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Life as an intern at Cushing

This summer we had the pleasure of hosting an intern from Marwen’s Art@Work program. And now you’re wondering, sounds great! What is that?

WHAT IS ART @ WORK?:
Art at Work is a 5-week summer internship program for young people to be hired and paid as professional young artists. The program is a great way for young people to gain work experience, learn about fields they are interested in, and get in-depth artistic and professional development.

During her tenue at Cushing, we asked Ali Spann, the intern who spent part of her summer at the shop, to share her experience working with the team on our blog. Keep reading to learn about Ali’s experience.

Hi my name is Alison and I was an intern at Cushing. It all started when my friend sent me an Instagram post about Marwen and how they had an art at work program. I applied and here I am!

When I first got into Cushing I was nervous. But when I got there, they made me feel at home and everyone was so polite and nice. (Kudos to Julia Kaufman for such a wonderful idea to create the signs.)

On the tour I was given, I met the extremely welcoming team at Cushing. I also received the opportunity to see their amazing prints and advanced printers which were really cool and amazing to see.

Of the work they did that stood out to me was the album wall, where they printed out their favorite album covers and stuck them on a wall in the building. The wall is covered in album covers. It was an idea they had when they moved into the building and hosted an open house back in 2017. It’s really cool to see.

In the building, they have a lot of cool prints over the walls and windows. When the tour was over they showed me my desk and it was so cute! It made me feel at home and officially an intern at Cushing.

The four weeks at Cushing were really fun; getting to talk to everyone, seeing how they work, and seeing the process of printing was really cool. During my time there I shadowed Renee, Amanda, and Mariano.

When I was with Renee I saw how to edit on the computer, same for Amanda but she showed me one of her cool projects she was working on, and with Mariano, I saw the process of printing. Kind of a “behind the scenes” look.

Another project I did was I printed out my own album cover. First, I went to Renee and the process was really easy and simple. We went on the computer and she did her thing and then printed out the album. Later, I went to Mariano and he laminated it and I got to use the computer for the machine to cut out the album (which was fun to do). After, I got to put it on the wall with the rest of the albums.

(The album is PLANET HER by Doja cat)

I’ve learned that the printing process is complicated when you first look at it; however, I feel like when you start working on it more and get used to it, it becomes easy to do.

This was an amazing opportunity. A chance to work at Cushing and shadow some of the team, work beside them, and work on projects was an amazing experience. I’m really grateful I got to be apart of this.

I also took photos! That was really fun to do. Here are some pictures of some of the wonderful people I met.

In the Shop:

Here are some of my team members hard at work too, on the administrative side of the office.

 

 

Overall I had a great experience learning about printing and the workings of the business. Thanks for reading!