Marist Student Spotlight: Alessia Amato ’20

Alessia Amato ’20 poses by her oil painting “Sunken Dream” inspired by the people, arches, and canals of Venice. Alessia participated in the Marist Venice Biennale Program with fellow art students under the guidance of Professor of Art Ed Smith, who is the program’s director. Alessia is a member of the Class of 2020 who earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a major in art history and a minor in public relations. She is currently interning at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan and will begin graduate studies in 2020 at the renowned Art & Museum Studies program of Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

Joan Gasparovic Gambeski

What first interested you in applying to Marist College?
The search process was a new experience for my family; I was the first in my family to attend college. My parents are from Italy, and my father started his own business when he came to New York. My best friend’s brother attended Marist and always spoke very highly of it, so I was interested in learning more about the College. In addition to the academic programs, Marist has the best housing. I really appreciated the Marist residence halls and lived on campus all four years. I knew I wanted to include Manhattan as part of my college experience, so its location was ideal too. A deciding factor was the Marist College scholarship I received, which made Marist an affordable option.

What was your Marist experience like? Academic programs? Internships?
I began as a communication arts major with the idea of going into public relations, though realized I would like to do something else. I was always interested in art and was heavily involved with the art program at my high school, so I decided to change my major to art history and minor in public relations. I never looked back.

I had several internships. My first was with the public relations department of Tracy Reese in Manhattan, where I had the opportunity to work with Tracy Reese directly. It was awesome. My first gallery internship was at the Williamsburg Art and Historic Center, a beautiful building in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The Center featured contemporary artists and their work. I helped to curate some of the installations. For the spring 2019 semester, I attended the “Marist in Manhattan” program where I lived in a college residence hall on the Upper East Side, took courses in anthropology and American history, and had a full-time internship at the Neue Galerie on Museum Mile. Under the guidance of the administrative director, I worked with the curatorial staff as well as the visitor experience and graphic design departments. In the summer of 2019 I participated in the Marist Venice Biennale Program under the mentorship of Professor Ed Smith. He was such a big influence on my college career and wrote recommendations for my grad school applications as well. The Biennale experience helped me grow and flourish as an artist by viewing contemporary art on a global scale and discovering influential artists such as Nicole Eisenman and Michael Armitage. Professor Ed Smith placed a lot of trust in me by helping curate the exhibition in Venice and being an excellent mentor/advocate both in my efforts as an artist and art historian.

My schedule was incredibly packed; in addition to my courses I had three campus jobs. I served as a student representative in the Marist Art Gallery, a technician in the Student Activities Office, and as an evening security team member for the Steel Plant Studios.

What are you doing since your graduation? What are your aspirations?
I graduated a semester early because Marist accepted many of my high school Advanced Placement credits and I earned additional credits during the Marist Venice Biennale and Marist in Manhattan summer programs.

In January I began an internship at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. I am part of the advancement department, which deals with fundraising, special gifts, and events. My focus is on special events, though COVID-19 forced the rescheduling of in-person gatherings. So I have been working with the Museum’s accessibility and collections team writing image descriptions for those who have disabilities or are visually impaired so they can enjoy the collections through words. I’ve been fortunate to be able to work remotely. For the Museum, it has been great for our staff to have the time to devote to this project because there are thousands of items in the collections. The descriptions will be added to the Museum’s website and available for public access.

Ideally, I would love to work in a curatorial or collection management department of a museum. I am hoping to learn more about each area through my graduate internships. I am even thinking about going on to earn my PhD down the line and teach art history in academia.

How did Marist faculty support you in your search for internships and graduate schools?
The faculty of the art and art history department are my favorite people. They helped me immensely with my application, whether it was reviewing my statement of purpose, reading my CV, or writing recommendations. They were all so on top of it. Having that relationship with the faculty was a huge highlight of my Marist experience. When I was researching undergraduate internships, Donise English, professor of art, provided valuable guidance and helped me evaluate options. Dr. Anne Bertrand-Dewsnap was and still is an incredible resource for all of my career, application, and general art history questions. Her passion for art history was a big influence on my decision to move toward art history as a major. Professor Ed Smith gave me the confidence to apply to prestigious programs such as the one I will be attending at Georgetown, and I am so grateful for his encouragement.

What are your top Marist memories?
One of my most memorable experiences is participating in the Marist Venice Biennale Program. Spending time with friends abroad and being able to focus on my artwork for a month was incredible. Of course, the best part of Marist for me was the people I met. I’ve had the same roommate for all four years of college.