The New Museum has internship positions available for graduate students (or recent graduates) looking to gain valuable experience in multiple areas of museum archives. Interns will help to preserve the New Museum’s history that would otherwise be inaccessible by assisting with the physical processing and digitalization of the New Museum’s organizational records. Interns will gain skills working with born-digital materials as well as physical records. Interns will assist the archivist with arranging, re-housing and describing archival materials related to the Museum’s history according to archival standards.
Projects include:
● Assisting with the physical processing and description of organizational records related to the Museum’s history, including exhibition records, correspondence with artists and curators, photographs, audio, video, and physical media.
● Creating machine-readable derivatives of select archival material (images, brochures, press releases) for inclusion in the New Museum Digital Archive.
● Cataloging digital materials using Collective Access and Dublin Core.
● Assist the archivist and curatorial team in researching materials related to institutional history, building architecture, and educational and public programming for inclusion in the New Museum Digital Archive.
NEW MUSEUM DIGITAL ARCHIVE (background)
Founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker as an alternative museum site, the New Museum has been an important platform for curatorial practice, cultural debate, and early exposure and scholarly treatment for important yet under-recognized figures in contemporary art over the last 35 years.
The New Museum Digital Archive is a groundbreaking project to archive the programmatic history of an institution – what an art museum did, not what it owns. Over the past five years the museum has developed a digital archive of the programmatic activity of the institution –exhibitions, public programs, performances and publications encompassing its 35- year history. The digital archive currently contains over 10,000 images, textual documents, audio and video recordings, publications, and records for over 4000 artists, curators and authors associated with New Museum’s history. The archive was built and developed with Collective Access, an open source code and database system, using modified Dublin-core metadata standards.
REQUIREMENTS
· Education beyond the undergraduate level.
· Training in Library and Information Science, Archives, Art History or relevant field.
· Proficiency in Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office.
· Knowledge and familiarity with archival standards and best practices for describing and preserving physical and digital materials preferred.
· Ability to work independently with strong time management skills.
· Interest in Contemporary Art and history of the Downtown New York Art scene a plus.
HOURS
· 1-2 days/8-16 hours per week depending on schedule
· Working hours are Monday – Friday: 10:00am – 6:00pm
This is an unpaid internship that can be used for credit towards a Masters in Library and Information Science, or relevant field. Compensation for travel expenses will be provided.
CONTACT
To apply, please send a letter of interest and resume to:
Tara Hart
Digital Archivist
thart@newmuseum.org
