McMullan Arts Leadership Internship — Textiles, Collection Management (Summer 2025)

McMullan Arts Leadership Internship  — Textiles, Collection Management (Summer 2025)

 

The Art Institute of Chicago shares its singular collections with our city and the world. We collect, care for, and interpret works of art across time, cultures, geographies, and identities, centering the vision of artists and makers. We recognize that all art is made in a particular context, demanding continual, dynamic reconsideration in the present. We are a place of gathering; we foster the exchange of ideas and inspire an expansive, inclusive understanding of human creativity.

• Expected Range: $16.73 per hour
• Job Classification: Intern
• Grade Level: Not Applicable

This role is not eligible for benefits or PTO. 

 

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Art Institute of Chicago’s Textiles department is excited to offer a McMullan Arts Leadership intern position to work within collection management. The goal of the internship is to expose the student through a hands-on learning approach to key aspects of how museum collections are documented, cared for, and made available for use. The Textiles department collection manager and the Textiles department technician will mentor the intern.

The Textiles department at the Art Institute of Chicago collects and exhibits works that represent the global, historical, and contemporary range of creativity and artistry in fiber. The department’s holdings represent one of the broadest temporal spans of any department in the museum. Our collection includes works from ancient Egypt to the present day. Particular strengths include weaving and embroidery from the Pre-Columbian Andes, Western European Baroque tapestries, Chinese court textiles and dress, Japanese dress, the work of mid-century American designers and modern and contemporary fiber art, from Sheila Hicks to Bisa Butler. The department is working to expand its holdings in textiles from the African continent, the Indian subcontinent, and Latin America while continuing to build on the existing strengths of the collection.

The intern will join a museum-wide intern cohort and have access to a range of programs to support their development in addition to their placement in Textiles. Mentorship is provided throughout the experience and connections with an intern alumni network will be established.

 

Goals of the McMullan Arts Leadership Internship Program

The McMullan Arts Leadership internship program is part of a museum-wide effort to provide students the opportunity to gain experience, career awareness, networks, and skills that will position them to thrive as future art museum leaders.

The primary objective of this internship is to support students who will encounter economic challenges if considering a career in the arts. Aligned with this goal, we aim to shape a diverse group of leaders whose actions are informed by a wide range of perspectives, varying career paths, and values inspired by their own lived experiences.

 

INTERNSHIP OUTCOMES:

Through this opportunity, the intern will:

• Learn strategies and methods of collections care;
• Experience using collection management systems (CITI) and digital asset management (NetX) software;
• Learn artwork handling, mounting, installation, rehousing, and digitization skills
• Experience a range of department collection activities including permanent collection rotations, exhibition preparations, acquisitions, and imaging;
• Develop strong communication and organizational skills;
• Develop mentor relationships with field practitioners;
• Build peer-to-peer relationships with fellow interns.

 

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

With guidance from the position’s mentors, the intern will be responsible for:

• Reviewing information in Textiles collection database records and editing as necessary;
• Digitizing physical department records for digital asset management system to assist with collection research projects;
• Assisting with cataloging, conducting inventory, collections storage maintenance, and rehousing;
• Assisting with mounting and installation of textiles in galleries;
• Drafting digital content for museum website, including artwork web descriptions, alt-text captions, digital tagging, artist bi