Anoka-Ramsey Art Student Earns Spot in Competitive Internship Cohort

Image courtesy Anderson Ranch Arts Center

September 10, 2024

Amy Reams ’24 spent the summer of 2024 helping young artists explore new techniques and media.

Some of the students she worked with as a children’s program intern at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, in Snowmass Village, Colorado were local to the area. Others traveled to the ranch with their parents, visiting artists also staying and teaching at the ranch.

 “I had the chance to meet one artist in particular, this amazing abstract artist that I’d already looked up to,” Amy says. “We started talking about how her kid was doing with some of the new art concepts she was learning. But then we ended up talking about art, just the two of us. I got a lot of inspiration from her and got to ask her specific questions about her art and process.”

The competitive internship provided Amy opportunities for intentional and impromptu connections. Each week during the summer, guest faculty traveled to the ranch in Snowmass Village, Colorado to teach workshops.

“And these guest faculty are generally like big time artists,” Amy says. “There are some famous people that I have gotten to learn from and meet. It’s given me all these connections that I'm definitely able to return to later on.

“My instructor told me this would change my artistic life,” she says. “I thought that sounded like overkill, but she was right. It has changed my trajectory as an artist.”

In addition to supporting children’s program, attending lectures from visiting artists and contributing to general operations at the ranch, Amy produced her own original work to showcase at the ranch’s annual intern show.

The demands of the internship were intense. But Amy says it has been a tremendous learning experience.

 “This is the hardest I'd been asked to work. I calculated the other day, and it was something around 60 hours a week,” Amy said. “It's crazy. But it's so worth it. I've learned so much.”

Learn more about visual arts at Anoka-Ramsey.