Release Date: July 26, 2006

College Students and Scholars from Nine States, the District of Columbia, and Five Countries Awarded Summer Internships at the National Gallery of Art

Participants in the National Gallery of Art 2006 Summer Internship Program pictured with Gallery director Earl A. Powell III are:
Back row (left to right): Douglas Lachance, Angelica Soleiman, Juliet Baillie, Edward Puchner, Elizabeth Oliver, Kate Markoski, Amanda Herrin, Luisa Materassi, Kathryn Turnage
Middle row (left to right): Brianna McMullen, Jessica Sanet, Melissa Ragain, Earl A. Powell III, Brigid Barrett, Kathleen McGovern, Molly Bloom
Front row (left to right: Ulla Visscher, Jes Therkelsen, Tiffany Lee, Yuko Waragai
Not pictured: Anna Marsh, Jannette Vusich
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Washington, DC – The National Gallery of Art awarded internships to 21 college students and scholars representing nine states, the District of Columbia, and five countries. The Gallery’s summer internship program, which offers paid professional museum training, began its full-time, nine-week session on Monday, June 5, and runs through Friday, August 4.

The interns represent diverse backgrounds with a range of educational experience—from art history, photographic preservation, and chemistry to music, communications, law, and geology. They were chosen based on their strong interest in museum work, outstanding academic achievement, and letters of recommendation. Many of the students are pursuing advanced degrees.

A Gallery-wide committee, with input from mentoring departments, selected the interns through a competitive process. Each intern is completing a project directed by a Gallery curator or department head and participates in biweekly orientation sessions in order to become familiar with all aspects of museum work. They are working throughout the Gallery in 15 departments with curatorial, education, conservation, library, publishing, archival, music, film, and administrative staff. The internship program is supported by individual gifts and endowment funds and is administered by the Department of Academic Programs in the Division of Education. Information about this and other Gallery internship programs is available at www.nga.gov/education/interned.htm or by calling (202) 842-6257.

2006 National Gallery of Art Summer Interns

Juliet Baillie: Juliet recently graduated with an M.A. (Hons.) in the history of art from the University of Glasgow. She interned at the Ulster Museum, Belfast, and at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Whistler Studies. This summer Juliet is interning in the Gallery’s department of photographs and working on the central European photographs project.
Hometown: Belfast, Northern Ireland

Brigid Barrett: Brigid graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in American Studies. In college, she interned at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and in the frame conservation lab at the Smith College Museum of Art. Since the fall, Brigid has been a volunteer intern in the conservation lab at the Shelburne Museum working with the Americana collection. This summer she is working with the Gallery’s frame conservation department.
Hometown: Williston, VT

Molly Bloom: Molly received a B.A. in classical studies from The College of William and Mary and is a graduate student at American University specializing in 19th- and 20th-century European art. Molly participated in the Graduate Education Faculty Assistant Program at American University. She is working in the Gallery’s publishing office this summer assisting with the preparation of materials for the 2006 Frankfurt Book Fair.
Hometown: Charlottesville, VA

Amanda Herrin: Amanda graduated with a B.A. in art history from the University of California, Berkeley, and received Master’s degrees in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles, and from Courtauld Institute of Art, London. She interned at Christie’s in London and worked as a research assistant at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Jay De Feo Trust in Berkeley, California. Amanda is working in the Gallery’s department of northern baroque paintings on the second edition of the Dutch systematic catalogue. This fall, Amanda begins the doctoral program in art history at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
Hometown: San Francisco, CA

Douglas Lachance: Douglas graduates this August with an M.A. in museum studies from The George Washington University. He received a B.F.A. in graphic design with a minor in art history from the Hartford Art School. Douglas worked for several years as a visual merchandising executive at Macy’s East. He was a design intern at the National Zoo’s Office of Exhibits and Outreach. This summer he is working in the design and installation division in the silkscreen department.
Hometown: Washington, D.C.

Tiffany Lee: Tiffany, raised in Taiwan, received her B.F.A. in dance from New York University. She earned an M.A. in early childhood and elementary education from New York University and an Ed.M. in arts in education from Harvard University. Tiffany is currently a doctoral student in art and art education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She recently completed an internship at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. This summer she is interning in the Gallery’s department of teacher, school, and family programs researching materials for high school programs associated with the upcoming Jasper Johns exhibition.
Hometown: New York, NY

Katherine Markoski: Katherine received an A.B. in the history of art and architecture from Brown University. She currently is a doctoral student in art history at The Johns Hopkins University, where she previously worked as a teaching assistant. Katherine interned at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy, as well as the Boston Review, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This summer she is volunteering full-time in the Gallery’s department of modern and contemporary art working on the systematic catalogue.
Hometown: Alexandria, VA

Anna Marsh: Anna received her B.A. and M.A. in music (bassoon performance) from the University of Southern California and currently is a doctoral student in music (historical bassoons) at Indiana University. Anna has performed with the Santa Fe Pro Musica and Chicago Opera Theater and interned at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Library and the Museum of the City of New York. This summer she is interning in the music department, assisting with concert management and researching Venetian Renaissance music. She is performing in some of the lecture-recitals presented at the Gallery in July and August.
Hometown: Tacoma, WA

Luisa Materassi: Luisa earned a B.A. (Hons.) in classics from the University of Cambridge and an M.A. in the history of art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, as well as an M.St. in classical archaeology from Wolfson College, University of Oxford. In March Luisa received an M.A. in the classics from the University of Cambridge and this fall will enter the doctoral program in art history at the University College, London. She interned at the Wallace Collection in London and the British Museum. This summer she is working in the Gallery’s library image department on the art history database project.
Hometown: Florence, Italy

Kathleen McGovern: Kathleen graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in French and a minor in art history. She interned at the Federation of Alliance Françaises U.S.A. and in the department of prints and drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. Kathleen has worked as a public relations specialist at the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and as a public affairs specialist at the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. She is currently an M.A. student in arts administration and modern art history, theory and criticism at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This summer Kathleen is working with the staff of the National Lending Service.
Hometown: Bethesda, MD

Brianna McMullen: Brianna received a B.A. in elementary education from Texas Lutheran University and then worked for three years as an elementary school art teacher in Bryan, Texas. She graduated with an M.A. in art education from the University of North Texas last December. Brianna interned and then worked at the Dallas Museum of Art. She currently works for the non-profit Mobile Digital Arts and is an instructor at Tarrant County College. Brianna had an article published recently in Art Education Journal. This summer Brianna is assisting the education division with the National Teacher Institute.
Hometown: Dallas, TX

Elizabeth Oliver: Elizabeth will earn an M.A. in art history this August from the University of South Florida. She completed a B.A. in art history at the University of North Florida. Elizabeth has received research grants from the Houghton Library and the Bibliothèque Nationale. She previously interned at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, and worked as assistant curator of medieval manuscripts and early printed material at the University of South Florida Libraries. Elizabeth has written book reviews for the International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing. This summer, Elizabeth is working on the rare portraits project in the Gallery library’s image collections department.
Hometown: Tampa, FL

Edward Puchner: After receiving a B.A. in art history from Carlton College, Edward managed an art gallery in New York for five years. He earned an M.A. in art history from Indiana University, where he begins work this fall on his doctoral degree in art history. Edward served as a graduate assistant to the curator of western art at the Indiana University Art Museum and was a fellow in the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He has written reviews for Raw Vision magazine. Last year Edward presented a paper at the American Studies Association conference. This summer he is working on the Vogel Collection in the Gallery’s department of special projects in modern art.
Hometown: Piermont, NY

Melissa Ragain: Melissa earned a B.S. in chemistry at Rhodes College. She received an M.A. in art history at the University of Virginia, where she was a Jefferson Scholars Graduate Fellow and where she will begin working on her doctoral degree in art history this fall. Melissa interned last summer at the Zimmerli Art Museum working with their Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Soviet Non-Conformist Art. This summer she is working in the Gallery’s department of modern and contemporary art on the catalogue of the 20th-century collection.
Hometown: Shreveport, LA

Jessica Sanet: Jessica has just finished her first year of law school at the University of Maryland. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in history. She worked for two years in the membership department at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and served for one year in AmeriCorps. Jessica was an education intern at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a curatorial intern at the National Postal Museum. This summer she is working in the department of imaging and visual services cataloguing images, assisting in the documentation and production of digital imaging methodologies, and researching relevant copyright issues.
Hometown: Washington, D.C.

Angelica Soleiman: Angelica was born in Colombia and raised in Spain. She holds a B.A. in communications from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She received fellowships from the La Caixa Foundation/International Council for Canadian Studies to support her M.A. degree in photographic preservation and collections management at Ryerson University in cooperation with the George Eastman House. Angelica currently is a doctoral student in photographic preservation and curation at the Universidade da Coruña. She is working in the Gallery’s department of photographs this summer assisting with an upcoming exhibition of Central European photography.
Hometown: Madrid, Spain

Jes Therkelsen: Jes received his B.S. in geology from Amherst College in Massachusetts. After graduation, he taught English literature and language in Athens, Greece. He enrolled at Rider University, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where he received a Scholar Research Grant Award to author a documentary film. He currently is pursing an M.F.A. in film and media arts at American University. His documentary films have been screened in Washington, D.C., Trenton, New Jersey, and most recently at the San Francisco Documentary Festival. Jes is working in the Gallery’s film programs this summer assisting with the documentation and cataloguing of the film and video collection and researching and writing program notes.
Hometown: Lawrenceville, NJ

Kathryn Turnage: Kathryn currently is enrolled in the M.A. program in art history at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She received her B.A. in art history from Wake Forest University. Throughout her undergraduate education, she studied the piano, harpsichord, and opera. This summer she will intern in the music department assisting with concert management and researching Venetian Renaissance and Dutch baroque music. She will perform in some of the lecture-recitals presented at the Gallery in July and August.
Hometown: Dallas, TX

Ulla Visscher: Ulla earned a B.S. in marine biology from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. She has worked in the libraries at the University of British Columbia and the Italian Cultural Institute in Vancouver and is currently working with the Pacific Newspaper Group in Vancouver. Ulla is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of British Columbia School of Library, Archival, and Informational Studies. Recently, she interned at the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property in Rome. This summer she is working in the Gallery’s archives department assisting with the inventory and organization of original architectural drawings, photographs, and files relating to the Gallery’s museum buildings.
Hometown: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Jannette Vusich: Jannette completed a B.A. (Hons.) in art history at the University of Toronto. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Last year, Jannette was a fellow at the Charles Singleton Center for Italian Studies at the Villa Spelman and was a curatorial intern at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. This summer she is working in the Gallery’s department of Italian Renaissance paintings assisting with research on the Gallery’s Venetian collection.
Hometown: London, Ontario, Canada

Yuko Waragai: Yuko earned a B.A. in art and design at Tamagawa University in Japan. This year, she received an M.A. in museum education from the Bank Street College of Education, Manhattan. Currently, Yuko works as an educator at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. She previously interned at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and worked as a facilitator at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. This summer she is working in the Gallery’s department of teacher, school, and family programs assisting with the active summer program schedule and the research and planning of the 2006-2007 family programs schedule.
Hometown: Saitama-ken, Japan

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

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