Aria Dixon Interns with 621 Gallery
from FSU Art BA ’24 Aria Dixon:
Having the opportunity to work as a remote intern at 621 Gallery, one of the largest not-for-profit art centers in Tallahassee, has been an enlightening experience for me so far. I have had the opportunity to design and edit their website while maintaining their Etsy storefront. I have also had the enjoyment of creating promotional material and remotely hosting live events for the gallery. When I first started the process of working on the Etsy storefront and the website, there were a lot of pictures of products to be edited, listings to be created, and store pages to be made.
It took me and three other interns to get all the images edited in a timely manner. This was all so I could add the listings and the art information to the Etsy store- a task I found similar to posting on another art site. Once that was done, the store page on 621 Gallery’s main website had to be built, which had its own challenges. Building a website was a process I had heard of but never actually looked into. I knew website building services like Squarespace existed through advertisements, but I did not know WordPress was considered a website hosting service. At first, it was overwhelming and I had to reach out to my supervisors to walk me through the process- Adjunct Instructor Lauren Baker even made a video for other interns to use for website editing which helped tremendously. After that, creating and linking elements on the page to Etsy, as well as connecting and creating menu items, became more known and familiar to me as I worked more and more on the website. While it has gone through two iterations, I am actually quite proud of creating the store’s main page and submenu pages associated with it. Even now, I am continuing to update this series of pages and the main site.
In connection with the website and Etsy store, I have made at least two promotional materials and even redesigned their podcast logo, not including the design for the April Postcard, the Our Planet Zine, the Patreon promotional material, and the promotional video for our newest regular event, which I help host, the Lit Salon. Making these promotional materials allowed me to explore ways of expressing my art style while keeping in theme with 621 Gallery’s branding. This helped me better understand how to market myself as an artist through a blend of traditional media. Currently, as I continue my internship at 621 Gallery, I am creating pins, promotional material, updating the website, and hosting events such as the Lit Salon and the Artist talks- an event that’s held every first Friday of the month where the artists exhibiting their works have the chance to discuss their methods and pieces they are showing. As the internship continues, I hope to continue building a stronger connection with my local art community and the arts and for this reason, I highly recommend this internship to other students.
