Oliver Hess, a rising senior at Duke University studying Art History and Public Policy, has had a fascinating summer internship at the Nasher Museum. For eight weeks he served as the Carmichael intern, an opportunity generously supported by Nasher Museum Board member Trent A. Carmichael, A.B. ’88, P’17, P’19, P’25.
Oliver came on board with valuable experience from his previous internships at two museums in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida: the Salvador Dalí Museum and the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. He was funded by the Leadership and Art Policy program of Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy’s Hart Leadership Program.
Interning with the Registrar department, Oliver worked closely with Caitlin Meyers-Rezzonico, Assistant Registrar, and Aaron Zalonis, the Database Manager.
Oliver described his internship as “hands-on and immersive,” with much of his time spent working directly with objects in the Nasher Museum’s Study Storage facilities.
I think one of the best parts about this internship was being able to learn through mostly hands-on work.
Oliver Hess, Duke Class of 2025
Double majoring in Art History and Public Policy
During his internship, Oliver produced artwork condition reports–detailed written and photographic records of an object’s current status–primarily from the Love and Anarchy exhibition before its de-installation. This experience of analyzing works helped him build a comprehensive lexicon for describing conservation issues.
Among the works examined, Oliver found examining Roy Lichtenstein’s Weatherford Surrenders to Jackson,1953 particularly daunting but rewarding. “It was a bit nerve-wracking to get up close in person, but it was a fantastic piece to work on,” he said.
Oliver worked on creating descriptive text for several pieces in the museum’s collection to enhance accessibility for the visually impaired, to name just one, and to allow greater searching by keyword by museum staff and the public. He explored Microsoft’s Copilot, an artificial intelligence chatbot not dissimilar to ChatGPT, for generating descriptions, noting that while the AI was a “fun” experiment, its results were mixed.
Some of [the results were] great, some of it was really not great, so still some development to be done; we can’t feed everything through the AI just yet, but at least now we know that.
Oliver Hess, Duke University Student, Class of 2025
Oliver’s largest project was a major inventory of the museum’s collection of works on paper. Working closely with Caitlin in Study Storage, Oliver helped de-box works on paper, verify contents, and update records using the The Museum System (TMS), the museum’s collection management software. Altogether, they went through 52 boxes, inventorying 711 works, including prints and drawings by M.C. Escher and Picasso. “I’m very glad to [have] put a large dent in the number of boxes,” he notes.
In addition to completing his undergraduate requirements, Oliver plans to take the LSAT with ambitions of attending law school. His goal is to further explore the intersection of art and law, particularly concerning the implications of artificial intelligence and mass media on artists’ rights.
Oliver, says, “I’m super interested in how artists can protect themselves from having their work used to train algorithms that might put them out of work. It’s a very slim, but cool area of work!”
Good luck on the LSAT. Go Oliver! —Nasher Museum Staff
by Kourtney Diggs