Love art? Enjoy getting up close and personal with it? Ever considered working in an art gallery? Excellent opportunities await you at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. This nonprofit art museum is offering spring internships for four different positions, all of which will result in invaluable work experience for U students. Given how competitive the curatorial and art administration field has become in recent years, learning the ropes and making lasting impressions could prove crucial in the hunt for future art museum employment.
Below is a summary of each opportunity.
Education
The first intern opportunity would be facilitating UMOCA’s “Art Truck” needs within the Department of Education. The intern would be tasked with driving the truck from venue to venue along the Wasatch front, as well as touring different groups through the contemporary exhibits within the truck.
A few media duties would also be required of the intern, such as taking photos during “Art Truck” activities. Not only is this a tremendous opportunity to further one’s own prospects, but also a chance to give back to the community by getting youth engaged with contemporary art.
Marketing
A terrific opportunity for any marketing majors lies with the UMOCA’s Marketing department. Interns will be working to utilize model creation and data collection plans to learn more about visitor demographics. This will hopefully allow the museum to understand its audience and know how to target those within it better. Interns would also be required to reach out to that audience in advertising and information dissemination.
Visitor Services and Special Events
Lastly, there are two openings in the Visitor Services and Special Events departments. These do entail two separate things; however, the main goal in these internships is gaining experience in customer service.
An internship with Visitor Services would consist of running the front desk where a variety of skills would be needed. Tasks would include greeting, responding to any inquires related to art in Salt Lake City, answering the phone as well as transferring calls, selling merchandise and memberships, amassing and entering patron survey results and helping to open and close the gallery. Intern shifts at the front desk would follow regular museum hours listed on their website.
The Special Events opening involves doing much of the same work as the Visitor Services position, but this time for the variety of events UMOCA hosts throughout the year. The intern will also be asked to aid in opening and closing the space.
If you are at all qualified for any of these openings and are interested in the inner workings of nonprofit art museums, follow the links below. These internships run from early to mid-February and last until early/mid-May for spring semester, early/mid-May to mid/late August for summer semester and early/mid-September to mid/late December for fall semester.
The links include a detailed run-down of how to apply for each specific internship opening as well as the different requirements for each internship.
How to apply: http://www.utahmoca.org/internships/
Education link: http://www.utahmoca.org/education-art-truck-internship/
Marketing link: http://www.utahmoca.org/marketing-internship/
Visitor services and special events link: http://www.utahmoca.org/visitor-services-special-events-internship/
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