Intern for the Field Museum

Exhibition Visual Resources Intern

Spring 2010

Intern Supervisors: Anna Huntley, Libby Pokel, Greg Mercer

Museum Information

The Field Museum's Exhibitions Department is composed of individuals who design, develop, and produce museum exhibitions. Project teams implement a different slate of permanent, temporary, and traveling exhibitions every year. Each project team includes at least one graphic designer, exhibit designer, content developer, production supervisor, and project manager. These members work together—up to three years in advance of an exhibition’s opening—to create the look and feel of the exhibition, as well as the educational messages the Museum strives to convey. Exhibitions are chosen and developed based upon the mission of helping visitors explore the Earth and its people. Exhibitions vary in size and scope from a small exhibit of photographs on Arctic wildlife to a large collection of Egyptian art.

Internship Description

The primary focus of this internship will be to manage the visual resources associated with the development of an upcoming permanent exhibition on conservation and biodiversity. The intern will be responsible for the organization, cataloging, and tracking of high resolution images and video clips to be used in the exhibition.

The intern will work with a team of museum professionals as they plan, develop, design and produce content for the exhibition. The intern will have the chance to gain a variety of general experiences in these areas by becoming a member of a project team.

Other duties may include: photo research and securing image rights, attending meetings and strategy sessions relating to the development and design of the exhibition, assisting in developing content presentations, and conducting visitor surveys and prototyping exhibition elements with the public, and working face to face with Field Museum scientific staff to locate and select visual resources for consideration

This position would initially be 2-3 days per week, transitioning to full time during the summer of 2010. Compensation would be $12/hour.

Qualifications

All candidates must have strong organizational skills, and written communication skills.

Self-motivation, creativity, and the ability to work independently—especially on image cataloging—are all desirable qualities in the candidate.

As the museum’s project team comes from a variety of backgrounds, the Exhibitions Department will consider a diverse range of educational backgrounds in the candidate:

· Courses and/or experiences with topics in multimedia, art, anthropology, environmental studies, biology and/or ecology are a plus

· Video editing and/or production experience is a plus, though not essential

Candidates should be well versed in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and be comfortable working with both PCs and Macs.

Candidates should have a “good eye” and be able to describe images and video clips in a succinct manner in order to catalog clearly and quickly.

Candidates should be comfortable working and speaking with the diverse members—and diverse personalities—of a project team.

Please submit your resume and a brief cover letter via email by April 1 to:

Anna Huntley
ahuntley@fieldmuseum.org
Exhibitions Project Manager
The Field Museum
1400 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60605-2496
(312) 665-7352 (direct)
(312) 922-9410 (main)