McMullan Arts Leadership Intern, Collections and Loans

The Art Institute of Chicago shares its singular collections with our city and the world. We collect, care for, and interpret works of art across time, cultures, geographies, and identities. We are a place of gathering and learning, committed to fostering an inclusive understanding of human creativity.

Position Summary

The Art Institute of Chicago's department of Collections and Loans seeks an enthusiastic, organized, and detail-oriented intern to work with their Permanent Collection team.

The Permanent Collection area of Collections and Loans coordinates all registration aspects of permanent collection management, including accessions, deaccessions, inventory, collection displays and limited-loan exhibitions, insurance, and incoming and outgoing loans. The team drives the strategy of the department and care of the collection, collaborating alongside the departments of curatorial, conservation and science, strategy and analytics, legal, facilities, and protection services to implement museum best practices.

This position will review recently scanned museum registration documentation to help the department better understand our historic workflows, document accession numbers used, update the collection database (CITI), and improve overall collection data accuracy, which will benefit ongoing curatorial research.

The intern will join a museum-wide intern cohort and have access to a range of programs to support their development in addition to their placement in Collections and Loans. Mentorship is provided throughout the experience, and connections with an intern alumni network will be established.

Duration of Position: 32 weeks / September 2026 (start date anytime during the week of September 21-25) through April 2027 (end date anytime during the week of April 26-April 30).

McMullan Arts Leadership Internship Program Goals

The McMullan Arts Leadership internship program is part of a museum-wide effort to provide students the opportunity to gain experience, career awareness, networks, and skills that will position them to thrive as future art museum leaders.

This program specifically aims to support students who encounter economic challenges when considering a career in the arts. Aligned with this goal, we aim to help shape a diverse group of leaders whose actions are informed by a wide range of perspectives, varying career paths, and values inspired by their own lived experiences.

Internship Outcomes

In this position, the intern will have the opportunity to:

• Learn about the processes through which the museum brings items into its collection and removes objects from the collection;
• Gain familiarity with museum collection data, relational databases (CITI), and digital asset management systems (NetX);
• Discover historic museum registration methods by reviewing documents now housed in Archives that were recently scanned, gaining archival; research experience as well as experience using Adobe Acrobat and the Google software suite;
• Develop systematized documentation about those methods for current and future use with ongoing object and donor research;
• Develop mentor relationships with field practitioners;
• Build peer-to-peer relationships with fellow interns.

Responsibilities

With guidance from the position's mentors, the intern will:

• Review scanned records to determine accession numbers used each year;
• Document gaps and unique situations with the numbering;
• Review/create collection database records with a goal of having a complete indexed reference for all accession numbers used and skipped within our database;
• Assist with other historical records research, as needed;
• Participate in regular meetings with members of the department and the mentors of this position:
  Director, Collections and Manager, Collection Systems;
• Attend intern cohort professional development programs and museum practice seminars.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate or graduate student; recent graduates (within one year of graduation) will also be considered;
• Applicants must be based in the Chicagoland area and/or attending school in the Chicagoland area over the course of the internship term;
• Familiarity with Google Professional Suite and Adobe Creative Suite;
• Eage…