Some things are just love at first sight.
For Whitney Ellis, that connection happened at the age of 6, between her and the UCLA Hammer Museum.
“I was overwhelmed by all this art around me,” said Ellis, now a second-year theater student. “It was an immediate liking.”
Her feelings for the museum have remained constant through the years; Ellis currently resides on the Hammer Museum’s Student Advisory Committee (SAC). Each year UCLA students can apply to be a part of the numerous internships, paid jobs, and volunteer positions that the Hammer Museum has to offer.
The museum’s vast art collection includes Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, a contemporaries collection, the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts ““ which contains over 40,000 works on paper from the Renaissance to the present ““ and the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden located on the UCLA campus.
And unlike traditional art museums, the Hammer Museum, which is located close to campus, just down Westwood Boulevard, also showcases art in different media, including lectures, films and concerts.
“Art is not just painting on a canvas; it is so much more than that,” said Ellis. “I want to help people realize their potential love for art.”
Samantha Rose, who graduated from UCLA in 2006 after studying studio art, served as a student educator, SAC member and co-chair at the Hammer for two years. After working at the museum, Rose is now studying art education at Yale.
Despite her active participation with the Hammer Museum, Rose feels that students often do not utilize the resources that the Hammer has to offer.
“There are still a lot of students who don’t really know that it exists just because it is off campus and away from their normal day-to-day run up and down Bruin Walk,” she said.
Student educator is a paid position, and every year, five or six student educators, after intense training, can create and lead their own tours of the museum.
“(The tours) let me explore art that I might not normally have encountered and experienced, in a really in-depth way,” Rose said.
Aimee Chang, director of academic and residency programs for the Hammer Museum describes the internships at the Hammer as more than just appreciating art, but also developing a more comprehensive knowledge of surrounding life.
“There are a lot of resources that we have beyond art interest,” said Chang. “(The internship) is more about an interest in the world.”