Oil and Cotton is seeking University of North Texas interns for Summer and Fall 2012 for three-month, nine-month, and twelve-month terms. Interns work on all aspects of a small privately owned community art center, including administration, assisting during children's art classes and adult workshops, special event coordination, public relations, social networking, and community outreach. Working directly with owners Kayli House Cusick and Shannon Driscoll, an internship at Oil and Cotton provides invaluable exposure to the art world, art education, and community activism for those pursuing a future in the creative arts.
Our internships are geared toward people seeking experience in art, art history, arts administration, art education, curatorial studies, graphic design, media studies, museum studies, or public relations, but we welcome applicants of all backgrounds.
To apply, please submit your resume and a cover letter, explaining why you want to work at Oil and Cotton and what you hope to gain from the internship, to Shannon Driscoll at: info@oilandcotton.com
Internship days and hours are flexible. At this time, we are unable to offer a stipend. For those interested in a short-term commitment, we have volunteer opportunities available.
Summer 2012
Teaching Assistants - Monday-Friday between 8:30am-12:30pm, 12-4:30pm, and 3-7pm
Fall 2012-Spring 2013
Application deadlines are August 1 (fall), Nov 1 (winter), and Feb 1 (spring).
Administrative Duties - Monday - Saturday between 1-7pm (shifts TBD)
Teaching Assistants - Monday - Thursday between 3-7pm
Summer Camp Teaching Assistants - Oil and Cotton is partnering with professional artists, The Writer's Garret, Voices of Change, and other independent Oak Cliff business to create the most innovative summer arts camps in town. Teaching assistants will work along side Oil and Cotton teachers and help with preparation, teaching, and clean up during summer camps. Camper ages range from 4 to 18. Undergraduate and Graduate students interested in gaining teaching experience are encouraged to apply.
After School Art Class Teaching Assistants - Oil and Cotton offers after school art classes to children ages 4 and up. Children attend for an hour class one day a week and learn a hands-on art history curriculum in studio arts. Applicants should have studio art experience and a strong interest in working with children.
Community Outreach Coordinator - Oil and Cotton is deeply invested in bridging our community to the creative arts. This internship focuses on developing relationships with nearby schools, community centers, universities in Dallas and Fort Worth, museums, galleries and businesses. Our current focus is seeking opportunities for partnerships with teachers at area schools and education departments in DFW cultural centers. Applicants should be highly organized and self-motivated.
Public Relations Intern - PR interns work on all aspects of promotion on a shoestring budget through media and social networking. Responsibilities include writing press releases, updating website, blog, Facebook, Twitter and community calendars. Applicants should have strong writing, communication and computer skills.
Independent Study Intern - Oil and Cotton is a beautiful work in progress. We are offer space for experimentation, study, practice, and most of all action. This internship is for a student with a particular project to implement in a community art space. Past projects have included the Better Block, Late Nights at the Dallas Museum of Art, WigWam Pop-Up Shop, Anémic Cinéma Film Series, as well as lectures, exhibitions, performance and more. A project proposal must be submitted for this internship.
Background: Oil and Cotton opened in September 2010. Blending an appreciation of the past with current multidisciplinary art practices, our students are invited to engage in the expressive languages of both music and visual art. Our hands-on classes are taught by professionals with knowledge of traditional and contemporary practice. We provide creative space for education, exhibition, performance and exchange between the public and the art community.
Owners and instructors, Shannon Driscoll and Kayli House Cusick met while volunteering for the Better Block, a neighborhood improvement project that included a free public art studio. Shannon had been working as an art conservator of works on paper as well as teaching adult workshops in traditional handcrafts and materials-based projects. Kayli was a piano teacher and children’s arts curriculum writer who had recently relocated to Dallas to raise a family with her husband, artist Matthew Cusick. The community response to the Better Block studio was positively overwhelming. Neighbors of all ages came into the space to create together using a variety of donated materials with guidance from area artists. The synergy was perfect. Encouraged and assisted by our friends and neighbors, we decided to make our temporary outpost permanent.
Our motivating philosophy is to make do with what you have. We place a high value on the resourcefulness within ourselves and are dedicated to doing things the old-fashioned way. Whether it is through the reuse or repurposing of materials, like turning fallen walnuts into archival ink, or by accepting the possibilities of what can be created by hand, we honor he pioneering spirit of our elders and the character of our community.
Oil and cotton are natural resources of Dallas, Texas. We believe the arts, like most natural resources, are essential for our survival and quality of life, and we are proud to be a part of our local arts community.
Personal Bios:
Shannon Driscoll received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of North Texas in 2001 and her Masters Degree from The Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied book and paper conservation in 2006. She received additional conservation training through various AIC courses and through internships and professional experience while at the North East Document Conservation Center; Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Widner Library, Harvard College Libraries and the Pinos Y Serriera Archives, Vilassar de Dalt, Spain. Shannon owned and operated a private conservation practice in Dallas before starting her current project, Oil and Cotton. Shannon teaches book and paper arts to children and adults with a focus on material science and the history of handcraft. She served on the board of Resolana where she also developed curriculum and taught art classes to incarcerated women in the Dallas County Jail and currently serves on the board of Diorama-O-Rama.
Kayli House Cusick is a graduate of the University of North Texas College of Music, earning her Master of Music degree in composition in 2002. While a student there, Kayli was the recipient of the Merrill Ellis Memorial Scholarship and studied with the late, great composer Phil Winsor and with documentary film director and producer, Ben Levin. Her graduate thesis, Pilgrim Carnival, bridged the experimental music and performance art traditions through recorded sound, visual composition and performance. She completed her undergraduate work at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, studying composition with David Schiff and Peter Golub, and writing a thesis on musician/dancer/performance artist Meredith Monk. Prior to her college career, Kayli attended the Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts, majoring in both music and visual arts. Currently, Kayli teaches piano, composition, and theory, and is a member of Dallas Music Teachers Association. She also oversees the children's art program at Oil and Cotton, where the art history based curriculum she created, a twelve year course for the ages of three to teens, forms the basis of Oil and Cotton's specialized hands-on education in the arts.