The last 2 weeks...

At the Monte Dolack Gallery have been great. Last week I focused on putting up images on our website. I find the task fun and exciting. It gives me more experience with working with computers which is something I often struggle with. Putting up images on the website is not a very hard task there are just a lot of steps that one has to go through. First I have to take the image in preview and open it in photoshop. Then I save the image in 3 different formats and in three different folders. After saving them I open the master image in another program called fireworks. It is in firework were I reformat and resize the image. I also make the thumbnail for the website in fireworks. After saving the thumbnail and the newly reformatted image I finally put them up on the website. I write new descriptions for the image, add tags, put up its size and pricing, and make sure that everything is in order and looks good. I will repeat this process with every image I have to put up. I like the repetition of the task and find the more I do it the quicker I get.

This week on Tuesday I mostly put peoples addresses in our computer address book. While I was doing this I was also helping people out in the gallery. I have been able to answer a lot more questions which has allowed me to become more confident on the floor. I also have been answering the phone more which is new and exciting for me.

Coming back to the Gallery

This week is my first week back to the Gallery since being sick the week before followed by spring break. My first day back was great. I started a new project. It is my job to go through the website and copy the descriptions for all the pieces of art and then print them out and attach them to the backs of each piece. When I go through the descriptions it is my job to edit them and find the mistakes that occur on our website. I also have to take note when a piece of art has very little description so we can talk to Monte and fix it.

While I am working on this project it is also my job to greet guests and let them know what is going on in the gallery. I also work the cash register.

The gallery has framed some old pieces of art that Mary Beth and Monte made on their vacation to Hawaii. I thought they were stunning. My favorite was a watercolor piece by Monte of a Marlin.

This week and last

These two last weeks have been action packed. Last week Kari taught me how to put up art on the Monte Dolack website. I will now be in charge of putting up descriptions, creating thumbnails for the artwork, and saving them in 3 different setting while adjusting modes and sometimes levels. I am one of the only people who know how to do this very important task besides Daniel the web guy who comes in every now and then.

 Later that week we had a good bye party for Kari with champagne, cheese, crackers, pear, and cake. We all gave her gifts and wished her the best of luck in Portland. It was sad to see her go and I am thankful for the knowledge she passed onto me.

This week I only worked Tuesday (today) since I have been putting so many extra hours into training these past couple of weeks. Today was not to hard but still a learning experience. I first came in and read up on the emails. Monte is teaching a class on plein air painting on a ranch, he is giving each staff member a signed copy of his new poster altered state that has just came out, and the gallery is discussing to change its donation policy. Since the first day I started to intern at the gallery there has always been a steady flow of donations that Monte has handed out. This was okay at first but is now becoming a problem. 100% donation artwork causes trouble because if it is not auctioned off at its set price but is sold actually lower it undermines preferred collectors artwork causing less people to want to buy his originals. One of the framers, Melissa, then gave me an article to read that was very informative on the issue (http://katevrijmoet.com/blog/broader-economic-implications-donating-your-art/). The gallery has not set in stone its new donation policy yet. They are still deciding the best way to go about this situation.

After around an hour of reading I set off on my task for the day which was filling a whole sale order for notecards. This company wanted 46 different notecards and 18 of each of them. This was not to hard but I was not able to finish the task with my given amount of time because there are several steps involved. I found the task entertaining and productive. I also repaired a poster display portfolio by securing one corner for it to stay in place.

That sums up the last two weeks at the Monte Dolack!

Always learning something New!

This week I learned a lot about frame design. There is a lot to go through when helping someone find the right kind of frame. You need to help them keep the framing costs within there budget and because of this it is very important to know the costs of each frame before suggesting it. You must also consider other factors which are included in the costs such as mattes (do you want one or two and what kind of paper do you prefer), the type of glass (regular, conservation, or plexi glass), and the costs of labor. There are different glass types to fit different needs the plexi is used for public spaces and conservation glass helps keep the colors within a picture strong and not fade out. We recommend conservation glass to people buying limited and archival prints and lithographs or originals. Frame design has some math involved which can get slightly complicated because you are measuring the design while dealing with a customer, so it is important to know how to multitask. Frame design was exciting to learn about and I learned a lot about how different galleries differ with there designs but the Monte Dolack gallery like to keep there frame designs slightly neutral and timeless.  

Training!

This week's post is coming a little bit late. I have exciting news. A week ago I was offered a part time job at the Monte Dolack Gallery. I am very happy to be offered this job and gladly took it. I have not started the job yet since I am still finishing my internship, but right now I am getting trained. I am learning a lot more about how the gallery operates. I also decided to start coming in on Saturdays when I can to get some more training done with Kari before she leaves for Portland. I am sad to see her go but honored that the gallery has chosen me as her replacement. I have big shoes to fill. This Saturday was an important day. I learned about how to greet customers when they enter the gallery, a little bit on how to work the cash register, and learned more about there computer system and how they set up there website. I have so much more to learn before I take over this job, but I am sure I can do it! 

First Friday...

This week at the Monte Dolack Gallery there was a lot to do. First, I had to finish my project of measuring Dolack's prints and poster collection. I was finishing up the posters and discovered a lot of early work that seemed very different than his current work. His early work focuses more on figures. I saw a lot of movie posters and different promotion posters.

The Beginning...

...Of my Internship

Hi everyone! My name is Shelby Faber and am a junior majoring in art and business marketing with a minor in art history at the University of Montana. I am starting a blog to keep track of what I learn during my art and marketing internship at the Monte Dolack Gallery in downtown Missoula, Montana. I have been allowed to take part in this amazing internship by the School of Art at the University of Montana with Monte Dolack Gallery and I am so excited. This opportunity is a privilege and a chance to gain experience with art marketing, framing, and seeing how to run a gallery.

I am so excited to work with the Monte Dolack Gallery. The staff and artist Monte have been nothing but nice to me since day one. Monte is a local artists who is one of the most well-known Montana artist, and has had his work exhibited internationally. He is a painter who primarily works with acrylics and watercolor. They call him around the gallery the artists of the people and for the people. They call him this because along with his original works he mostly produces poster art, lithographs, and prints which come out to be more affordable for the average person. He is best known for his themes that center around the juxtaposition between nature in an urban setting, and his imagery of the American west. One of his best known pieces, "suburban refuge" (1984) shows a flock of ducks habituating a family bathroom. I am reminded at the gallery by Naomi Fox, manager of the gallery, that this image "went viral before things went viral"and as a result this has been consistently his best selling piece. The gallery sells posters, prints, lithographs, note cards, Monte's art and the art of his wife Mary Beth Percival who is an en plein air watercolorists.

I will be working at the gallery every Tuesday and Thursday from 11:30 to 2:30-3 every week. I will be learning the business side of things including filling shipments, taking inventory and measurements, learning about the galleries ethics and where/why they order from certain companies opposed to others. I will also be learning how to hang a show, the basic principles of framing, more on how to market art, and eventually working with people in the front of the house. I am very excited to learn the true ins and outs of an established local gallery from the bottom to the top.

My first day of the new semester was on Tuesday and it was a lot of fun! Since only one of the framers was working that day I was able to first do some busy work by changing their time fliers from saying hours from Monday through Saturday to hours from Tuesday to Saturday (which I learned were traditional art gallery hours) and then taking some inventory and measuring the sizes of the art. This allowed me to get to know Monte's art even more and see some of his rare older work. I also was taught on Thursday how to frame a print. This started off by cutting some glass, the gallery uses both regular and conservation glass. Next I had to cut foam core for the backing of the prints. After I cleaned the glass and print, I then sandwiched them together, and secured the print and foam core down. It was a great start to the new year and I was very happy that I am learning more about framing so hopefully I can start framing my own work. I finished up my day by shoveling snow in front of the gallery.

Next week I will be taking more inventory and maybe working more with framing! I am very excited to learn all I can and do my best to help out the Monte Dolack Gallery.