National Museum of the American Latino - Francisco Ciraulo, Week 1




 Week 1: National Museum of the American Latino


Washington Week 2.0! Wait, no... where did everybody go?


Déjà vu aside, I once again ventured back into the familiar comfort of the Molino Family Gallery’s Presente! exhibition where I was reunited with the one and only Adrián Aldaba, now as my internship supervisor. Also, shout out to Emily Key for being an awesome museum contact as well!


Tuesday, July 5th, aka Day 1, I started with learning the basics of the activities within the GM Learning Lounge, where I will be spending my internship Mondays. Later in the day we braved the rain outside to travel back to the NMAL offices. Settled back in yet another one of our Washington Week staple locations, I got the full behind-the-scenes experience of unpacking a conference room full of boxes. But not everything was training and opening boxes; I was also introduced to the project I will be developing throughout my internship. 


Given three options, I opted to develop programming for an upcoming event at the Cheech Marin Chicano Art Museum in Riverside, CA. While many details of the event are yet to be decided on, it will center around an exhibition of artwork by the de la Torre brothers. Working with mixed media–often glass–the brothers create art pieces that echo themes of bi-cultural experiences and an existence that extends across borders. It is a fascinating exhibit and I look forward to developing my project further!


Wednesday was office day. One full day of unpacking and sorting the contents of a new slew of boxes, interspersed with planning for my project, and I headed home on my Metro by 7:30pm.


Every day seems to bring something new, and Thursday best exemplifies this. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend a meeting in the NMAL offices about the Colorism and Indigeneity Project which is being developed. Not only did I get a chance to see Madeline, Josh, and Eduardo again, but I got a peek into the thought process and work that goes into projects such as this one.The meeting itself ranged from discussing the selection of an advisory board to examining the specifics of the current program ideas. One point of discussion that stood out to me was this project’s potential to connect to the Afro-Latino and Asian-Latino populations.


My first week concluded with an at-home Friday where I spent some more time brainstorming programming ideas for my project.


Signing off on Week 1 and looking forward to the weeks to come,

Francisco


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