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.