From fine arts, to theatre CNU takes great pride in its Liberal Arts centered institution. While many schools are known for their medical programs and their stem labs, CNU is known for its creativity.
Creativity is oftentimes a skill that is neglected and seen as invaluable compared to science and math. However, this could not be farther from the truth. The undervalue of creativity has caused many schools to view creative liberties as invaluable, when in reality creativity is one of the most crucial skills to learn. This often puts students with creative majors in boxes, with many questioning what someone would even do with an art degree.
CNU works to remedy this frame of mind, creating internships solely for art students. The CNU art internship helps its students see and experience varied career paths, such as museum curation, teaching and behind the scenes work. This helps students feel hopeful about careers in this field outside of college. It allows the students to experience a simulation of jobs they can be hopeful to have after college outside of a broke studio artist.
Andrew Brown, Co-Manager of the program states, “The job market is scary right now, especially for art students. However, through the constant communication between students and professors, I have no doubt that all of the interns (including myself) will find lucrative positions after we graduate.”
The fear that art—and many other creative majors— face is that they will struggle to find substantial jobs after schooling, this with the rise of AI has caused many students to lose hope in a career they will enjoy. CNU’s Art internship nourishes hope, and builds students who will find sustainable jobs in their future.
Brown explained, “As an intern co-manager, I do a little bit of everything. I work closely with associate dean Dr. Michelle Erhardt and chair Prof. Christi Harris to ensure that the program is utilizing [the interns] abilities the best we can. I am responsible for scheduling, event planning, exhibition curating, and all of the other aforementioned tasks.”
Being an CNU art intern is a competitive position that only 10 to 15 students are hired for. With the utilization of time sheets for the tracing of hours, CNU Art interns get hands-on, well rounded experience in fine arts and other mediums like museum curation. These students are put to work, learning in real time about the art world, unlocking information and knowledge that can be used and expanded upon in their future careers.
The Christopher Newport Art internship program helps aid students in discovering what part of the art world they would like to pursue after college.
Senior intern and photography minor Luna Carroll confessed, “this position has helped me dive into my own personal photography work more as well as my interests in running social media! We have a small social media team within our interns and I am happy this is an experience I can put on my resume for years to come.”
Carroll shines light on other parts of this program including social media. Social media has become a necessary part of communication, socialization and advertisement, becoming a crucial part of our world..
Not only does this program allow these students to gain important information about all different sectors of the art world, it also provides students with imperative skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. Important skills such as organization, creativity, time management, team work and more can be expanded on through this program.
CNU Alumni, previous Art Intern in the class of 2024 and present day Resident Fellow Carmela Wark found she hated the idea of having to make their work more digestible and marketable. For students like Wark, this program helped to solidify the idea that museum studies were more enjoyable. Wark was an art intern who began working with ceramics eventually moving into print making studios where she focused on her artistic talent. The multi-media work the interns do gives the students more freedom and knowledge to utilize wherever their career paths may take them. Wark even agrees that her knowledge as a fine artist has impacted her skills as a museum curator beautifully, allowing her to use those skills. Wark explained that some of the behind the scenes knowledge she gained was chemistry and its involvement in the arts. Many wouldn’t know that chemistry has a part to play within the realm of art, however, art students utilize chemistry frequently mixing chemicals in all forms of art.
Here, creativity is nurtured giving many students the opportunity to be creative, fostering unique experiences. Brown, for example, highlighted, “I love that we are given opportunities, like curating exhibitions, that we may not have the chance to do otherwise.”
Tez Truver, an intern co-manager, expressed,“It gave me more of a push in the direction of wanting to teach art to kids to give them an outlet for free expression and a way to give them something to physically see as a result of that outlet.”
This program creates a beautiful space for students to learn about the many facets of media. And develops a well-rounded education surrounding the arts.
Truver and Wark also explained how the program allows the CNU art community to flourish in class by assisting professors. This allows professors to help their class become a vibrant learning where assistance stays within reach. This aids students, like Truver, who want to teach, practice their skills and get useful experiences by being in an educator’s shoes.
Without this program, many of these students never would have and their creativity would have been nurtured in such a way. Creativity is a valuable soft skill that CNU takes seriously.
This program ventures into parts of the Art world that the average person never would have thought of, providing valuable job experience, skills and insight. Careers in the art world extend beyond just the stereotypes we have been led to believe. CNU Art students will amount to great things with the use of the professors and programs like this one, the “starving artist” stereo type ends here.
