Collections & Exhibits Intern

The intern hired for this position will be part of a UVM-sponsored cohort of interns working with a range of organizations in the Northeast Kingdom who are supporting Community Resilience.  The position includes participation in a week-long community orientation along with 6-8 other UVM interns placed in partner organizations and weekly intern cohort workshops for professional development, networking, and reflection and a final sharing event on Wednesday, July 24 from 12-3pm . Housing is available at Sterling College (free) or Lyndon Institute for $20/day

Questions about the cohort? Contact kristen.andrews@uvm.edu 

20 hours/week

$18/hr

June 3-July 26

Description:

Working for the collections department of the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium and reporting to the director of collections, the summer intern will help with a variety of tasks to gain a broad understanding of how the department works. 

1. The primary focus will be on rehousing and cataloging a portion of the museum’s seashell collection.  This project is essential to improving the long-term care and to increasing awareness of what the museum holds in its collections.

1. A secondary component of this internship will be developing an exhibit component around the shells rehoused and drawing from other collections as appropriate.
   1. The intern, in conjunction with the director of collections, will develop a small exhibit component to fit into an existing exhibit on ocean life.  This will fill one small display case to tie in with other themes in the exhibit but look at new elements as well.  This work will include development of themes, label/text writing and production, exhibit design, and research.  This research will ideally address and present current environmental and conservation issues.

Skills to be learned and practiced: 

• organization
• database management/spreadsheet use
• working with others
• museum collections management practices
• working with a scientific database of marine taxonomy
• preparing spreadsheets for importing into the museum’s collections database
• checking for accuracy and consistency

Qualifications:

Attention to detail

Microsoft Word and Excel experience

Exceptional oral and written communication

Preferred:

Experience with databases, especially collections-related databases

Experience in a museum setting, especially working with collections

Degree/major/minor focusing on natural sciences, biology, environmental studies, and/or museum studies

Organizational Profile:

The Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium’s mission is to inspire wonder, curiosity, and responsibility for the natural world. The museum is housed in a National Historic Register building, completed in 1891. It features a wide array of exhibits, ranging from habitat groupings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries to recently updated natural history displays drawing on the museum’s extensive collections to cultural exhibits.  Exhibits and educational programming are designed with the museum’s mission at their core.  Programming includes partnership with local schools for various science topics, camps for various ages during school vacations and a lecture series focusing on current topics in natural history and environmental issues.

At the Fairbanks Museum there is a collaborative culture with intertwined departments.  For the collections department, we collaborate with educators to leverage collections and collections-based exhibits for a wide variety of programming.  Working with others, we develop topics and themes for exhibit updates each year.  It is within this context that the museum would like to hire an intern for the summer of 2024.  The behind-the-scenes collections care work at the center of this internship drives much of this work that helps other departments fulfill aspects of their roles.