Collections InternAt — The San Diego Chinese Historical Society and Museum
The SDCHM permanent collection consists of artifacts that represent Chinese history, art, and culture, and which also tell the stories of Chinese American experiences. We exhibit changing selections of fine art, folk art, decorative arts, clothing, household and commercial goods, archeological finds, and mementos of the Chinese community of San Diego. The intern will support the SDCHM in collections organization, categorization, and metadata development for the museum’s textile and newspaper collections.
The intern will gain work experience in collections management and cultivate key skills in object handling, archiving, historical research, and digital classification practices. Specific work includes physical organization of textiles, producing meaningful metadata for newspaper clippings and other documents, and learning the Museum’s physical collections management and object handling procedures. The SDCHM will also leverage the experiences from this internship to develop a permanent internship program within the museum; to help facilitate this, the intern will provide periodic feedback on their internship experience. The intern will have a day-to-day supervisor that oversees their collections work and a check-in supervisor that facilitates their internship feedback.
Students will receive training on collections management and digital archiving practices. This includes learning the Museum’s physical collections management and object handling procedures. Additionally, they will practice digital archiving and metadata creation.
Student will be in close proximity to fragile and/or heavy museum collections items, and they will be expected to move boxes and other materials.
Students are encouraged to reach out to museum staff to ask about available internship opportunities each semester, as internships are not guaranteed from one semester to the next.
| Hours | Duration |
|---|---|
| 7 | hours per week |