It was a rare opportunity for a �ֲ���ý student: a visit to the New York City studio of a nationally acclaimed artist to purchase works for the permanent collection of the �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art.

Wally Reinhardt, a painter known for his depictions of mythological scenes from Ovid, has been featured at the �ֲ���ý museum before. “His studio was full of life,” says Lillie Shulman ’17 of Brooklyn, N.Y., who visited Reinhardt on the Upper West Side with �ֲ���ý museum staffer Anthony Shostak. “We were surrounded by his bright and colorful works hanging on the walls.

“I was really honored to have that opportunity,” adds Shulman, a double major in art history and French.

Lillie Shulman ’17 of Brooklyn is shown amidst the �ֲ���ý Museum of Art exhibition Mythology, which she helped curate. Hanging at left are watercolors by Wally Reinhardt. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Shostak, the museum’s education curator, brought Shulman along on the June 2015 acquisition trip to make use of insights she’d gained in helping to develop an exhibition for the �ֲ���ý museum: Mythology, which shows through Dec. 23. Reinhardt is among artists represented in the show, which consists of works, largely selected by Shulman, from the museum collection.

During her sophomore year, in an Educational and Interpretive Programming internship under Shostak’s supervision, she had done substantial research and developed a curatorial direction for the show. This developmental process, routinely assigned to interns, both gives the museum a leg up on future exhibitions and steeps the student intern in the nuts and bolts of exhibition design.

While Shostak set no strict parameters for the exhibition, Shulman determined that a show about classical Greco-Roman mythology would make the best use of the museum’s resources. To better understand the artworks and the ancient narratives, she dived head first into a research process that included consultation with scholars on campus and with local art historian Eric Hirschler.

“Juno Recycled Argus’ 100 Eyes,” a 1997 watercolor by Wally Reinhardt.

Developing the show was very collaborative. “An awful lot came from Lillie,” Shostak says. “I would present her with open-ended questions, but then I could also push her to take an idea a little bit further.”

Once Shulman had a grasp on the various narratives in individual artworks, she had to find a way to tell a story using those narratives. The pieces chosen range from the 16th to the 21st centuries, are the products of 13 different artists, are in varying media, and represent their subjects in vastly different ways.

“As installations of objects, these shows can potentially look really disparate,” Shostak said. “Aesthetically, how do we utilize some strategy to bring it all together?”

Given classical mythology’s long influence on literary and visual culture, Shulman wanted to highlight how artists’ interpretations and depictions of the myths over the centuries have changed in keeping with cultural change.

For example, a 1992 digital photographic depiction of the Three Graces by artist Del LaGrace Volcano, “brings up issues regarding feminism and homosexuality,” Shulman says.

Lillie Shulman looks at watercolors by Wally Reinhardt in New York City in June 2015. (Anthony Shostak for �ֲ���ý College)

“Including more contemporary work makes it a little more exciting,” says Shostak, “and that also ties in with recent books and movies that directly relate to those subjects.”

By the end of her internship, Shulman had created a strong basis for this exhibition. But there was no timetable for implementing it, and that’s not unusual. “We never actually moved to total completion through the internship,” Shostak says. Instead, Shulman was assigned to “generate much of the background for something that we could hold in our hand until we needed it.”

A year after the visit to Reinhardt’s studio and after a full year studying in Paris, Shulman received word from Shostak that he wanted to resurrect her mythology exhibit for the museum. “I never thought that this show would be executed during my senior year,” Shulman says. “It was really wonderful to hear that, two years later.”

Shulman was in New York for another internship that summer, but didn’t hesitate to help finalize the show, albeit largely via email and software that enabled her to experiment with different arrangements of work in a digital �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art.

Shostak was equally pleased to have Shulman’s help, especially during the crunch time at the end “when she was looking at wall labels, proofing, rewriting, and reprinting.” The exhibition opened the week classes began at �ֲ���ý.

Shostak is impressed by Shulman’s above-and-beyond commitment of time and effort to the show. “She had totally fulfilled all of her requirements a long time ago but was invested personally in the project and wanted obviously to see it through to completion,” Shostak says.

And Shulman? “I’ve always had a strong interest in museum administration and business departments,” she says.

“At the �ֲ���ý museum, I had the exciting opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and learn about the inner workings of the curatorial domain. This experience has encouraged me to consider pursuing more projects and careers where my curatorial skills can be applied.”

“Apollo Amusing the Gods,” an 1872 wood engraving by Thomas Nast. Gift of Richard and Ruth Hathaway ‘55.

Victoria Lowe ’12, at right, leads a dance class during her 2012 internship at the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre in Taunton, U.K. Photograph courtesy of Heathfield Community School/Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre.

“Many prestigious independent schools in Britain have internships, usually linked to sport,” says Michael Bettles, a �ֲ���ý parent and top administrator at Heathfield Community School, a state secondary school in Taunton, U.K.

“I could see the benefits that the interns bring to those institutions, so I thought: Why should they have all the fun?”

Thus inspired, Bettles worked in 2011 with the �ֲ���ý Career Development Center to grab some of the fun for �ֲ���ý and his own institution, where he is deputy head for curriculum and assessment. The result: performing-arts internships at the , affiliated with , that were inaugurated this summer by a current �ֲ���ý student and a 2012 graduate.

The internships, which Bettles suspects are the first at any state-run school in the U.K., include salary and accommodations, as well as invaluable assistance negotiating the complexities — “labyrinthine,” in Bettles’ description — of obtaining visas for the interns.

“This partnership is exciting because it provides a paid professional internship abroad in the arts, which is unusual,” says Nancy Gibson, an assistant director at BCDC whose purview includes internships. “Most internships in the arts are unpaid and may involve clerical responsibilities, as opposed to professional experience.”

Gibson worked with Bettles to make the internships a reality. “The help offered by Nancy was crucial to the success of the whole thing,” says Bettles, father of Matthew Bettles ’13.

Lucas Wilson-Spiro ’15 shows off the robot that he designed and built as part of the set for the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre production of “€˜The Wiz.” Photograph courtesy of Heathfield Community School/Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre.

Lucas Wilson-Spiro ’15 and Victoria Lowe ’12 just completed the inaugural eight-week internships at the arts center in southwest England. Lowe is one of �ֲ���ý’ first dance majors and Wilson-Spiro has a long interest in the technical aspects of stage performance.

At Tacchi-Morris, they helped instruct individual students and classes in performing arts, and pitched in on a production of The Wiz, the 1974 soul-music adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, that ran July 11-14.

Lowe contributed choreography and did marketing work. Wilson-Spiro put in late nights designing and building sets, and working on stage lighting.

“They both got on brilliantly,” Bettles says, “and we were overjoyed at how well they fitted in.”

“It was an amazing experience,” says Lowe. “I’ve had a variety of different internships elsewhere, and held many leadership positions, but not at such depth. It was an opportunity to really be a part of a team, and to weave my own piece of thread into the fabric of the Heathfield community.”

She adds, “Everyone had a job to do, and no person or position seemed to be more valuable than the other. This was really nice to see.”

For Wilson-Spiro, a connection made during the internship led to a volunteer position at this August’s , the world’s largest arts festival. “I jumped at the chance,” he says.

“I never would have made the connection or gotten the position if I hadn’t been chosen for this internship.”

If the Tacchi-Morris internships are distinctive in important ways, they are typical of the productive relationships that BCDC has with parents. “They contribute their expertise by participating in workshops and panels,” says Gibson. “They provide internship and job opportunities, and connect students to other professionals.

“These partnerships are tremendously valuable.”

To Bettles, the new partnership makes good sense. “I see a clear correlation between the ways that performing arts are taught at Heathfield and at �ֲ���ý,” he says.

“We both see the performing arts as an essential part of a well-rounded education, and as providing insights into the human condition that cannot be fully realized in any other way.”

The connection also extends a network of overseas relationships that Heathfield and Tacchi-Morris have forged in service of their common goal of using the performing arts to promote international understanding. That goal reflects the vision of arts center benefactor Kathleen Tacchi-Morris, who was a women’s rights advocate and world peace activist, as well as a dancer.

Bettles anticipates adding a third �ֲ���ý internship, with a more pronounced educational focus, next year. “One of our aims is to ensure that our students leave with a world vision,” he says. “For them to rub shoulders with students from a top U.S. liberal arts college is a fabulous opportunity.”