Contemporary Art Collections Metadata and Data Documentation Graduate Internship, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Posted November 17, 2016
The Department of Contemporary Art is responsible for the acquisition, study and display of art created from 1955 to today. Contemporary art at the MFA encompasses many media including film and video art, sculpture, installation, photography, paintings, design, craft, decorative arts and performance. In September 2011, the Museum opened its renovated Linde Family Wing as a space dedicated to contemporary art, vastly expanding the department’s capacity for exhibition.
The Department of Contemporary Art is seeking two highly motivated graduate metadata interns to build the research files for objects in the collection: creating, organizing, and maintaining object files, identifying gaps in documentation, and data for objects, events, and exhibitions. The interns will collaborate with the Department Coordinator to help streamline processes and workflows to ensure data integrity with the end goal of efficient access and retrieval.
This is an unpaid position, working under the Department Coordinator of Contemporary Art and MFA Programs. It offers an opportunity to gain invaluable practical experience by learning first-hand about museum work and personally contributing to the study of one of the most dynamic and varied collections in the Museum. Over the course of the internship, the Graduate Research Interns will:
Responsibilities:
- Become familiar with the Museum’s world-renowned collections and in particular the collection of contemporary art
- Get a firsthand view of how a curatorial department functions
- Learn Museum standards for editing text and formatting information
- Collaborate on the development of streamlining data processing, work flows and information organization, and data standards as they apply to local and controlled vocabulary standards.
- Work collaboratively with the curators and interact with staff across the Museum
Qualifications:
- Enrollment in a recognized Library and Information Science program or iSchool or very recent graduation from, a MLIS or Ph.D. program
- Interest in and knowledge of new media, time based media and complex digital objects
- Demonstrated excellent written and communication skills
- Familiarity with computer databases
- Careful attention to detail
- Ability to commit 10-15 hours per week for at least 12 weeks
- Ability to attend orientation on Sat, Jan 21, 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon