A New Generation Steps Up to the Plate

Rddhima Goylan, Interior Design, 2018.

All three members of the Gallery House Internship Program, fall 2017, have volunteered to support the program in fall 2018. Serving as Lead Coaches will be Laura Arike and Rddhima Goylan. The role of Curator of the DGT Annual Alumni Exhibit will be filled by Adam, Colello.  The retention of this group of three graduates of Gallery House is a promising indicator of success in engaging undergraduates on a peer-to-peer level, to run the program to and further develop their professional skills and build a professional and social network to be continued through life. As the trend snowballs and reaches a critical mass, it is hoped that ten or more undergraduates at a minimum, within a few years, will voluntarily elect, on a continuous basis, to enrich the lives of successive waves of students for years to come.  This should be abetted by a new goal of engaging four interns per semester in the program.

Rddhima Goylan, a spring 2018 graduate in Interior Design, enthusiastically said yes when asked if she would serve as a Lead Coach to take up where Asa Maria Camnert and Aika Mukhambetova left off after their efforts to lead the program over the past three semesters. Rddhima is originally from New Delhi, India. She attended high school in Bangalore, and while at Pratt she consistently made the Dean's List.  Her most immediate professional and life goal has been met. This goal was to live and work in New York, and since graduation in the spring, she has been employed by an Interior Design firm in the city. "I now have the opportunity to build on this phase of my life." She reports that the recruitment and application process is underway for fall 2018 Gallery House. "I believe Gallery House is a great platform for student learning. Posters are up, and applications were already being submitted and received before students were scheduled to return for fall classes. 

Laura Arike is from Mamaroneck, Westchester County, NY, where she attended Mamaroneck High. She is currently in her junior year at Pratt, as an Art History Major and a minor in Museum and Gallery studies. Laura has been on the President's list for all semesters at Pratt to date. Her ambition is to work for one of the major museums in New York. Laura said yes, again with the same enthusiasm of her colleagues, Rddhima and Adam. "I'm confident in Gallery House. There is a lot of interest in the program among students. We expect to have a larger pool of applicants and to be in a position to be more selective in developing a team of interns."  Both Rddhima and Laura are committed to team building early in the process. "Communication among the Interns and coaches will be promoted through more group sessions and activities rather than the once a week group coaching session and dolling out of individualized tasks assignments."  Gallery House Interns receive three credits per semester for performing 20 hours of internship work a week.

Adam Colello is beginning his sophomore year at Pratt. He is a Communication Design Major and he is pursuing a concentration in Art Direction. As a Freshman his original focus and interest was in pursuing a BFA in Photography.  As an intern working on "Yesterday's Tomorrow,"  the fall 2017 Gallery House Exhibit, Adam was described as evoking emotion and a sense of loneliness through his photographs and other works of art. Paul will be lending a hand leading the curating of the 2018 Annual DGT Alumni Exhibit, with a focus on the photography to be exhibited at the show and and also exhibited via the DGT Website.