Alumni Spotlight: Camille Kulig

In hindsight, I can see that I was already stitching together parts of my career path before I entered graduate school. I had held museum internships in both education and curatorial departments where I began to articulate that teaching, object-based learning and public programming were central to the kind of work I wanted to pursue professionally. KU’s History of Art graduate program provided ample opportunities to explore these areas within and outside coursework which notably included a summer fellowship through KU’s Hall Center for Humanities at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. This fellowship eventually developed into a permanent role which strengthened and focused my commitment to community engagement.  Through my time at the Museum, my knowledge of and interest in grantmaking grew, which led me to the Art Bridges Foundation where I’ve worked for the last several years. Its mission seeks to build access to American art, which intentionally speaks to my experiences, interests and values.

I could fill a small book answering this question! But for brevity’s sake: learning how to write has been invaluable. When I share this, I do mean the production of writing and also holding an awareness of audience. Who is reading this? Does what I wrote make sense? Have I accurately captured what I seek to say? Etc. The privilege of looking at and talking about art will have this effect on you! I’m never not writing – whether that be program summaries, emails or partner recommendations, the ability to do so consistently well has made me a better professional, manager and grantor.

I love answering this question because it calls up the mentors, colleagues and friends who have helped (and continue to help!) build my career. Some of my favorites:   

• Do more listening than talking and remain curious while doing so
• Always ask – the answer may be no, but you may both receive the thing you want and, in the process, become more comfortable asking for the things you need
• Lean on your communities – whether that be for recommendations, editing, perspective or a laugh – careers exists in ecosystems, and we’d all be better served by sharing more with each other
• Always keep your CV up to date
• Write thank you notes
• Oh, and always go to the party – you never know who you’re going to meet