What Are You Working On? The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Spring 2026 Interns Reflect

Hadeel Alkhesaifi, Strategic Programs Intern

I have been fortunate to work across departments on various projects, including writing artist biographies for the Museum website, researching and updating artist information in collections, and some design work for the Museum’s art room and office gallery wall. I also look forward to observing the Learning & Engagement team’s tour and workshop for a high school visit in the coming weeks.

Hadeel’s Collection Pick: Lloyd H. Stevens, Portrait of George Mingo, 1975

Lloyd H. Stevens’ portrait of George Mingo captures the artist at his studio, engaged in his creative process. While researching artist biographies for the Museum, I came across a leaflet for a 1974 presentation of Stevens’s work at the Studio Museum, An Exhibition of Drawings by Lloyd H. Stevens. On the back of the leaflet is a quote by the artist which reads, “My art matters only insofar as it enables you to see more clearly the spaces between caring and indifference.” The quote resonated with me and it reflects how I approach all art practices across time, especially today.

Jennora Blair, Development Intern

As an Intern on the Development team, I've spent much of my time researching prospective funders and corporate partners. I’ve also been nourishing my passion for writing through grant writing for foundations. A lot of my work comprises self-directed pursuits of connection and exploration. I’ve carved out time to connect with staff across the Museum, asking questions about their work and dreams, and fostering relationships that will last beyond this internship. I’ve also taken the initiative to support events like Member Night and Studio Sundays.

My first professional goal for this internship was to learn about fundraising and gain a fuller understanding of financial sustainability for nonprofit organizations. I also simply hoped to be inspired. I set intentions for myself to be open and curious; I wanted to be moved by something, to feel a shift in my thinking about future goals. In the process, I’ve learned so much about my own interests. Through conversations, projects, and experiences at the Museum, I have recognized my interest in a multitude of art topics and practices I’d like to do, and I now have a clearer vision of my next steps post-internship.

Jennora’s Collection Pick: Rosana Paulino, Gêmeas (from the “Jatobás” series), 2023

I’m drawn to the idea of Black women as Earth, our blackness seeding the soil with energy. We are stewards of the land that nurture entire villages with simple breath and touch, growing flowers from our fingertips and roots from our legs.

Grace Hackney, Curatorial Intern

As a Curatorial Intern, I update a weekly list of global exhibitions that feature artists of African descent; digitally and physically organize the curatorial library, our internal inventory of exhibition catalogs and books related to artists in our collection; conduct artist research and write artist biographies for the Museum’s website; and update the Museum’s digital archive of past exhibitions by compiling all institutional documents related to each exhibition.

Through my internship, I hope to gain a better understanding of all that goes into curating an exhibition from the very beginning.

Grace’s Collection Pick: Noah Davis, Black Wall Street, 2008.

Davis takes moments from Black life and makes them dreamlike. Black Wall Street captures the very beginning of the aftermath of the Tulsa race massacre. For him to depict a violent moment in Black and United States history as still and eerie feels quite unique.

Amira Oguntoyinbo, Director’s Office Intern

As the Director’s Office Intern, I have been assisting the department with administrative and research tasks in support of the Ford Foundation Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden, and Chief of Staff Terrence Phearse. Every day at the Studio Museum looks different for me. I have done everything from conducting research and preparing documents to ensure the Director and Chief Curator is best equipped for her media appearances, to helping compile data on attendance at the Museum. The range of responsibilities has kept me on my toes and makes each day interesting!

Amira’s Collection Pick: Lorraine O’Grady, Art Is…, 1983/2009

This is one of the first artworks I felt a connection to when I saw it on Tumblr nearly a decade ago. It was a true full-circle moment to walk into the Museum’s second-floor gallery and be greeted by the many smiling faces in O’Grady’s Art Is… and to know that my own work contributes to furthering the representation of Harlem’s community and culture. It also feels like such a succinct summation of the Studio Museum in Harlem’s mission.

I was also stunned by the seven bronze time capsules containing testaments by Black artists, intellectuals, and writers in Houston E. Conwill’s The Joyful Mysteries (1984). A fun tidbit I learned during this internship is that another one of his works lives just a few minutes away at the 125th Street–Lexington Avenue subway station!

Darcy Ovalles, Curatorial Intern

As one of the Curatorial Interns, I have been working with my co-intern, Grace, on a cumulative list of all exhibitions in the world that feature an artist of African descent. This goes out weekly to the employees of the Museum. We have also been working with the three Studio Museum/MoMA Curatorial Fellows—Cam McEwen, Taylor Ndiaye, and Maria Wilson—on organizing the Curatorial library and creating a functional check-out system. By the end of the internship, we hope to have all the publications organized and catalogued so that all employees can check out books from our library!

Another exciting project we work on is writing biographies for artists in the Museum’s collection. I have taken this project as an opportunity to learn about art forms that I am not as familiar with, and I have learned so much along the way. Lastly, we have been helping the Curatorial team with compiling documents for ongoing and previous exhibitions, including project proposals, drafts, artist statements, and other documents.

Through this internship I hoped to see the inner workings that make an institution like the Studio Museum run, and I have certainly experienced that. I feel like even as interns, we are constantly included, and our curiosities indulged and encouraged. For example, through the Studio Museum Institute, we have had talks with the Development and the Learning & Engagement teams. After work, I like to hang out at this comfy late-night Pakistani cafe called Kaafi to sip on chai while I study for the Law School Admission Test.

Darcy's Collection Pick: Elizabeth Colomba, Daphne, 2015.

I really love pieces that imagine and insert Black women into spaces where they have been historically erased or excluded, and this painting does that with a beautiful portrait of the myth of the naiad.

Tomás Miriti Pacheco

As the Communications Intern, I have worked to provide support to the wide range of projects managed by this department. This has offered me several delightful opportunities to write for the Studio Museum’s media channels: from drafting polls on Instagram and Threads to waxing poetic for our Studio Notes emails. As I learned to write in the Museum’s institutional style, these diverse assignments have shown me the dynamic balance of rigor and creativity that programmatic writing requires. I am grateful for the concise and constructive feedback I have received from my supervisor, editor, and even my fellow interns as I have worked to improve my copywriting skills.

Tomas’s Collection Pick: Tom Lloyd, Nubile, 1965

As a part of my orientation, I read a selection of historical texts about the Museum, including accounts of the Museum’s inaugural exhibition, Tom Lloyd’s Electronic Refractions II (1968). Learning about the role that Lloyd’s abstract light sculptures played in shaping the unique identity of the Museum from the very beginning led me to dive further into the contemporary Tom Lloyd (2025) exhibition, which christened the Museum’s reopening more than half a century later. In that exhibition, one of Lloyd’s earliest light sculptures, Nubile, jumped out to me because of its single, geometric shape. An elegant prototype for the larger, more complex sculptures to come, this piece inspires me to pursue innovative forms of expression in my own art.

Erin Simmonds, Learning & Engagement Intern

I have been gathering resources to expand American Sign Language programming at the Museum and sharing suggestions about what a future in accessible programming and education for the community could look like. For my final intern project, I am working on a program proposal for the Teen Studio inspired by Camille Norment’s Untitled (heliotrope) (2025) that involves creating an audio composition with Harlem high schoolers.

As someone pursuing a career in education, community outreach, and research, I'm observing the Directors and Educators in the Learning & Engagement department to learn how to create culturally responsive educational experiences. Being included in a space where people are not only entertained, awestruck, or immersed in the artwork but have an opportunity to leave with the tools to recognize the way art is all around us has been fulfilling.

Erin’s Collection Pick: Howardena Pindell, Autobiography: Scapegoat, 1990.

As someone who spends most of my time writing, I have always been drawn to art that includes text. This piece resonates with me because of the flow in its composition. I’m taken by the way this artwork asks viewers to investigate where they put their attention first. As a Black queer person, I empathize with how the piece depicts what it is like to have your body used for any narrative people may say fit.