Internships & Assistantships

Duke University undergraduate and graduate students can gain important work experience at the Nasher Museum in many ways. Please browse through the different ways to be a part of the museum and fill out the application at the links below to begin the process.

• Internships for Academic Credit
• Paid Summer Internships
• Work at the Museum as a Ambassador, Gallery Guide or Visitor Services Representative
• Graduate Assistantships

The Nasher Museum is hiring a Graduate Teaching Assistant to provide support for the Academic Initiatives department. The Teaching Assistant’s primary responsibility is organizing and leading tours for university classes visiting temporary exhibitions, the permanent collection, and study storage at the Nasher Museum. Applicants should be graduate students, currently enrolled at Duke, with experience teaching undergraduates. Museum experience or experience working with art objects is preferable.

To apply, please email a CV, cover letter with your interest in the position, experience teaching, and/or working in museums, and the names of two references to Julia McHugh, Ph.D., Trent A. Carmichael Curator of Academic Initiatives, at julia.mchugh@duke.edu.

Complete details (pdf)

ARTHIST 310 and ARTHIST 311 are practicums held at the Nasher Museum, designed to provide professional museum experience as well as an opportunity to explore the museum and its operations from a variety of viewpoints. Students must be available for a total commitment of approximately 6 hours/week for a weekly seminar with museum staff, plus 5 hours working in the intern’s assigned department (schedule to be arranged between the student and supervising staff). Students are evaluated on their work in their assigned departments, participation in the weekly seminar, and the completion of short, written assignments such as a blog post, artwork spotlight, and exhibition analysis. Grades are assigned by the supervising staff in consultation with the instructor.

Interns may apply to work with the following departments: academic initiatives, business office, curatorial, communications/marketing, development/external relations, museum education, or registrar/collections management. NOTE: only one student each semester will be assigned to the curatorial department.

Want to learn about museum career paths? Find out more.