Kat Riemer got a job at Fine Art Limited in Chesterfield, Mo., after earning her degree in art and art history from UMSL. (Photo by August Jennewein)

Some people send out dozens of resumes and cover letters trying to find an internship.

But Kat Riemer got her internship at Fine Art Limited in Chesterfield, Mo., in a simpler way. She kept passing the white, asymmetrical building on Chesterfield Airport Road when she went to her retail job at the nearby outlet mall. One day, she decided to walk in, introduce herself and ask whether they needed an intern.

Her initiative paid off both when she got the internship and when they offered her a full-time position after she graduated from the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Riemer earned a bachelor’s degree in art and art history during one of UMSL’s five graduation ceremonies May 17-18. Now, she gets to earn a living in the art world while gaining experience and furthering her knowledge.

“I enjoy knowing the story behind different pieces of artwork and figuring out how they came to be,” said Riemer, who is from Kirkwood, Mo.

Earlier, Riemer was an intern at Laumeier Sculpture Park in south St. Louis County, where she worked in the education department and with the park’s art conservator.

Fine Art Limited is a small gallery, but it’s the largest publisher and marketer of fine art commemorating special events and is owned by UMSL alumnus Jack Schaar. Items range from prints of posters from various Olympic games to Frederick Hart sculptures in the tens of thousands of dollars. The gallery also does custom framing, and Schaar offers a discount to UMSL students.

Riemer’s main task involves cataloguing and photographing the gallery’s works for its website, and keeping records of how many copies the gallery has of each work. Most importantly, she’s gaining a wide variety of skills that will make her marketable in the world of art galleries and museums in the future.

“We even have a framing department, so I’ve learned how to do framing, which is crucial for any small gallery,” Riemer said.

After gaining experience at the gallery, Riemer would like to attend graduate school in the art field. She’s hoping to go to school in the south, which would make it easier to access the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla. Dali’s work inspires Riemer for its surrealism and complexity.

“I don’t want to say it’s dark, but most of the time it’s not bright and happy,” Riemer said. “I find an elegance to that. I also enjoy his technique because I wish I could paint like he did.”