Are you passionate about history and love to share a good tale of adventure with others? Are you interested in the learning the day-to-day operations of managing a museum collection, too? Then this is the internship for you! The John James Audubon Museum located in Audubon State Park, Henderson, KY, seeks a part-time curatorial intern to assist with providing tours of the museum’s permanent exhibits and cataloging the museum’s collection. This is an excellent opportunity for a student or a recent graduate to gain hands-on museum work experience.
This internship will include specialized training on conducting museum tours, interpreting objects, cataloging, and handling museum collections. The intern will work closely with the Museum Curator to perform these duties and may assist on other projects including historical research and developing new tours. This is a part-time, paid opportunity that requires an average of 24 hours per week and a minimum of 300 hours for completion. The successful candidate and supervisor will mutually determine the exact timeframe and schedule.
The tentative start date is March 15, 2018, though the internship may begin as late as mid-April, 2018, depending upon the successful candidate’s availability and/or funding. The internship must be completed by October 31, 2018. There is some flexibility with the intern’s weekly hours, but they MUST be available in May, June, and July to assist with tours.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Provide guided tours for schoolchildren, church groups, riverboat passengers and other guests
- Sort, organize, and catalog archival materials and artifacts
- Update PastPerfect, the museum’s collections database
- Assist with cleaning and environmental monitoring of the museum galleries and archives room
- Represent John James Audubon State Park in a professional manner
- Assist the Museum Curator in other duties as assigned
Internship Qualifications
The successful candidate must be:
- Comfortable speaking to large groups of people
- Enthusiastic with great communication skills
- Extremely organized and detailed-oriented
- Capable of working independently and in a team
- Positive and possess a strong work ethic and willingness to learn
Experience working in a museum, library, or archives setting is preferred, but not required. Candidates must be an undergraduate or graduate student working towards a degree in history, public history, art history, museum studies, or a related field, or a recent graduate with a degree in any of these fields or a related field.
Application deadline is March 1, 2018. To apply, please send a resume, cover letter, and three references to Jennifer Spence, Museum Curator, at jennifer.spence@ky.gov.