Museum of History, Anthropology and Art Internship - Rodolfo Enrique López-Gutiérrez, Week 1

 This first week internship at the Museum of History, Anthropology and Art (MHAA) of the University Puerto Rico has been very exciting and productive. 

I met again with Lisa Ortega, the museum educator, and Oneida Matos, coordinator of extracurricular activities (whom I had already met for the initial interview before the training experience in Washington). They introduced me to all the museum staff and the director of the MHAA, Flavia Marichal.



Rodolfo Enrique in front of the “El Velorio” of Francisco Oller (Photo by Lisa Ortega)

 

The first day I went through the Museum’s poster art exhibition, “El cartel: voz para la resistencia” with the mission to read about the different topics it showcased, and later pick one to create my own workshop idea. In Puerto Rico the term "cartel" is used as equivalent to the word "afiche" or "poster". My favorite topic was environmental conservation. I grew up around nature, and it became a big and important part of me, so I was very excited to start writing down all my ideas. 


Publication of the exhibition “El cartel: voz para la resistencia”

 

From Monday to Thursday I was writing, selecting and developing my ideas on my computer from early morning to midday. Then I had an hour break for lunch and to talk and chat with my coworkers Loren, Lourdes, Shakira, Aleida, Gabriela, Beth, Wildaly and Jessica. After lunch I visit the Museum’s archives to help organize and classify many different Puerto Rican artist documents. The museum collects artist information such as newspapers, social media posts, art exhibitions, autobiographies and more. I help organize all the documents with their topic or artist and then order them chronologically. 




Thursday I finished my PowerPoint presentation with my concept for the workshop and I was able to present and explain it to my bosses Lisa and Oneida, YAP Internship supervisors. I suggested making a workshop with the topic of nature conservation but represented using the technique of Stop Motion. I’d be giving participants a brief definition of what Stop Motion and storytelling are, and share a few examples of Stop Motion modern films, classic films, commercials, TV series and videogames. After that I would do a demonstration on how to do a 2D puppet using simple materials such as cover paper, round head fasteners, scissors and color pencils. The participants can do Puerto Rican endemic animals like sea turtles, manatees or even birds. Later I’ll give them a small tutorial of the Stop Motion Studio App so they can do their own ten second animations. In the end I’ll put them together to make an animation reel or a compilation. 




Lisa and Oneida approved the idea, so that same day I started to do some examples for the participants to take inspiration from. I made a sea turtle, Puerto Rican parrot and brought back a manatee puppet from one of my previous Stop Motions. 

Friday was a special day since I was going to be a workshop assistant with two of my coworkers. Gabriela, Beth and I set up the tables and the materials for the guests. The workshop called, “Libro de origami” was hosted by Yolanda Velázquez who was teaching us how to create a book with origami pages. We remembered each other because I attended a past workshop with her at another museum a few years ago. The guests arrived very quickly and in numbers, so we were kept busy. While Yolanda did a demonstration on the steps of folding the paper, we did the same and repeated her steps. We also stood up every so often to check on the participants, in case they have any questions or fall behind. After two hours we documented the guest’s work and then went for a lunch break. Later in the day I went back to organizing the archives. 

 

This experience opened my knowledge on how things work at the back of the museum, what each of the staff team does and how the museum is administered. This internship connects with the YAP experience because the Museum itself is an institution that is dedicated to preserving and educating about Puerto Rican and Latino cultures through its artworks, paintings and historical artifact and documents collection. 

I can’t wait to see what’s next for this week!  

 

Rodolfo E. López Gutiérrez

Museum of History, Anthropology and Art

San Juan, Puerto Rico 

Week 1

 

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