(2021) Biggest Takeaway by Erick Watts

By: Erick Watts (UW-Milwaukee)

My name is Erick Watts, I am an intern in the UWM Arts-Eco internship. I started working in this internship on June 28th and my final day is on August sixth. This is my final reflection and it is a blog summary of my time in the program and what I’ve learned that can be used both for practical and personal use. But before I explain all of that I should say some context and some of my thoughts from before the internship started. Last year I joined an internship run by the Walker‘s Point Center for the Arts. This already gave me an idea of what I would be getting into and how everything works. But because of the virtual nature of this internship due to Covid, it still made me anxious on how useful I would be and how easy it would be to adapt. It should also be noted that I was working an actual job during my time as an intern which definitely impacted my focus and dedication to this internship. Although even under these circumstances I was still confident I could keep up. 

The first week of the internship was mainly based around attending the orientation, intern on board meetings, staff meetings and setting up connections between the interns and the actual UWM supervisors. This was also the first week of asynchronous work time we got, which mostly meant working on my first reflection. The second week did create a bumpy road by getting me and the other interns on a full schedule of 10am - 3pm each day. Getting used to this was a personal challenge at first but once I understood what I was supposed to and how long I was actually meant to be in a meeting with the other interns and my supervisor everything clicked. 

Eventually the third week started which had the actual students join, started the 3D art section of the internship, and had our first in person day. But I missed most of this due to being out of town for a week. When I got back I had to formally meet everyone and catch on what we  had been working on. In the end I did end up having an easy time working with everyone on our third in person and the projects I did for the 3D class turned out well. And presently we are starting our 2D class.

With all of these experiences over the past couple of weeks the internship has given me a lot to learn and think about on how to move forward as an artist. A practical example would be the 3D art course helping me understand the basics of 3D and how much my potential would grow if I focused on it. But my biggest take is probably that just having proper communication skills can do a lot to broaden both your personal and artistic horizons. I came to this conclusion by realizing that my biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the other students or interns as well. But while interacting with the others on my first in person day, I realized that everyone has their limits and that talking to others about what they know and what you know can help you break your own limits.