First day of interning

I mentioned that I was offered an internship at Moderna Museet, working with the registrars (in particular, the international loans, and bonus, the unofficial universal language in museums is English!) But I likely won't start that position until the fall.

I felt like I've been looking for part-time work, an internship or just the chance to volunteer for months (just something useful to keep me busy outside of classes and nannying.) Not being a fluent Swedish-speaker is a huge handicap...the job market is so bad everywhere that the Swedes are going to be the first to get the jobs I'm qualified for, and Stockholm doesn't seem very work-for-free friendly. Volunteering just isn't big here (which is so different from the US) and the internship thing has only been made possible because I am clear that I am doing it for graduate school credit! So it has been a little tough to find the right spot for me here.

But oddly, the week I met with the department head at Moderna, I got a call for another internship opportunity! At a brand new museum, not even open yet. I started my first day of being a curatorial intern yesterday, at the Fotografiska Museum...planned to be a giant space for internationally known photographers, right on the water in the old toll house near Slussen (the one that was supposed to house the defunct ABBA museum.) It opens in a month with 4 photographers, including Annie Leibovitz, who is coming for the opening (and I will get to meet!)

It was an interesting first day...I felt like I was thrown into getting some big things done right away. I have started writing a tour of the Vee Speers show and will interview her next week. I am going to help with writing/editing for the website, coordinating the opening, condition reports for the loans and maybe even hanging the show, which is all fantastic experience for me. Annnnd, they all speak Swedish to me, which is super. I answer in English, because that's the only way I sound half-way intelligent, but hopefully that'll change. And the curator is American and great about about translating for me.

 

We took a hard-hat tour yesterday to see the space, and I don't know that I should post too many pictures of the museum here before they open, but I thought you should see the view from the future top-floor bar & restaurant that opens in the fall. A beautiful view of Djurgården and the Gröna Lund amusement park across the water? I'll take it!

So, I got my wish, and will have most of my free time sucked up by this and school, but it should be fun. 

Stu is out of town, and tonight is Kulturnatt in Stockholm, where every museum and theater and cultural venue is open until midnight with special activities...which should also be fun!