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Art major Marissa Halderman ’09 (Rushland, Pa.) recently experienced the world of art in the city renowned for its creative freedoms. She spent the spring semester interning with public sculptors Patricia Leighton and Del Geist, who are based in New York City.
“Lafayette is definitely at an advantage being so close to New York City. New York is one of the greatest cities in world,” Halderman says.
Halderman’s duties consisted of helping the artists with their current projects, analyzing sections of commissions for public projects, and putting together brochures for the artists’ work. She built paper-mach� models for a public commission in China and also assisted Geist with cleaning, photographing, and installing a private sculpture in an uptown New York penthouse.
“It was an amazing experience to see the sculpture that I had been prepping for weeks sit in the uptown penthouse windowsill for which it was custom designed,” says Halderman.
She experienced working with various sculpting materials, such as slate and steel, and also learned about the business side of public art in New York City.
“It was interesting to see the process of creating public works. There seemed to be more guidelines, competition, and paperwork than I previously thought,” she explains. “I think this experience has made me realize that I have to end up in the New York City art scene in some way. Whether or not I choose to be a practicing artist, I feel I need to be a part of the freedom, energy, and overall enlightening experience of the art world.”
Halderman’s involvement with the artists was the result of her work with the College’s public sculpture symposium, which was organized by Alastair Noble, assistant professor of art. Noble has established an ongoing internship program for Lafayette sculpture students with artists in New York City. This summer, Jon Canter ’11 (New York, N.Y.) is also serving an internship with Leighton and Geist.