PAID INTERNSHIPS
As a Brooklyn Museum intern, you'll join a dynamic group of other emerging arts professionals to reenvision the future of museums while gaining workplace skills through hands-on, real-world projects. Our goal is to provide you with the most current methods and tools that are relevant to your field and interests, assign projects that are tailored to support your personal and professional growth, and provide space for critical dialogue that challenges the role of museums today. We offer paid internships for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as adults who aren’t enrolled in higher education and who are at least 22 years of age. Recent graduates are also eligible to apply.
We offer paid, full-time internships in the summer and paid, part-time internships during the academic year. Interns receive free admission to most NYC museums and enjoy employee discounts at the Museum’s Café and Shop.
INTERNSHIPS COMBINE TWO ELEMENTS
DEPARTMENTAL PLACEMENTS: As an intern, you’ll be paired with a supervisor and integrated into one of our departments, participating fully in day-to-day workplace activities and projects with the guidance of full-time staff members. Your placement is based on interest and relevant experience, and you’ll work alongside our expert staff on key tasks, gaining skills while making important contributions to the Museum as a whole. Interns also receive ongoing training and mentorship from department leaders who are committed to supporting interns’ growth, as well as their autonomy and agency, over the course of the program. Please refer to the online application for a list of available departmental placements and descriptions. While departmental placements change with each application cycle, there are usually several open positions in Curatorial, as well as in Development and Conservation.
WEEKLY SEMINARS: Our internships combine practical experience with professional development through weekly seminars that focus on the role of museums in society. During our fall and spring internships, seminars take place on Tuesdays, 9:30 am–12:30 pm, and in the summer they are held on Tuesdays, 9:30 am–5:30 pm. Attendance is mandatory. The seminars look critically at the history of museums; question how museums have responded to current events, trends, and social issues; and ask interns to envision what the next generation of museums will look like. Seminars include intimate conversations with Brooklyn Museum curators, conservators, educators, and collection and exhibition specialists, as well as invited artists and outside experts. Interns also visit local museums and other cultural institutions. Over the course of the internship, interns gain skills and perspectives on museum work, and learn how to transfer those skills to other types of professional experience.
SPRING 2024 INTERNSHIPS
January 26–April 19, 2024
Applications for spring internships open on October 5, 2023, and close on November 5, 2023, at 11:59 pm EST. Spring and fall internships are paid, part-time opportunities ($17 per hour, 18 hours per week). In addition to working in their department, interns must attend seminars every Tuesday, 9:30 am–12:30 pm.
SUMMER 2024 INTERNSHIPS
May 28–August 2, 2024
Applications for summer internships open in February 2024. Check back for updates. Summer internships are paid, full-time opportunities ($17 per hour, 35 hours per week). In addition to working in their department, interns must attend seminars every Tuesday, 9:30 am–5:30 pm.
INTERN CONVENINGS AND "A HANDBOOK FOR OUR FUTURE"
The Brooklyn Museum’s annual Intern Convening is an opportunity for interns and emerging arts professionals to think critically about how cultural institutions can help create an equitable and just society. Our first convening, in 2021, comprised five days of virtual workshops created and led by Brooklyn Museum interns. Guests from various disciplines spoke to 250 attendees about art and public health, criminal and immigration justice, and ways that cultural institutions can support underrepresented groups.
Emerging professionals who attended at least one of the sessions returned for the culminating event to document their ideas about cultural institutions’ role in social justice. Those ideas are now presented in the digital publication “A Handbook for Our Future.” This handbook reflects interns’ and other professionals’ collective vision and intentions for the future of cultural institutions and their intersections with social justice issues. Although not intended to provide concrete solutions, the handbook serves as a framework for young arts professionals to consider and utilize.
