Undergraduate Internships in Art: both summer and academic year 2012-13

Undergraduate Internship in Art are avaialble in  both summer and academic year 2012-13, at the Yale Center for British Art and the Yale University Art Gallery

Nancy Horton Bartels Scholar Internships 2012–13

The Nancy Horton Bartels Scholar Internships provide funds for Yale undergraduate students to participate in academic-year internships at the Yale Center for British Art and the Yale University Art Gallery. Two internships at the Gallery, and four at the Center, are offered annually; they are funded by an endowment established in 2005 by Henry E. and Nancy Horton Bartels, who are graduates of Cornell University.

The internships aim to familiarize students with the operations of museums and curatorial departments. Interns will work for ten hours per week for two consecutive terms and will receive a stipend on an hourly basis. Internships focus on specific projects proposed by departments in the two museums. Potential projects for the 2012–13 academic year are listed below.

The Nancy Horton Bartels Scholar Internships will be awarded to students who demonstrate superior performance in their respective fields. Applications include: a cover letter describing the relevance of the internship to your larger goals, two copies of an official transcript of your undergraduate record , and two letters of recommendation e-mailed directly by your recommenders. Please indicate whether you are applying for an internship at the Yale University Art Gallery or the Yale Center for British Art, and specify which internship project is of interest to you. Selected candidates will be subject to pre-employment screening, and all offers are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check.

The deadline for applications is Friday, March 2, 2012. Please submit application materials by e-mail as attached Word or PDF documents to:

Lisa Ford
Associate Head of Research
Yale Center for British Ar
lisa.ford@yale.edu

Inquiries may be addressed to Lisa Ford at lisa.ford@yale.edu.

Successful applicants will be contacted in April and may be called for an interview.

Project Proposals 2012–13

Yale Center for British Art

Buildings Conservation Intern

For nearly a decade, the staff of the Yale Center for British Art, together with the London-based firm of Peter Inskip + Peter Jenkins Architects, has been endeavoring to document the design, construction, and renovation of its landmark building by Louis I. Kahn (1901–1974), to assess its significance, and to create policies that will help maintain significant features of what some consider Yale’s most distinguished modern building. The Deputy Director and the Head Librarian seek an intern with a strong background in architecture, a familiarity with architectural drawings, and an interest in archival work to support these efforts. The intern will assist with the organization of the architectural drawings and archival documents that are related to the building and that are housed nearby. He or she will also carry out research in support of various building conservation and refurbishment projects. Travel may include a trip to the Kahn Archive at the University of Pennsylvania.

Education and Technology Intern

The Department of Research and Education seeks an intern to assist in the research and development of web-based resources to support teaching from the collection by the Center’s Education Program. Under the guidance of the Associate Curator of Education, the intern will conduct research on existing online museum projects, help organize focus groups, write short reports, and assist with other related tasks needed to support the department’s efforts to develop new virtual resources for K–12 educators and Yale faculty.

Exhibitions/Publications Intern

The Department of Exhibitions and Publications seeks an intern to assist in the research of twentieth-century British ceramics in preparation for a forthcoming exhibition. Under the guidance of the Assistant Curator of the department, the intern will develop bibliographies, collate reading materials, research objects, and write short reports. The intern would also select a particular aspect of the topic to research in further depth. The internship may include travel with the curator.

Painting Conservation Intern

The Painting Conservation Department at the Center seeks an accomplished student painter to create mockups that demonstrate a variety of painting techniques as seen in British painting. The successful applicant will work with the department’s painting conservators to better understand pictures as they appear on the walls of the Center, and to create small test sections demonstrating the materials and techniques employed by British artists. An ability to draw and manipulate paint using traditional methods is required; neat studio habits and a steady, quiet, working style is needed to ensure compatibility within the tight, art-filled, physical spaces of the Center’s painting conservation studio.

Project Proposals 2012–13

Yale University Art Gallery

Collection Research for New Education Center

In December 2012 the Gallery will open the Nolen Center for Art and Education, which will house a library focusing on the Gallery’s encyclopedic collection.  An important feature of the library will be research materials (including a selection of articles, catalogue entries, book chapters, etc.) related to key works in all our collection areas, from ancient times to the present. The Education Department seeks an intern with wide-ranging interests in art and excellent research skills to identify and organize these resources. The project will involve investigating books, electronic databases, and curatorial files to find materials appropriate for the new library’s potential patrons, including high school and community college students, and the general public interested in art. This is an opportunity to learn about the broad range of the Gallery’s collection and to contribute to an important new aspect of the Gallery’s public educational outreach.

Print Sources for Ceramics

The Department of American Decorative Arts seeks an intern to research the sources for images printed on British ceramics in the Art Gallery’s collection. During the first half of the nineteenth century, British ceramic manufacturers produced a broad range of housewares embellished with images of famous sites, prominent people, and important current events, which would have appealed to consumers in England and America. Many of these images were taken from popular prints. We seek a student to identify the print sources for the ceramics in the Gallery’s collection, using the numerous books that have been published on this subject, and to determine if the source materials exist in Yale’s print collections. The findings will also help to assign more accurate dates and manufacturer information to create better object records. This internship offers the possibility to explore a rich but under-researched part of the collection.

Works of Art Pertaining to World War I

The year 2014 will mark a century since the beginning of World War I. The anniversary will be commemorated at Yale, but the exact form of commemoration and the role of the Gallery have yet to be defined. The Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Yale Art Gallery owns over sixty works that specifically refer to the war, and two collections, including one of posters, that are privately owned at present  but may soon become a part of the collection at Yale. This project would involve studying and cataloguing these works, laying the groundwork for their inclusion in an exhibition. Furthermore, these objects would provide a rich source for academic work and could be the basis for numerous possible topics for a student to explore in a paper or a senior essay, in disciplines such as history, art history, sociology, or other fields.

Art Museum Scholar Summer Internships, 2012

Art Museum Scholar Summer Internships provide funds for four undergraduate Yale students to participate in summer internships at the Yale University Art Gallery, the Yale Center for British Art, or other art museums. The duration of internships will be eight weeks, and Art Museum Summer Scholar Interns will receive a stipend of up to $3,500.

At least one of the four internships is to be held at the Yale University Art Gallery and one at the Yale Center for British Art. The internships at the Gallery and the Center will familiarize students with the operation of museums and curatorial departments and will provide an opportunity to work on a project related to a specific aspect of the museum’s collection. Students seeking opportunities with other art museums must procure such internships on their own. Although the awards are open to Yale students in any field, preference will be given to students whose interests lie in American art and/or British art. The four internships are named as follows:

Helen A. Cooper Scholar of American Art
Patricia E. Kane Scholar of American Art
Patrick McCaughey Scholar of British Art
Duncan Robinson Scholar of British Art

Internships will be awarded to students who demonstrate superior performance in their respective fields. Applications for the internship must be submitted by e-mail and include: a cover letter describing the student’s interest in a particular aspect of the museum’s collection or operations and the relevance of the internship to the student’s larger goals, an official transcript of the student’s undergraduate record, and two letters of recommendation submitted directly by the recommender. If the student is seeking funding for an internship at an art museum other than the Yale University Art Gallery or the Yale Center for British Art, the cover letter should describe the internship and the status of the student’s application. A letter confirming a secured internship will also be required.

All candidates applying for internships at the Yale University Art Gallery or Yale Center for British Art will be subject to pre­employment screening. Offers are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check.

Please submit all materials by e-mail as attached Word or PDF documents by Friday, March 2, 2012, to:

Lisa Ford
Associate Head of Research
Yale Center for British Art
lisa.ford@yale.edu

Inquiries may be addressed to Lisa Ford at lisa.ford@yale.edu

Applicants will be notified of acceptance in April.