Exhibits & Collections Internship
The Michigan Maritime Museum is seeking an intern interested in assisting Museum staff with ongoing collections and exhibit management with a focus on the Maritime Heritage Center building and campus exhibit spaces. The Exhibits & Collections intern will work with existing and future Museum exhibits for basic care, maintenance, and interpretive material needs as well as the education and programs team to correspond programs with Museum collections and exhibits. This position will also complete various individual research-based projects for the Museum and respond to independent research requests. The intern will have the opportunity to work with a collections database for management and cataloguing of existing and new material. Interns will work alongside Museum staff and volunteers and interact with the public on a daily basis. Therefore, candidates must have solid communication skills and be able to instill interest and excitement for the topics they will be discussing.
This internship will provide an introduction into working with Museum collections and exhibits during the creative process. While working on internship projects this position will also gain valuable and useful experience in various aspects of museum work, including helping with public programing, special events, and day to day museum functions.
The intern must be able to perform the below responsibilities alongside museum staff, volunteers, and other interns and reports directly to the Director of Education & Programs. The internship will provide an introduction to standard museum practices and provide hands-on experience in museum collections and exhibit management.
Responsibilities:
- Conduct a full collections inventory of all collections items present at the main Museum campus
- Create a detailed collections display layout plan for all locations displaying collection items and update collections catalogue locations to match layout
- Conduct basic exhibit and collections maintenance
- Develop an exhibit maintenance schedule plan
- Work with staff to implement plans for artifact displays in the Maritime Heritage Center
- Assist with the curation and installation of a new Historic Commercial Fishing exhibit
- Assist with cataloguing new additions to the collection and reconciling with the digital databases (Past Perfect and library collections software)
- Conduct research on assigned maritime topics for exhibits and public programming
- Respond to general research requests
- Interact with Museum visitors
- General duties assigned by Museum staff
Qualifications:
- Must have at least a 3.0 GPA to be considered
- Educational background in public history, museum studies, or related field
- Some familiarity with Museum collection policies
- Strong writing and verbal communication skills