Former interns gather together on the occasion of the Hood's exhibition Marks of Distinction: Two Hundred Years of American Drawing and Watercolors from the Hood Museum of Art, showing at the National Academy Museum in New York.
Hood 2006 interns.
The Hood Museum of Art has been offering internships since its opening in 1985. Many former Hood interns now work at museums across the country, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian, and the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, while others have gone on to graduate study in curatorial studies, art history, and anthropology that has led to a career in academia.
Four of the museum's senior internships have been funded by endowments given by generous alumni and parents: the Class of 1954 Internship, the Homma Family Internship, the Kathryn and Caroline Conroy Internship, and the Robert Levinson Internship.
The museum's program offers six internships during each academic year. These internships are designed to give an overview of the work of the museum, and interns meet with staff members over the course of the year to learn more about the museum profession as a whole. In addition to working on individual assignments, the five "full-time" interns undertake an independent project of their own design and organize a Space for Dialogue mini-exhibition that involves selecting and researching objects from the museum's collections, writing labels and a brochure, and giving a public gallery talk.
The two Curatorial interns work closely with a curator responsible for a particular area of the museum's collection, doing research, writing, and helping with all aspects of exhibition development. Projects completed by previous curatorial interns include organizing an exhibition of eighteenth-century European prints, conducting research for a future exhibition focusing on bronze sculpture, and conducting research and helping to develop resources for an exhibition of contemporary aboriginal art.
The Education intern is introduced to the museum's programs for community audiences (teachers, school groups, families, teens, and adults), works on weekend Family Days and Teen Workshops, develops educational materials related to the museum's collections and exhibitions, and plans and teaches a series of museum/studio workshops and other programs for Dartmouth students. Projects completed by education interns in the past include writing a family guide for an exhibition, creating an art program for community children, developing interpretive resources for exhibitions, and developing new programs for Dartmouth students.
The Public Relations intern works with the Public Relations Coordinator in developing marketing plans and publicity materials to promote exhibitions and programs to Dartmouth students, faculty, and the greater community. This intern assists in writing press releases and email announcements, speaking to student groups about the museum, recording radio ads, and dealing with campus media, and she or he is also responsible for spearheading a student night at the museum in the spring. Past PR interns' projects include editing a video for Cable Access Television to promote an exhibition on kinetic sculpture, organizing a campus-wide Culture Bowl, and implementing a year-long student focus group.
The Student Programming intern works with the Curator of Academic Programming to create museum events for Dartmouth students, such as miniversity-type courses, student workshops, student-led tours, gallery talks, poetry readings, and student openings for special exhibitions.
The Evaluation intern works at the museum all three terms but for six hours per week instead of ten. This intern learns about current practices in museum evaluation and implements a wide range of interviews and written surveys that provided Hood staff with valuable feedback from visitors about our exhibitions, programs, and interpretive resources.
Five of the internships require a commitment of ten hours per week during the fall, winter, and spring terms and offer a stipend for the year. Special project interns work fewer hours per term and are paid on a pro-rated basis. Applications consisting of a rŽsumŽ and letter of intent are due at the end of September. Interviews will be scheduled in very early October, and interns will begin work by mid-October. Seniors who are doing a thesis are strongly discouraged from applying for these internships due to the significant time commitment that each entails.
These internships are open to all seniors interested in museum work and should be of particular interest to those majoring in art history, history, studio art, anthropology, classics, Asian studies, and Native American studies. If you have any questions about the internships, feel free to call the museum at 646-2808 and ask to speak with either Kathy Hart or Lesley Wellman.
