Hi! My name is Clarissa and I am a San Francisco native working hard to maintain the culture and community in this ever-changing city. I am currently on break from university but I am hoping to go back and continue my degree in Art History. I started working for a museum in high school, the Exploratorium, through a youth program aiming to give financial and educational opportunities to underprivileged youth in the Bay Area. This prompted me to become very passionate about museum education, and why I am very excited to be working for Girl Museum as an Education Intern!
I recently did an internship at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco with the development department and got to learn more of the administrative aspects of running a museum. I hope to implement the skills I have learned through these experiences to make art and culture accessible to everyone. Even when I am having down time, I still love to learn, therefore my favorite hobbies include reading, listening to true crime podcasts, and attempting to expand my food palate. Thankfully, I am surrounded by a lot of wonderful public libraries where I get to indulge in a myriad of worlds and literary universes. Commuting and walking whilst listening to podcasts makes time go by sweetly; it helps to indulge in the quiet nature and busy commotion this city provides. Of course, I love to visit museums and lose myself in art when cool exhibitions open up, whenever I have the chance.
As of right now, the definition of a dream job is very obscured in my life, but I am positive that I want to continue working within the art and culture community, whether it be through museums or through a different association. One of my dreams is to work for a museum abroad, right now Japan is my dream destination. I would love to have a position that includes administrative skills and also be community-facing, whether this be through public programming, education, and/or event management. My favorite museum has to be the Asian Art Museum. I always go there when I need to take a break from reality and find comfort with familiar pieces.
Growing up in San Francisco, Asian art, food, and culture were very prominent in my life; being in a museum focused on Asian art and culture brings me a lot of comfort and it reminds me of home. I am also very inspired by Asian art and would love to study it more in depth. The biggest issue facing girls I know is the disparity between women of color and white women in my community. A phrase that has been thrown around a lot recently has been “white feminism,” which is feminism that fails to address the struggles and oppressions that women of color and women lacking other privileges face.
As a young Mexican-American woman and as someone who was not born in the US, hearing the word feminism has always been something that has interested me but at the same time has left me disappointed. I always saw these “feminist archetypes” as unapproachable and unrelatable as I could not see myself in them and the problems they seemed to face had nothing to do with me. For society to be progressive and inclusive, we must not only shine light on privileged white women but we must give voices to women of color, people of color, who do not have the same advantages because of the way they look. I hope through this experience, I get to shine light and give a voice to under-represented communities, making museums more inclusive and welcoming.
-Clarissa Campos
Junior Girl
Girl Museum Inc.