Name and Title: Taryn McMillen, Getty Marrow Curatorial Intern 2020
Education info: I studied art history at California State University, Long Beach, and graduated spring 2020
What led you to pursue an internship at the Rancho? I have always been interested in pursuing a career in museums, and after meeting with Sarah, the curator, I felt that this internship would be a great opportunity to learn more about how museums operate.
What were some of the tasks you did while interning here? I worked closely with Sarah on research and projects to benefit the site. Because my internship was conducted remotely, with weekly visits to the site, my main responsibilities included updating the Rancho’s website to include highlights from the collections as well as past exhibits. This included handling and photographing artifacts for the webpages, which was a lot of fun.
What were you most surprised about during your internship? The many interesting artifacts within the Rancho’s collections.
What was your favorite part of the internship? Learning more about Rancho Los Cerritos and talking with staff and volunteers when I was able to go on site.
What was the most interesting artifact you came across while working on exhibits? There were so many, but if I had to choose, I’d say that the objects from the medicine and health exhibit were the most interesting. Some of the medicine containers from as far back as the 1800s still had pills inside!
What are your hobbies/passions? I enjoy studying art, learning new languages, and traveling (which I cannot wait to do more of once it is safe to do so). I’m also committed to uplifting people of color in cultural institutions, and continuing to learn to be anti-racist.
What are your plans after completing your internship? To continue working and learning as much as I can about the museum world. I also plan to continue my education at graduate school in the future.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.