David Goldberg ’12Journal 1
I am very excited to be starting my summer internship at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which oversees the iconic, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, as well as the international Guggenheim network of museums in Bilbao, Spain; Venice, Italy; Berlin, Germany; and a museum under construction in Abu Dhabi.
I am a dual-degree student, pursuing an MBA with a focus on nonprofit management at Columbia Business School as well as a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. As an internationally-oriented nonprofit institution, the Guggenheim could not be a better fit for my interests, and it will provide me with useful, practical experience in managing the challenges of an international organization. I am also an art lover, and the Guggenheim is one of the world’s leading arts institutions.
The specific project I will be working on is particularly exciting. This year, the Guggenheim Foundation is performing a study to assess the feasibility of opening a new Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki, Finland. I will assist in this process, and I am confident that the skills I have developed through my MBA have prepared me well for the project. In addition to the fundamental analytical skills I honed through my core classes, I have studied the challenges and opportunities of international expansion in several strategy classes. I studied the unique approaches necessary to manage a global organization in Professor Iyengar’s course, Thinking Globally, and I learned about best practices regarding broadening the reach of nonprofit organizations in High Performing Nonprofits, a class I took last semester taught by a distinguished adjunct faculty member.
I know this position will offer a terrific opportunity to learn a great deal about international nonprofits and managing arts organizations. I am just beginning my internship, but I am truly eager to see what the summer holds.
Journal 2
As I continue my internship at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, I could not be happier with the experience. I am learning even more than I had expected — both through my own job responsibilities and through the internship program’s offerings.
I am working with senior members of the Guggenheim team to explore the possibility of opening a new Guggenheim museum in Helsinki, Finland. As a result, I have performed a significant amount of research on many different elements of Finnish culture, from its artistic heritage to its museum law. I have also worked with data compiled by consultants on the project, putting my business school skills to use to examine financial statements, visitorship models, and other information. So many of Columbia Business School’s courses have proven helpful in this process, including statistics, strategy, and more. I am now working to synthesize the results of my research and my interpretation of this data into narrative sections that will be included in the Guggenheim’s final feasibility study.
In addition to these highly stimulating responsibilities, I have also learned a great deal about arts institutions in New York City. The Guggenheim’s internship program includes a weekly museum culture seminar in which interns visit other museums, art galleries, and public installations, and meet with industry leaders. We also meet with Guggenheim administrative and curatorial staff to learn more about the functioning of the institution beyond our immediate responsibilities. These programs and events help provide a deeper and broader level of insight into New York’s art world and will serve me well if I enter into this field after graduation.
Journal 3
My internship with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is coming to a close. It was a terrific experience, and as I look back on the past few months, I’m struck by how much I’ve learned.
Probably the most gratifying aspect of my internship was working closely with such a talented team. As much as I gained from my research projects and my actual job duties, I benefited even more from talking to my supervisors and coworkers about art, museums, and nonprofit management in general. They offered observations, insights, and context that was extremely helpful as I worked on various projects, and will continue to be useful in the years to come.
I was also grateful to receive such a stimulating and challenging project. While working on a feasibility study exploring the possible establishment of a new Guggenheim-affiliated museum in Helsinki, I learned about nearly every aspect of a museum’s operations. In the course of the feasibility study, I explored a range of topics including Finnish history and culture, the programmatic focus of a potential museum, architectural needs and the process of construction, fundraising and tax laws in Finland, financial models for a new museum, projections about future attendance, estimates of a museum’s economic impact (measured in both increased jobs and tax revenues), relationships with other institutions, competitive analyses, and much more.
At the same time, I also enjoyed the Guggenheim’s Museum Culture Seminar Program. Each Friday afternoon, we visited a different New York-based art institution, including galleries, auction houses, museums, and public arts organizations. From participating in a mock auction at Sotheby’s to taking a tour of the subway with the MTA’s public arts coordinator, the museum culture seminars exposed me to a wide array of arts-related careers.
This was a wonderful internship experience, and I know that what I learned here will help me in my career for many years to come. I am grateful to the staff at the Guggenheim and to Columbia Business School’s Social Enterprise Program for making it possible.
