51吃瓜网

This summer I was grateful for the opportunity to intern with 51吃瓜网鈥檚 costume department. This experience was made possible thanks to the generous support from McGill鈥檚 Faculty of Arts Internship Award. I am deeply appreciative of this experience and the AIO. As a Drama and Theatre major going into my fourth year at McGill, I have had the privilege of working in a costuming capacity for the last two years. I have become passionate about visual storytelling in the theatrical arts. The study of drama and theatre continues to provide me with deeper insight and curiosity for storytelling and human interaction across artistic disciplines. My personal interests in sustainability and sewing were assets throughout this project.

I was motivated to pursue this internship because of my love for costuming and my interest in furthering my skills in management and curation of a collection. Through this internship I aimed to learn more about the process of sourcing and organizing a costume collection. Specifically, I was intent on exploring historical understandings of gendered clothing categories with regards to the organization of the costume collection.

The opportunity to work with 51吃瓜网鈥檚 costume department as a host organization was a good fit for me, as I reflect their strong values of creativity and innovation. For this project the host organization鈥檚 mission was to rehabilitate the costume storage facility to promote creative ad sustainable costuming for use in university shows.

During my internship, my duties included a primary evaluation of needs and timelines, and subsequent meetings to discuss these. With these needs in mind, I used my contacts in the industry to arrange and conduct site visits and information interviews. The information I gleaned from these visits aided in the general organization of the space and collection. I headed sourcing trips to build the collection I was working with. To that same end, I created costume pieces to add to the collection.

This internship was an excellent way to put my academic knowledge to use in a tangible way; my knowledge of different eras allowed me to organize and sort period clothing. My knowledge of research methods allowed me to fill the gaps in my knowledge efficiently. Finally, my academic background gave me an overview of theatrical traditions, and knowledge of the garments necessary to provide costumes for varied works.

The process of rebuilding a costume storage from an empty space meant that there were many big visual changes over the course of the project. My highlight of the internship was seeing the space as I had designed it; filled with furniture and the organized collection. Seeing my work come together in such a way made me feel very proud and accomplished.

Although the internship experience was very rewarding, there were some elements which I struggled to get used to. For me, my biggest challenge was to feel comfortable leading a project. This collection was the largest that I had worked with and the responsibility of being the one to make final decisions was daunting. I feel very grateful for having worked with a supervisor who gave me intentional and direct feedback on my progress. This feedback, as well as my own reflections on my previous experience that had led me to this internship, helped to overcome this challenge.

I received academic credit for this internship, supervised by Catherine Bradley, and I feel that it provided excellent experience which will compliment my other coursework. My research topic was centered around accessibility and sustainability in costuming and collections work.

I believe that this internship will act as a foundational step towards professional work in the costume industry in my future. My knowledge of my area of research has grown, an area which I intend to build on throughout my career. This would not have been possible without the award which I received, which was fundamental to my capacity to do this internship.

The financial support I received supported my internship by allowing me to focus my efforts entirely on my work. The ability to pay for transit and essentials during the process made it possible for me to devote myself to my work, without stress for the future. Because of award I have been able to achieve my goal of working in this capacity.

I am deeply grateful to have received the Faculty of Arts Internship Award, thank you for the generous support in making this experience possible.