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By Gypsy Crow

ALBANY — Two Albany State University visual arts students have been accepted into summer internships by two prestigious museums.

Chelsea “Nefertiti” Williams, a junior, will be working with art preservation and restoration at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and Quadre Curry-Wilkerson, a sophomore, will learn how to curate art galleries and professional art displays at the High Museum of Art.

Williams is a photographer who also paints large portraits. She specializes in art with healing themes and credits her luck with earning an internship to spirituality and the universe.

“See, mine is weird because I actually did a tarot card reading,” Williams said on why she pursued the internship. “She was saying ‘this is going to be the year for you’, and she was like ‘take as many opportunities as you can’ and then my professor brought up the internship, and I was like ‘ok I’m gonna apply’ and I filled out all of the information and everything and turned it in and then two weeks ago they called me and said I got the internship.

Curry-Wilkerson said that when he first came to Albany State, he knew that he wanted to be an artist and that his career would be somewhere in the arts, but had no real plan for how he would get there. He said that the ASU professors were always pushing him and encouraging him to apply for internships and to go have these experiences now while he is in college instead of when he is on his own.

“It was like ‘oh my gosh, oh my gosh’, that’s how I felt,” he said about how excited he was to find out he was accepted. Williams chimed, and said that that’s how she felt too and that she cried.

Curry-Wilkerson said that internships are a way to learn from mistakes while still in a learning environment. He is an artist who draws and paints hyper-realistic and abstract portraits of people. He said that he came into ASU’s art program knowing how to draw, but the professors there helped him to perfect his skills.

“When I applied for it (the internship), I didn’t think I was going to get it because, I mean, it’s the High Museum,” he said. “I grew up going to it in Atlanta so I know how popular it is so when I got it, it really boosted my self confidence.”

Curry-Wilkerson said that his resume was what earned him the internship, and not his portfolio. Williams added that her portfolio is “immaculate.” Williams bragged about Curry-Wilkerson’s skin-tone painting skills, and he buzzed about one of William’s pieces that she is currently working on.

When asked about their graduate school dreams, Curry-Wilkerson said that he wants to go to Yale University or the Art Institute. William’s dream graduate schools are San Diego University, the University of Miami and Howard University.

After discussing some other universities that might be too competitive, Williams and Curry-Wilkerson talked about how art doesn’t have to be as competitive as some people may think.

“I’m a photographer, and a lot of my friends are also photographers,” Williams said. “There’s so many different art styles, editing styles and so many different things of what people capture, and people don’t always take that into account when it comes to art. ‘If that person is being successful, then I can’t be successful’, and like, you never know, someone may like both of your art and support both of you.”

Williams and Curry-Wilkerson said that the new generation of artists has more opportunities than before.

“I learned this when I joined the art community on Twitter because I’m not really big into social media, but as I’m getting older I’m learning that this is the way for me to advertise myself. I joined Twitter and followed a lot of art pages and started retweeting a lot of art and they’re just so supportive and everyone has such a unique style,” Curry-Wilkerson said.

After college, Williams said because of the inspiration she gets from Gordon Parks’ photography, she wants to turn her photography into “art therapy” to capture people’s essences and vulnerability. Curry-Wilkerson said that the internship has given him a better perspective into his art career, and that his internship at the High Museum in Atlanta will teach him how to curate art, put together exhibits, examine and evaluate art and how to talk about art.

For her internship at the Smithsonian, Williams will learn about conservation and handling pieces of art. Williams will take care of the exhibits and take photos. She is a self-proclaimed history geek, so she says that she’s excited to be behind the scenes to learn about preserving artwork. Williams’s internship is expected to teach her how to prevent art deterioration.

“If there is one thing I could say to anyone who is thinking about being an artist, growing up in the world that we are in currently, just don’t listen to what people have to say about art, especially people who are like generations before us, because I think art is moving in a different direction, and I think people are going to start appreciating it a lot more in the next coming years,” Curry-Wilkerson said on why future artists should not get discouraged in pursuing their dreams.

Curry-Wilkerson said to never stop practicing if you have even a grain of artistic vision. Williams said that she doesn’t want people to stop creating art even if they aren’t inspired, and to “always trust your instincts and never, ever doubt yourself” and to always seek advice.

Williams and Curry-Wilkerson said that ASU’s art department is growing, and the two students said that bringing more recognition to the art department will provide more resources for future art students.

“We do stuff so that the art majors after us can have more opportunities than we had,” Williams said.

Curry-Wilkerson said he hopes future art majors will choose ASU as an option for their art education so that they too can help build up the school’s art department. Williams and Curry-Wilkerson praised the art department professors for inspiring them and teaching them.

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