2024 Summer Interns: Sanaa LaCore

My favorite part of my internship experience at the Chrysler Museum of Art was getting the opportunity to experience what it’s like to be a part of the community that keeps the Museum running. It has been an amazing and fulfilling experience that has further solidified my career aspirations of working within museums and art spaces. Along with this career affirmation, my time with the Chrysler Museum has further cultivated my passion for critically and leisurely engaging with art and artists in all forms.  It has instilled in me an understanding of the significance of cultural institutions like the Chrysler Museum, especially in a city as unique as Norfolk.

Interacting with community members, children and families, first-time visitors, and decades-long members allowed me to see just how much the individuals of Norfolk offer to the Museum. I began to notice the reciprocal on-going relationship between person and institution. Through this internship program, I have become more capable of situating my place within it all and realizing where my skills would be best implemented, such as leading day camps to encourage and inspire young artists. I also realized the things I needed to improve on, such as formulating a writing style cohesive with the Museum’s existing one.

I felt the most accomplished when working on Camp Art Stars and cultivating the James Baldwin Legacy exhibition from start to end. I was thrilled to have two tasks that seemed so vastly distinct and appreciated that they required me to contemplate their unique demands differently.

During Camp Art Stars, I was challenged as a teacher and a leader to guide and support the interests of the campers. It was gratifying to see what the campers were able to design when given space and encouragement to explore their artistic creativity. At the beginning of my journey here, one of the strengths I wanted to build was learning how to be a more intuitive teacher who productively aids students’ artistic ability rather than an authoritarian type, and I believe I gained some experience toward that goal

The other rewarding opportunity I had this summer was developing an exhibition, focused on two James Baldwin portraits in celebration of his 100th birthday on August 2, 2024. This exhibition aimed to uplift and honor the legacy of literary, Black, queer icon, James Baldwin. To bring this exhibition to life, I began with researching Baldwin’s life and the artistic backgrounds of his contemporaries, Beauford Delaney and Carl Van Vechten, who created the two portraits the exhibition is based around. When creating this show it was important to me to honor and remember the complex life and artistry of Baldwin in a way that pushed back against memorials that solely martyred great Black, queer minds. I’m immensely grateful for the guidance of my supervisor Emily Cayton, the Chrysler Museum’s Manager of Experiential Learning, who trusted me and my connection to Baldwin and the art pieces and supported me through the entirety of the project.

Additionally, I ran and assisted the Public Engagement and Learning Department with several events, such as the Wonder Wednesdays and Sheriff Baron’s Camp. All of these opportunities culminated into an amazingly well-rounded experience in learning about museum life and understanding the impact museums can have on individuals, including myself.  Now, I see how critical it is to ensure museums are spaces of community and imagination, far exceeding the stereotyped nature of static places that simply hold artwork.