Second Week at the Museum of Latin American Art

Second Week at the Museum of Latin American Art
By Alexis Cruz

This past week as a summer art camp counselor was quite eventful and at times overwhelming. Amidst the screaming children and paint stained clothes after a long day of working on a mural with the campers, I finished off the week with a tired but genuine smile on my face.


The week was event packed with activities from the creation of robots made out of construction paper to the painting of a 15 foot mural. This week was particularly challenging because I had no prior experience to working with 6-8 year olds. Their unsettling energy prevailed from as early as 8am, all the way until 3pm. At this particular age range, these children are learning how to interact with the clashing personalities of others all while familiarizing themselves with social norms and expectations. Nonetheless, I did my best to assist the campers with their needs even if that meant standing right beside them at every hour of the day to ensure they didn't run off, get distracted, or disrupt the class.

In this week's camp session I even got the opportunity to host an art workshop with the campers! The project consisted of creating an image by rubbing a wax crayon onto a paper with a stencil underneath. The finished product was then sprayed with a mixture of water and oil to create a beautiful thank you card for their parents. Upon the completion of this project I became appreciative of the tremendous roles of teachers who have to take so much into consideration on the planning of day to day activities.

Additionally, I was also given the task of coordinating an open house art gallery for the culmination of the week long camp. This, of course, was easier said than done after having no familiarity with how the art gallery was executed the previous year. I, along with a college education intern had to create a gallery layout to submit to the plant manager of the museum, make a detailed program of the open house, and coordinate with the instructors to make sure they were on the same page with the format and timing of the activities at the gallery. I had to balance both tasks of being a being the coordinator of the open house while being a supportive camp counselor for the little ones.

The open house ended up being a success where all the campers got to showcase their art to their family!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MI FAMILIA

MI FAMILIA. As Sunday reaches its end, there's no longer workshops, reception tasks, tours, or any of the sort left. It surreal to not wake up with the sole purpose of going to the museum, a feeling I am going to miss. These last four weeks have opened my eyes to what surrounds me, taught me to seek more, to discover new assets in me, and has shown me to never conform to what I know; there's always room to grow. The team of MHAA has become my family and I can proudly say they are a part of the YAP family, which means that MHAA is part of of us, a part of you. I hope throughout the blogs, it has become clear how wonderful of a discovery this experience truly is, and it ended as great as it could ever be. During the week I researched Egyptian culture, gave tours to visitors, took the measures necessary to protect a painting (and I carried a giant bubble wrap through campus), and was in charge of handling and fixing the subtitles on an hour seminar, which would make the vid...
Read more

Successful Women in History- Final week in Atlanta

     The week has come to an end and so has the intership. This whole 5 weeks in Washington DC and Atlanta, Georgia has been quite a unique experience. It’s very dear and special to me. I can say I have been beyond blessed to meet all of the wonderful people and kids I have worked with during this past weeks. I’m glad my summer was like no other summer I lived. This one was very informative as well as educational.      This week was all about immigrants across the world to the United States. The kids and I learned that immigrants do not only come from Latin countries but also from the Middle East, Europe, Asia, etc. We read about many success stories of immigrant and undocumented families. For the kids to get a better understanding about immigration Mr. Andrew, the teacher, related it with the kids favorite foods! Such as hot dogs, pizza, french fries, donuts, tacos. These food had originated from Great Britain, Mexico, France, and United States. The kids...
Read more

Last Week at the Museum of Latin American Art

Image
Last Week at the Museum of Latin American Art The last week at MOLAA was definitely a memorable culmination of the past three weeks of summer art camp. From the deinstallation of all the galleries at the museum, to the party for all summer art camp volunteers, and the installation of the art gallery "Undocumented Stories", this last week was was to remember. The first days were spent deinstalling all the galleries at the museum. This was a rather tedious job since I was given the task of removing the vinyl lettering placed on the walls of the exhibitions which provided background information on the artwork and pieces. This showed me the much thought that is put into the creation of exhibits and the message that is portrayed to the audience.  Additionally, I was also given the task of coordinating and creating a celebration party for the summer art camp volunteers who generously volunteered their time for three weeks. The party was Havanna themed which left me and...
Read more