Museum Collections Intern
Background
Founded in 1976 by Columbia College Chicago as the successor to the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography, the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) began collecting in the early 1980s and has since grown its collection to include over 17,000 objects by over 1,800 artists.
The MoCP is a world premier college art museum dedicated to photography. As an international hub, we generate ideas and provoke dialogue among students, artists and diverse communities through groundbreaking exhibitions and programming. Our mission is to cultivate a deeper understanding of the artistic, cultural and political roles of photography in our world today.
Museum Collections Intern Overview
The Museum Collections Intern works closely with the Collections Manager & Registrar of the Museum of Contemporary Photography to conduct a full inventory and reorganization of the Museum of Contemporary Photography's offsite storage facility, which holds over 1300 of our collection pieces. The intern will be involved in all process steps, including inventory, condition checks, digitization, re-housing, and updating metadata in our collection database.
Responsibilities
- The care and documentation of the collection, including inventorying, photographing, condition reporting, and re-housing of works
- Physically moving and packing/unpacking of works
- Becoming knowledgeable of and implementing safe preventative conservation care for collection works.
- Administrative tasks, such as filing paperwork, database entry, and clean up (updating locations, etc.)
- Work at off-site storage will be required and will include bending, lifting, and standing for extended periods.
Requirements, Skills, and Qualifications
- Highly organized and detail-oriented
- An excellent communicator
- Able to take direction and feedback well
- Capable of working both independently and on a team
- A strong problem solver and critical thinker
- Interested in a career in museums, especially collections management
- Previous experience with digital photography and Adobe products, such as Photoshop and Acrobat, a plus.
Compensation
$20.00 per hour
INTERNS WILL WORK 28 HOURS PER WEEK AND ATTEND A MANDATORY OFFSITE PROGRAM DAY ONE DAY PER WEEK WITH THEIR COHORT.
Internship Period: June 4 – August 7
Total Weeks: 9 weeks
Work Hours per Week: 28
Total Hours: 252
Workdays: 4 days per week, 9AM–5PM
PROGRAM DAY:
On Fridays, interns will attend an offsite program day with their cohort.
These hours are separate from the internship hours.
How to Apply:
This internship is through the Studio Institute Arts Intern program.
You must first apply to Arts Intern to be eligible for this internship. Once your application has been approved, we will provide you with the next steps to apply for the Museum Collections Intern position at the Museum of Contemporary Photography.
Submit Your Application Here: