bit frightening for me to observe. However, seeing her in action makes me feel that such a position is something I could definitely do in my future.