This post is part of our Internship Spotlight series. For this installment, we spoke with Grace Vallecillo-Drews (’26) about her internship experience at the Gallery B612.
What organization are you interning with and what do you do in your internship?
I have been interning at Gallery B612 since January of this year! I started doing mostly education and program/workshop planning along with some registrar duties. However, it’s a very small team, so my role also encompasses everything from curation & installation assistance, to interpretation and catalog design! I spend most of my time working on interpretation materials regarding the gallery’s shows and other events, and planning workshops and other events around exhibiting artists, current shows or holidays!
What learning goals did you have going into the internship?
My interests in the museum field revolve very heavily around community engagement practices and accessible educational opportunities regarding art and art history (specifically Korean art and art history). As such, I was really curious about how these things might translate to a gallery setting which often has very different goals than those found in museum spaces!
What have you learned from your internship so far? Did you fulfill your original learning goals? Were there any unexpected takeaways or learning moments?
I think my biggest takeaway so far is that galleries move at a much faster pace than museums! Gallery B612 is heavily focused on group shows, and these switch out roughly every 6-8 weeks. This means the workflow is pretty constant and it requires you to really be on your A-game, but it’s very fun because I get to meet so many amazing artists and create programming and catalogs around lots of different types of work! I also get to see pretty immediately the impact our shows and programming have on artists and community members.
That being said, CE/education definitely looks and feels different in a gallery setting! It’s a challenging balance of inviting people into a creative space to not only celebrate artists but to also support them through the sale of their works. Gallery B612 goes a bit above and beyond in this, in that they also consistently host artist-led workshops, paint nights, and create educational catalogs and Artsy Viewing Rooms (basically blogs) to accompany almost every show.
What do you enjoy most about this internship?
I love the creative synergy! There is always something happening and my days are never boring!
The most incredible experience so far was probably getting to attend Seattle Art Fair 2025 with them this summer. I spent a lot of time during spring quarter working with and supporting the owner and assistant curator for Seattle Art Fair 2025.
It was an incredible experience, wherein the gallery represented four Korean artists, two local and two international, and concurrently collaborated with two art collectives (Special Arts Korea and Vibrant Palette, Seattle) to host a dual show at the gallery celebrating artists with disabilities. Getting to see firsthand what a local-international collaboration can look like, to assist in nearly every aspect of both the shows, and the art fair installation, and to meet and work with so many incredible artists from across the world – there are really no words to describe what an honor and an amazing experience it was!
Is there anything you wish you had done differently in your internship? Do you have any recommendations for students looking into internships now?
Honestly, there isn’t anything I would change – my entire experience with Gallery B612 has been wonderful, challenging and entirely inspirational.
My biggest recommendation to students looking into internships is to never turn down the opportunity for a new experience!! I’ll be frank and say I never pictured myself at a gallery, but mostly because I didn’t really have any experience with them, and here I am eight months later, looking back on some of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career so far.
What’s next? How did this internship relate to your career goals, interests, and/or plans, and how has it impacted those goals, interests, and/or plans?
My career goals and interests all revolve around interpretation, education, community engagement, and Korean art and art history! I started my internship with Gallery B612 because I wanted experience in interpretation and educational programming, but the gallery blurs a lot of expectations for what a gallery can entail and has turned out to be an amalgamation of all the things I love and am interested in pursuing.
I said earlier that I never thought I’d find myself at a gallery, but my experience here has absolutely shifted some of my ideas and broadened the scope of what my future career might look like, whether that be at a museum, a gallery or somewhere else! I am so grateful to Miyoung Margolis (Owner and Head Curator) and Kelly Cook (Assistant Curator) for their support of me and their creative and professional encouragement these last eight months.
I don’t know what the future may hold, but I do know that Gallery B612 is opening a second location in Pioneer Square in the upcoming year, and for now, I’m so excited to continue working with them as they prepare to transition into this new space!