Meet our team of amazing interns at the Van Every/Smith Art Galleries on campus.
Caroline Sillars
Caroline is a Senior Art History Major from New Orleans, Louisiana. This is her third year working in the galleries. Her favorite events on campus are the sculpture tours, which she often leads. Caroline says that Gustav Klimt’s The Embrace inspired her love of art and art history.
Rory Mullis
Rory is a sophomore undeclared Genomics Major from Mooresville, North Carolina. This is his second year working for the galleries. His favorite event on campus are the Senior Studio Art Major shows, because he finds seeing the artist at the start of their career to be fascinating as they find their way through art. When asked about what artist who piece inspired his love for art, Rory replied “I can’t pick one piece specifically but I think the work of artist Kehinde Wiley really revitalized my passion for art. I was introduced to him in high school by an art teacher who thought I might like his style, and she was spot on. I find a lot of the artistic elements I often use in my own art in his, like bright colors, realism, and floral elements, and I also liked how he combined traditional and non traditional aspects into pieces to highlight how art relates to him as a queer black man.”
Isabel Smith
Isabel is a Senior English and Gender & Sexuality Studies Double Major from St. Augustine, Florida. This is her fourth year working in the galleries. Her favorite event on campus is the annual student show because she loves to see the works both studio art and non-art majors create over the year. Isabel says that Gustav Klimt’s Judith and the Head of Holofernes inspired her love of art and interest in galleries.
Adele Oprica
Adele is a Sophomore Studio Art Major from Avon, Connecticut. This is her first year working in the galleries. Her favorite events on campus are the senior shows. Adele says that Claude Monet’s Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies inspired her love of art and interest in galleries.
Sasha Kovacic
Sasha is a junior Art History Major from Maui, Hawaii. This is her first year working in the galleries. Sasha says the piece that made her fall in love with art was her own, a bike sculpture she made of wire and gave to her dad.
Hajar Hussein
Hajar is a Freshman Mathematics Major from Jacksonville, Florida. This is her first year working in the galleries. Hajar says that Mary Cassatt’s Child in a Straw Hat inspired her love of art and interest in galleries.
Gaby Sanclimenti
Gaby is a Junior Psychology Major from Doylestown, Pennsylvania. This is her second year working in the galleries. Her favorite events on campus are ArtMate and all of the opening receptions. Gaby says that what made her fall in love with art was when she was a little kid. She says “I took art classes at a local museum. I don’t remember much about the classes themselves, but years later I can still visualize this huge painting of a hawk-like bird face from the main gallery. While it definitely wasn’t the prettiest of paintings or necessarily my favorite, I always made note of it whenever I walked by, and its presence felt like a weird old friend, especially when going back the museum later on. It was the first time that galleries began to feel important and special to me.”
Toshaani Goel
Toshanni is a Senior Global Literary Theory Major from Chandigarh, India. This is her third year working in the galleries. Her favorite events on campus are ArtMate and all of the recent exhibitions. Toshanni believes she first loved making art before looking at or thinking about it.
Sarah Willoughby
Sarah is a Junior Art History Major from Greensboro, North Carolina. This is her third year working in the galleries. Her favorite events on campus are ArtMate in the fall and the Annual Student Art Exhibition in the spring. Sarah says that her middle school art classes and Mother and Child by Njideka Akunyili Crosby inspired her love of art and interest in galleries and museum work.
Kaiyan Wang
KaiKai is a Senior Art History Major and Anthropology Minor from Jinhua, China. This is her second year working in the galleries. Her favorite event on campus is the Annual Student Art Exhibition. KaiKai says that Yellow-Red-Blue, 1925 by Wassily Kandinsky inspired her love of art and interest in the galleries.
Kate Cross
Kate is a Senior Art History Major and Communications Minor from Durham, North Carolina. This is her second year working in the galleries. Her favorite events on campus are the Senior Art Shows and the Annual Student Art Exhibition. Kate believes Monet is ultimately who inspired her love for art. She says, “I went through the classic Monet obsession in high school! I still love him, though not in the same all-encompassing way. I will never forget my high school art teacher describing the Impressionists as punk.”
Mike Liu
Mike is a Sophomore Studio Art and Philosophy double Major from Beijing, China. This is his first year working in the galleries. His favorite events on campus are ArtMate and the Student Art Exhibition last spring. Mike says that Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights inspired his love of art and interest in the galleries.
Brown Payne
Brown is a Senior Art History Major from Nashville, Tennessee. This is his third year working in the galleries. His favorite events on campus are ArtMate and helping senior studio art majors with their shows. Brown says that Two Partially Buried Sinks by Robert Gober was one of the works that inspired his love of art and interest in the galleries, saying “the piece shows how simple yet elegant works are able to be imbued with complex themes.”
Molly Smith
Molly is a Senior Classical Languages and Literature Major from Nashville, Tennessee. THis is her third year working in the galleries. Her favorite event on campus is in 2021 when visiting art professor Nichole van Beek hosted the huumannature lab, an interactive display of all bio-based and biodegradable art supplies. Molly says she has been enamored with visual art since she could read picture books. Lately, she has been drooling over Cy Twombly’s series “Fifty Days at Iliam,” that morphs story (and text itself) into violent visuals.
Feel free to come chat with any of our other interns Monday-Friday from 10-5pm and Saturday-Sunday from 12-4pm.