Author: Ally Braunsdorf
A new job can alter one's career expectations. A new city can redirect one’s path. A combination of the two offers the magnificent opportunity of reigniting a love for one’s passions, and introducing new experiences, to those lucky enough to receive the opportunity to do so.
As a recipient of the Tomayko Foundation Summer Grant, I moved to a new city, in a new country, on a new continent, to study in a field I had no prior experience in and make memories that will last me a lifetime. Upon my arrival at Islington Museum and Archives, located in the borough of Islington in London, England – I was terrified. I had never pursued a position in art history or the museum studies field, let alone an ocean away from home. However, after a few days in the museum, this fear rapidly subsided. From the moment of my arrival, my coworkers and manager were nothing but kind, attentive, and informative. Surrounded by a global team, with employees from Spain, Hong Kong, California, Australia, and Ireland, I strangely felt more at home than I ever would have anticipated. My coworkers understood the trials of starting a new position in a new city and did everything in their power to make me feel welcome.
From the beginning of my internship, I was sat down, and made to address my academic, career, and future goals– something I have never witnessed in any position I have held. These meetings were to ensure that I would not be limited to menial tasks of running coffee (or rather English breakfast tea!) or pointless tasks, but that I would be exposed to the field of art history and museum studies in a way that would most benefit my aspirations. My first conversations revolved around a love of art history and legal studies, and a hope to integrate these two fields. I did not have a specific path I was keen to follow, but rather a general idea. My supervisors and coworkers utilized these passions, to create day-to-day actions and roles that would best introduce me to a work I knew little to nothing about.
By the first week, I was aiding in curations and researching the history and provenance (history of an artworks ownership) of the museum's pieces. I then moved into an area I had known nothing about but quickly fell in love with– art acquisition. Researching the museum's present collection, alongside possible additions, I was tasked with roles that many art lawyers in places such as Sotheby's and Christie's do day to day. After expressing my interest in this area to my supervisors and coworkers, they aided in creating further roles within the museum along such lines, introduced areas of graduate field study, and even spoke to connections at major auction houses to further develop their own personal understanding of what “art acquisition law” truly entailed.
Because of my time at the Islington Museum and archives, I now have lived and worked in an international environment, have immersed myself into an area of study that I had never had the privilege to before, and have developed a passion and a path on which I will be able to fulfill my career aspirations. The support of the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Tomayko Foundation Summer Internship Grant made this opportunity possible, and I will be forever grateful for the experience that I had this summer.
Ally Braunsdorf was a Summer Intern at the Islington Museum and Archives, supported by a Tomayko Foundation Summer Internship Grant.