VMFA internship frames the future for VCUarts student

By Leila Ugincius

Since her childhood, Anne Elise Giroir has found solace - and purpose - in art.

"Writing was very hard for me when I was little, but drawing always came very naturally. It's very comforting," she said. "It's a language that we all can read without needing to 'read.'"

Growing up in New Orleans, Giroir visited the city's Museum of Art weekly, and those experiences are framing her experience at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts. The painting and printmaking major realizes how free museum access has powered her artistic development, and this summer, her internship at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts clarified that she is pursuing a path of passion.

"I believe in the free museum," said Giroir, a senior. "I think every child should be able to go to any museum in the world. Advancement and development is what keeps that open, especially at the VMFA."

This past spring, when her Introduction to Museums instructor, Sarah Powers, invited the VMFA's Elizabeth Oliver as a guest speaker, Giroir "shamelessly" ran up to her after class to talk about an internship.

She impressed Oliver, who hired Giroir as a summer intern in the museum's advancement and development office, which involves donor relations, fundraising and membership. But her duties ran the gamut, such as working at events and lectures, accompanying member tours of the Frida Kahlo exhibition and presenting research on the 1996 Fabergé Ball.

"That was fun. They let me come into the archives, so I worked with primary source material," Giroir said of the research. "I am so thankful for my internship supervisors and everyone else who was kind and accommodating to me in the advancement office."

The VMFA internship solidified Giroir's desire for a career working in a museum.

"This internship has opened so many doors for me career wise. … I really got to familiarize myself with the museum space - and specifically what jobs and career opportunities there are," she said. "I've struggled with school. School is very hard, but I'm a hard worker, and sometimes you just have to get things done in ways that you excel in."

That's a lesson she has carried with her since youth.

"I was always the artist in class, drawing on homework and things. I probably shouldn't have been!" Giroir said. "But I realized that I loved painting."

Giroir encourages other students to power through awkwardness or rejection in their pursuit of internships. For her, doing so is a step toward helping new generations find empowerment through art and museum access - much as she did in her own life.

"If my day job is giving other people that experience," she said, "I can sleep well at night."

Giroir received financial support from VCU's Internship Funding Program, which is funded by the Student Life and Learning Fund, the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership (V-TOP) and Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Success. Supporters can donate to the Student Life and Learning Fund online.