For the past few months, I have been spending my Fridays at the Carnegie Center for Art & History. My name is Rey Spooner and I’m a senior at Community Montessori School. On top of the state’s graduation expectations, Community Montessori has a few more that prepare its students for the world outside the classroom. One of these being internships, this requires 4 semesters of different intern experiences; once we turn 16, we get the Friday off of school to go to our internship.
For my 1st semester of senior year and 3rd internship, I had been searching for a museum experience. A teacher at Montessori said she knew that the Carnegie Center would be open to host an intern for the semester. I had been to the Carnegie Center a couple times for school trips and enjoyed it, so I went ahead and contacted Eileen Yanoviak, the Director at the Carnegie Center of Art & History. After emailing and filling out paperwork for my school, I came in for my first internship day. I remember it well. Eileen was out for the day and I had been given the task of typing up thank you notes for donators of silent auction items.
Since then I have been involved in tons of different activities. From helping with and/or preparing artwork installation, art activities for the many public events, and new exhibitions, along with helping out with anything else. It has been a thrilling couple of months I have spent at the Carnegie Center. I have been able to really pull back the mask of museums and see the operation behind that, while also spending time with the very welcoming people who work there.
It has been my favorite internship I’ve had so far because of how inviting the environment and its employees are and the variety in my tasks. It has furthered my love for museums by being able to see all the work and love that goes into them. At the end of my last day, I will leave after gaining more knowledge and experience of the outside world but losing my favorite Friday activity.
One thing can be known for sure, I will definitely be visiting a lot more often and telling others about the small museum that contributes to New Albany in so many ways.
-Rey Spooner, Carnegie Center for Art & History Intern
