Louis Dzialo ’19 has known for quite some time what career path he wanted to follow and he’s done everything he can to gain the skills and knowledge to get there. Now the recent graduate has taken the next step toward a future in museum education with an internship at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Dzialo, an art history major at Hamilton, is one of four interns in the Norton’s 22nd summer intern class. The group’s primary responsibility is organizing a summer exhibition titled “Posters by Toulouse-Lautrec,” which will be on view from Aug. 2 through Dec. 10, 2019.
Dzialo’s interest in museums started early. When he was still in high school deciding which college to attend, he was completing an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was determined to make a career in museum research and education. Once he got to Hamilton he applied for a job at the College’s Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, where he started out staffing the greeter desk. He advanced to giving tours and working on special projects, and spent the last three years working on the American Artists Project with local schoolteachers. He also did research for the Wellin’s head of education, and got to work with artists exhibiting at the Wellin.
To round out his resume, in 2017 Dzialo interned at the Frick Collection in New York City in its department of external affairs; last summer he received an Emerson Research Grant and worked on the project “History of Edward W. Root and Root Art Center-Teaching Visual Art at Hamilton.”
Major: Art history:
Hometown: New York, New York
High school: Eleanor Roosevelt High School
At the Norton, Dzialo’s responsibilities include leading tours of the permanent collection for summer camp groups. He’s also co-curating the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit with three of his fellow interns. The show will contain a little more than a dozen prints from the famous 19th century French artist’s career.
“I’m thankful to have been given this opportunity by the Norton,” said Dzialo. “The museum’s curatorial and education staff have given us a remarkable amount of responsibility in crafting tours and curating an exhibition.” His supervisor is Glenn Tomlinson ’83, the William Randolph Hearst Curator of Education.
Dzialo said he and the other interns also work on public programs including the museum’s signature weekly event, Art After Dark. “The new Norton does a fabulous job bringing in the surrounding community, and from the response that we get at each event, West Palm Beachers are very glad to have this museum as a resource in their backyard,” Dzialo said.
After his seven-week internship ends, Dzialo hopes to study for a Master of Arts degree in museum education or art history.
