She Followed Her Heart Into Art : Internship: Rosemead High alumna rejected a more practical career to study how creativity and culture are intertwined.

Before taking a class during her senior year at Rosemead High School, Lisa Chan thought art history was nothing more than learning the difference between a Monet and Manet, a Picasso and Pissarro.

But while earning an art history degree at UCLA last spring and interning at museums in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Chan, 22, has discovered there’s almost no end to where art history can lead.

This summer, Chan was one of 12 undergraduates chosen for an internship with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu. Assigned to the sculpture department, she was responsible for researching the cultural and historical references depicted in works from Italy, France, Holland and Finland.

“All aspects of a piece are researched before we purchase it, but then we can look at certain aspects of it more extensively,” said Peggy Fogelman, Chan’s internship supervisor.

For instance, French artist Joseph Chinard incorporated a technique usually reserved for tomb monuments in his 1790 marble sculpture of the van Risanburgh family. Chan was asked to research various aspects of this technique, including why Chinard used it and when it was most popular.

“I love art history because it ties into other areas, such as the humanities and social sciences,” Chan said. “There’s a lot of research and detective work involved in it.”

The in-depth descriptions will be included in a catalogue the museum is compiling, Fogelman said.

Chan said her parents support her commitment to art history, but do not understand it. “They wanted me to study something more practical in college. They were always telling me, ‘You can be a lawyer or an accountant.’ But my heart was in art history.”

The Hong Kong native broke more than one mold by pursuing a career in art history. “A lot of people expect me to study Chinese art because non-Caucasians tend to focus on the art they’re most comfortable with,” she said. “But I’m really fascinated with European art.”

Chan has worked in the publications department at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and in the merchandising department of the Phillips Collection in Washington.

When her internship ends with the Getty Museum this week, she will head to the East Coast for a 10-month internship in the education department of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. There, she said, she will help develop public programs, lectures and symposiums.