In 2022, when Emma Lenning started college, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to study. The Corona, California, resident traveled across the country to UR to figure it out. “I thought a small liberal arts college like Richmond would be a good place to try out a lot of things,” Lenning said.

It didn’t take long. During Brittany Nelson’s first-year seminar on contemporary art, Lenning found her answer. “From that moment, I fell in love with the study of art,” she said. “I really like how art conveys such great meaning about people and society. I love studying and analyzing it in both historical and current contexts.”

Her interest in art was sparked during a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in high school, but her experience at UR was different. “It was the first time I combined academia with a subject I was truly passionate about.” 

Lenning, a senior art history major, has participated in the annual Harnett Museum of Art student acquisition trip to New York City and voted on an addition to the University’s art collection.  She spent a semester immersed in art history in London through the study abroad program. When it came time to choose an internship this summer, she set her sights on the Los Angeles art gallery scene.

Rather than applying to galleries with existing programs, Lenning took the initiative to contact galleries that could use an intern but did not have a formal position in place. “I did some research on galleries and emailed and asked if they’d be interested in having an intern. I was pleasantly surprised to get responses,” she said.

Adapting to a learning curve

Her summer internship at the Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Los Angeles, a venue that collaborates with emerging to mid-career artists from around the world, has included managing the gallery’s social media, researching artists, and greeting visitors. She even learned the basics of spackling holes and painting walls after a gallery exhibit to prepare for the next show. 

“It was interesting to see the behind-the-scenes processes, especially things like packaging artwork safely for shipping and storage and updating information on the website,” she said. “It made me realize how many moving parts go into gallery operations.” 

Lenning admitted to a learning curve when it came to working on the gallery’s social media.  It wasn’t an intuitive task, especially since she’s not in the habit of using social media much in her own life. Researching ideas for the gallery from Instagram and TikTok videos felt strange at first. “I hadn’t done anything like that before, but learning about social media strategy and how to write in a professional yet entertaining way will be a useful skill to have in my future since it’s so prevalent these days,” she said.

Writing articles about artists for the gallery’s blog was another new experience. “I was excited to try it because I’d never done journalistic writing. I’ve only done analysis and research papers.”

Lenning hopes to work in some aspect of contemporary art in either New York or London after graduation. She credits her internship with exposing her to numerous facets of the industry. “It’s broadened my mind to areas within the field that I didn’t know about before,” she said.