The Bermuda National Gallery has partnered with the Department of Workforce Development to host an intern. The 10 week summer employment programme is designed for high-school and college students to gain a deeper understanding of their field of interest and receive hands-on experience in their intended careers.
Through this programme, BNG were matched with Seer Carey, a 20-year-old Bermuda College graduate who is looking to start a career in 2D and 3D animation, with a minor in sequential arts, game development, business and languages. Seer is hoping to develop new diverse settings for young Bermudian artists here in Bermuda, and expand connections globally to places like Korea, China and Japan, where he one day hopes to reside and study to learn the art of Japanese comics and animation.
Seer has been assigned a breadth of tasks, providing support to each of the five BNG staff members while learning more about the museum’s daily operations.
BNG: What have you been doing in your internship so far?
SC: I’ve been working on a lot of small projects – some that are research-based where I gain a greater understanding of BNG’s history and past exhibitions. I’ve also been doing data-based projects, like helping to migrate membership information into a new system. I’ve been helping prepare for BNG’s Art+Tech Summer Camp by doing inventory on camp supplies and making a video highlighting past summer camp artworks.
I sit in on team meetings and learn a lot about all the projects the rest of the team are working on, and joined for an internal workshop on LinkedIn, where we all updated our profiles and talked about why LinkedIn is an effective tool for marketing. I also went on the radio with Ms. Jennifer and talked about my experience with BNG.
BNG: What has been surprising about your time with BNG?
SC: The history of BNG has surprised me a lot – learning how many exhibitions there have been, and how much artwork is in the permanent collection; the fact that the Gallery started in 1992, then expanded through membership and reaching out to the community. It’s also been interesting to learn about which things get government support.
I’ve also been learning a lot about how non-profit organisations run – I think it’s a beautiful thing that BNG does. The way that Art+Tech summer camp gives back to children and helps them learn about art, and the amount of students that get to try animation because of how many bursaries BNG gives out is really inspiring, especially as an aspiring animator myself.
I really admire the educational initiatives. I shadowed a tour for a group of homeschooled students, and got to learn a lot about The Art of Michael K. Frith: From Pencil to Puppet.
What is your favourite exhibition currently on display?
SC: My favourite exhibition right now is The Art of Michael K. Frith: From Pencil to Puppet. I didn’t grow up in that era when The Muppet Show was very popular, but it’s so cool getting to go back in time and see how Michael Frith helped build such a big show, and how several characters like Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and Dr Teeth, were designed.
It’s so inspiring getting to see another Bermudian that got to work with such big names and contribute to pop culture. It just showed me that even though I come from a small island, I can branch out and work with very big names and have a similar impact. It was also very cool to meet him in person.
BNG: What would you tell others about getting involved with BNG?
I would definitely encourage younger people not just to try and stop by and look at the museum, but get their parents to take out BNG memberships and learn more about BNG and it’s history. What the Gallery does is give a very good foundation of how you’re supposed to run a Gallery, how an art show is supposed to run and good teamwork. If you love art, and art loves you, then BNG is the place to be.