Writer / Matt Keating
Photography Provided
Maren Dean, a senior at Noblesville High School, believes her internship at Nickel Plate Arts will pave the way towards a career in the arts.
“I’m the only intern at the Noblesville campus so I have a lot of different jobs,” she says. “I do a lot of work on what is called The Square, which is a site we use for our gift shop and our gallery art. It basically keeps track of the items that we have in stock at the gallery.”
Dean has also learned about event planning.
“I also help plan some events at Nickel Plate like First Friday and Second Saturday,” Dean says. “I have the opportunity to design crafts for children for our Second Saturday events. There are also some days when I get to come up with craft ideas that are fun, because my entire job becomes doing arts and crafts for hours.”
Dean thoroughly enjoys her internship.
“My favorite thing about interning at Nickel Plate Arts are the events,” she says. “Since working at Nickel Plate Arts is technically a class for school, I only need to be there when I have my internship block. Because I have a part-time job outside of school, it has been hard to make it to a lot of events, but I have been to a few. My favorite so far has been Day of the Dead. We had some cool vendors who worked that day. The live music is always amazing at these events, and we had Mexican food from Texy Mexy that smelled so good. Events like this are a great opportunity to meet very interesting people and I got to have some great conversations with very lovely artists.”
Dean plans on going to school for arts administration.
“I hope that with this degree I can do something artistic like becoming an art curator, but I want to explore other possible job ideas while I’m in college,” she says. “Regardless, whatever career I go into I want to be surrounded by art and creativity. My biggest wish is to share my appreciation for art with others, and influence future art historians, curators and artists.”
Dean is excited about the future.
“I have yet to decide what college I want to go to but I’m leaning towards going to Indiana University Bloomington for their arts administration major,” she says. “Arts administration is a surprisingly established major at IU despite how niche it is. That’s why I’m so drawn to IU as a school.”
Dean recommends that other students secure internships. “It is a great way to reaffirm your future interests, and I have learned so much about what I want out of my future artistic career,” she says. “I also feel a lot more confident now about doing a grown-up job. I feel like I have the potential to be very successful in art curating and I have learned so many necessary skills that I could never learn in a classroom. So I would say to anyone interested in doing an internship that it’s a great way to learn about yourself and your interests and aspirations.”
Dean pursues extracurricular school activities when she has the time.
“I have always had a really busy schedule, especially with my part-time job, so there are just a few school activities that I am a part of,” she says. “I play violin for my school’s intermediate orchestra. I’ve been in orchestra since the sixth grade, and I have been in the high school intermediate orchestra for four years. I am also a part of the school’s tennis team. I’ve been on the team for four years.”
Dean says Noblesville is a great place to grow up.
“I love Noblesville not only because all my friends are here, but I also love the community,” she says. “Downtown Noblesville is such a fun place. It’s where my friends and I always love to hang out, and we just love to go out to eat at Rosie’s or Uptown Cafe. I love it when we go to the Farmer’s Market in the summer and the ice-skating rink in the winter. This place feels like home for me and all my friends. It was the best place to grow up.”
Dean adds that people should give back to their community.
“I would like to tell people to be kind to your community, because there are so many amazing people in Noblesville, and so many businesses that need your support including Nickel Plate Arts,” she says. “Just make sure to show Noblesville a little love in 2024.”
