Last Week (5/7-5/11)

This was a really busy last week, but my time at Waterfall Arts has taught me so much about art and how it affects small communities like this one. I sat in the gallery nearly every time I went in this week, and I got to talk to some of the visitors and observe a class of 4th/5th graders talk about their favorite pieces of art in the show. It's really amazing to get to see how much this community surrounds itself with art and takes part in things that Waterfall provides for everyone. It's kind of sad to think I won't be coming back, but I hope that I can get chances in the future to come back and see how this little community has morphed around the wonderful world of art.

Interviews 4/30-5/4

As my time at Waterfall is nearing the end, I've been trying to get artist interviews finalized and ready to be posted in the blog. I got to meet with another of the artists in person, Gianne, and I was also assigned another artist to try and interview, Tom Ventura. I haven't heard back much from other artists, though Mary Faith is really excited to meet me in person if we can ever find a good time! I also was upset that for the Bread & Puppet event last Friday I was too sick to go out and attend, so I not only lost a good opportunity for hours, I lost an opportunity to interact with community members and see how much this event is enjoyed by so many. Though I missed out on this, I've been sitting in the gallery mostly, and that's a good time to get to talk to people that come in to look at the art.

Bread & Puppet Week (4/23-4/27)

This is an exciting and busy week for Waterfall Arts as they prepare for one of their bigger events, Bread & Puppet, coming up this Friday 4/26. I've been given a lot of paperwork that the office needs entered in spreadsheets to keep track of all their records for things like scholarship applications and class evaluation sheets. This paperwork is a really nice task to have because I can take it back to Unity with me and enter the data from there as well. Things are starting to get a lot more busy with the semester coming to an end, but my projects at Waterfall are coming along still (though it is a slow process).

Getting Close to the End (4/16-4/20)

This week I got some more interview questions answered by artists, though I'm still waiting for more replies and more chances to meet with the others (or hopefully run into them around the building). The information for the summer classes is almost finished being entered! I am also looking forward to an event that's happening next Friday called Bread & Puppet. It's supposed to be a really good show according to many locals that I spoke to about it as I went around town putting up flyers for the event. It'll be a good opportunity for more hours in addition to communicating with the public, photographing, and event set-up. This will be my first time seeing this event as well, so I can't wait!

4/9-4/13

This was a slow week at Waterfall, I'm mostly waiting for more interviews to be scheduled to happen so I sent follow up emails to all the artists. Most of this week was spent doing some office tasks and trying to meet up with artists/gathering info for the upcoming website. I continued to enter information on summer classes for the website as that info is still being updated and finalized.

Second to last post- Audubon Internship

Annica and I are beginning to collect volunteer submissions for the 2018 remote pond/ coastal stream survey. The Brook Trout Project report for 2017 is awaiting publishing, as we have finished all our data entries and sent the document off to MDIFW (Maine Dep. Of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife). After editing this report, originally written by another author, the extreme importance of detail-attentiveness was proven to me yet again.  It is so easy to miss very small details, and takes several revisions to ensure consistency… Particularly if you’re not writing something first-hand. I’m sure I will run into report revision/editing again, and this work served as a valuable lesson in ‘taking out a microscope’ when re-reading scientific lit.

I completed my presentation in Dr. Jack Hopkins’ class this week, and it was exciting to be back on campus. I am so happy to have had the chance to engage with Dr. Hopkins throughout this internship. He is a wealth of knowledge, extremely supportive and eager to learn about what we were up to over at Audubon. I extend to him my utmost appreciation for being my sponsor.

Annica and I are continuing to work together even after my internship is completed. I am so happy I can maintain this amazing partnership. Annica inspires me to be my best and is very encouraging in every way, the ideal person to have in your life after graduating college. I’m so lucky to have had this internship and can’t wait to see what comes next!