I thought I’d take a break from filling out applications and do a proper intro to this blog. My name is Devi, I can now officially say I’m part of the Idealist.org Grad School Blog Project! I should have introduced myself earlier, but the GRE was all I could think about the month of October. And now that I have signed up to retake it AGAIN in December, I’m either: a masochist, insane, or intensely driven (I’d pick the latter). See, I just wrote a statement that involved multiple choice, then eliminated poor answer choices. I need a life– STAT.
I know neither my blog nor bio don’t reveal much about my background and my exact perspective as one of the bloggers on the project. For starters, I’m sure some of you are wondering: why a PhD in art history, and how would this blog benefit the typical reader of Idealist.org?
In order to help explain this, here’s my background:
I’m applying to graduate school after 5 years of work experience. I received my BA in Classical Archaeology in 2003, so I’m a little out of practice with writing papers and spending long wild nights at the library. After graduating, I worked part-time for a fine arts community center for a couple of years that offered art courses and had a gallery space. At the same time I continued to intern for other museums in different types of departments: Education, Public Relations, and finally Collections Management. This internship led to a position in the American art department at a museum in Los Angeles, where I now work as a curatorial administrator.
I have been learning so much about American art and the nature of museums, and all the preparation it takes to promote art to the public on a large scale. Working with curators and seeing how their ideas of art and scholarship are expressed through exhibitions has been such an inspiration to me. It’s helped me to develop my own ideas about art and what I’d like to explore in graduate school, particularly my interests in non-profit organizations and the community.
I hope that whatever readers take from this blog and the experiences I share is that you may not always exactly know what you want to do right after college, and that’s okay. It took me five years to figure out what I wanted to focus on, and I did not expect it to be American art. I have friends that changed programs after taking one inspiring course, and I know others that have gone into completely different career paths. So if the wind starts blowing, don’t be afraid to let it take you somewhere. You just never know.
ld.
P.S. Check out my fellow bloggers’ sites! All their links are on the Grad School Blog Project Tab on the right. They’re a fantastic group of people that offer a peek into their grad school experience, or those who are trying to apply (just like me).
