from FSU Art BA ’20 Belladira Garcia:
At the beginning of this year I was lucky enough to start an internship under one of my favorite professors, Jessica Ingram. I had first gotten to know Professor Ingram during my first semester as an art student in her introductory digital photography course during fall 2018. Since then, I’ve taken one of her courses every semester, allowing me to develop even further as a photographer with classes like Photographic Methods and the Self and Social Political Landscape.
This internship experience meant having the privilege to take all that learning and continue it outside the class room. I got to have a first hand look at her artistic practice by working on publications, ongoing projects, and archiving in her studio and library. The first week I got to help with the publication for the exhibition she co-curated at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts, titled Rising Water: Artists Working in Response to Hurricanes, and help set up a morning discussion with a visiting artist and students at the museum the following month. I also got to shoot a stop motion video of her recent publication, Road Through Midnight, as promotional material that could be used on her website, applications or events, as well as for archival purposes. I worked with audio of oral histories from interviews in the book and natural soundscapes to generate a sense of the books content in order to promote it.
Aside from assisting Professor Ingram, we also had check-ins about my track to graduation and progress as an artist. As an internship supervisor she expressed great interest in my goals and helping me outline how to reach them. Things like writing an artist statement, applications and developing contacts or having a booth at the Tallahassee Zine Fest. Some of the most memorable parts of the experience include the warm espresso, working in her cozy office, watching the rain and seeing her dog Mister! If our time wouldn’t have been cut short because of COVID19, I would have loved to have spent more time in her library and personal archive.
