Descriptions of Departmental Intern Placements

The following job descriptions are offered to help applicants decide which departments they may be interested in. It is important to remember that intern assignments and projects vary significantly from year to year, and some departments do not take an intern every year.

The Internship Coordinator will outline a specific placement when contacting each finalist with a firm offer for acceptance into the program. The candidate will then have the opportunity to ask questions before accepting or rejecting the position.

Curatorial Departments

The intern may assist with the care of objects, the installation of objects, researching, participating in departmental meetings and helping with general office work. An intern may be assigned to work on an individual project.

Support Departments

Archives
The Museum Archivist will supervise all archiving interns. However, these interns may be assigned to any Museum department for their day to day work. The process of archiving involves reviewing, sorting, organizing, and preparing materials for storage in the Museum Archives.

Development
Interns are included in general department staff meetings and will be expected to work as part of the Development team for events involving any of their targeted groups. Interns may do research on granting agencies, foundations, and individuals. They may assist with various donor programs, such as Corporate Partners, Associate Level Members, and Young Members.

Editorial and Graphic Design
The intern will observe and assist in implementing many design decisions regarding exhibitions, signage, and brochures, etc. The intern may be given an independent project.

Information Technology
The intern may work on Website content or assist with other technology projects.

Library
Interns participate in many library functions such as cataloguing and assisting staff.

Marketing & PR
Interns may work on the marketing side, which writes copy and develops outlets for paid advertising in various media. Or they may work on the public relations side, where the staff promotes Museum programs to the press and other community organizations.

Wholesale and Retail Operations
Interns will lean about buying and merchandizing for the Museum’s 5 retail outlets and wholesale operations. Interns may also be involved in creating marketing strategies for selling the store’s products.

Education and External Affairs

Community Outreach
Two interns will work through the Department of External Affairs in a program that reaches out to children and families in all neighborhoods in Philadelphia through the Free Public Library’s Summer Reading Program.

Family Programs
The intern will assist in planning and implementing Sunday gallery programs and studio activities for families.

Public Programs
The intern will assist with a variety of projects that could include planning and presenting concerts, lectures, workshops, and trips for adults. Research about art may be involved in the planning.

Teaching Children
Six interns will work together to plan the program for Summer Camp Groups. These groups may be made up of children as young as 4 or 5 , and as old as 15 or 16. The program will include teaching the camp children about art in the museum galleries and leading them through the making of a craft project in the museum studios.

Collections Management

Conservation
Interns will observe a wide variety of conservation techniques. They will spend time in painting conservation, object conservation, caring for works on paper, and in costume and textiles. Interns with a science background may participate in chemical analysis of materials, etc.

Registrar
The intern will assist the registrar and staff in knowing the whereabouts and condition of every art object in the Museum’s collection whether at PMA or on loan to other museums.

Rights & Reproductions
The R & R intern will participate in scanning and archiving images of objects and past exhibitions. He/she will work with related photographic files and materials.

For more information, please contact the Museum Studies Internship Program by phone at (215) 684-7592, by fax at (215) 236-4063, or by e-mail at .