Internships and Fellowship Opportunities
Museum internships and independent research complement coursework in art history. We very much encourage students to pursue research and internship opportunities outside of academic coursework, because these will give you a broader and deeper understanding of art and its institutions. Below is a preliminary list of internship and fellowship opportunities for which you can apply during and after your college studies. These opportunities are valuable in and of themselves, and will also help strengthen any applications that you might make to graduate or professional schools. Beyond this list of formal programs, students should feel comfortable contacting cultural institutions in their home towns to inquire about informal internships that can provide very valuable experiences.
Museum Internships and Research Fellowships for Art History Undergraduates:
ARIAH Careers in Art History Paid Internships:
Art Institute of Chicago (paid and unpaid)
Brooklyn Museum (paid and unpaid)
Cleveland Museum of Art (paid and unpaid)
Dallas Art Museum (paid)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Met Cloisters (paid and unpaid)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (unpaid)
NY Museum of Modern Art (paid and unpaid)
PENN Museum (paid, deadline Feb 14)
Philadelphia Museum of Art (unpaid)
The Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (paid and unpaid, including Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Freer-Sackler Galleries, Museum of African Art, Museum of American Art, Archives of American Art, National Portrait Gallery, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Renwick Gallery)
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (paid)
Studio in a School (NYC residents only)
Wadsworth Atheneum (unpaid)
Wesleyan:
ICPP Summer Internship
The Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP), a new program designed for arts professionals to investigate curatorial issues in the performing arts. Professionals from top arts organizations such as Danspace Project, the Walker Arts Center and the Studio Museum in Harlem will join Wesleyan faculty to teach 16 students in a low-residency, 9-month program. The students are a diverse group of arts professionals--administrators, curators, and artists--from all over the country. The summer intensive is the core of the program; for two weeks, students interact with guest artists and faculty and study artistic and curatorial practices, the social and cultural context of performance and entrepreneurial strategies. The interns will work during the summer and then support the program through two weekend on-campus intensives.
James E. Lieber Art History Internship Fund
Fund provides grant support to Art History majors or minors for summer work experience as rising juniors and seniors through unpaid or underpaid internships with non-profit visual arts-related institutions in the United States or abroad, such as museums, cultural foundations, collections, publications, and visual arts education programs.
John T. Paoletti Travel Research Fellowships in Art History
Funds are available to support student research and travel in the summer following the junior year that will result in a senior thesis project. Only current juniors who are working with art history faculty and who will complete a senior thesis are eligible.
The Nancy Campbell Summer Internship Program
Workstudy internships at the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University
Wesleyan Paris Program/Terra Foundation for American Art Europe Internship in Paris
The fall semester internship is in the Terra Foundation¹s Paris library. The year-long intern provides 15 hours per week of general assistance in the Terra Foundation Paris office, and the internship is particularly suited to students with a demonstrated interest in art, art history, communications, or museum or non-profit institutional management. You can read a former intern's impressions (in French) of her experience at http://fr.vwpp.org/programme/stages-et-benevolat/#terra. Students who wish to undertake these internships must be participants in the Paris program (and thus have met the requirements for admission to the program, including having passed FREN 215 with at least a B) and then apply for the internships after they have been admitted to the program. We have, unfortunately, only one internship for a fall-semester student and one internship for a full-year student at the moment, so there is likely to be some competition for the positions (which are open to all students on the program, not just Wesleyan students).
Post-BA fellowships to apply for:
American Rhodes Scholarships
The Rhodes Trust, a British charity established to honor the will and bequest of Cecil J. Rhodes, provides full financial support for Rhodes Scholars to pursue a degree or degrees at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
The Beinecke Scholarship Program
The Beinecke Scholarship program aims to encourage and enable highly motivated students to pursue graduate opportunities in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Blakemore Kingfisher Art History Language Fellowship
The Blakemore Kingfisher Art History Language Fellowship is awarded for nine to twelve months of full-time, intensive language study of Chinese or Korean in East Asia. These grants are open to students who have demonstrated intent to pursue an academic career in Chinese or Korean art history prior to the 20th century.
Fulbright: International Education Exchange Program
The Fulbright Program offers grants to study, teach and conduct research for U.S. citizens to go abroad and non-U.S. citizens to come to the United States.
Mortimer Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship
The Mortimer Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship provides support to students in the visual and fine arts, including art history, conservation, studio art and photography, for travel and living expenses outside the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii in accordance with a program of study or other activities approved by the fellowship selection committee.
The Smith College Musuem of Art Fellowship
A two year post-baccalaureate program designed to introduce recent college graduates to different aspects of museum work: museum education, marketing and communications, and curatorial.
Studio Museum Harlem Curatorial Fellowship
The Curatorial Fellowship is designed to provide in-depth curatorial experience for a recent graduate who has earned a baccalaureate or graduate-level degree, with a concentration in Art History, Curatorial Studies, Visual Culture or a related field. Applicants must not be currently enrolled in an academic program. Applicants must be of culturally diverse background and should have a keen interest in curating, excellent writing and research skills, and knowledge of the contemporary art world. Applicants must also currently reside in New York City.
Thomas J. Watson Fellowship
A one year grant for independant study and travel outside the United States awarded to graduating college seniors nominated by participating institutions.