McMullan Arts Leadership Intern, Research Center - Libraries

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 Research Center is excited to offer a McMullan Arts Leadership intern position to work with their library team.

A hub for scholarship and training, the Art Institute Research Center brings together the museum's Ryerson and Burnham Library, the Art Institute of Chicago Archives, and the department of Academic Engagement and Research to care for, modernize, and share the Art Institute of Chicago's broad array of research resources.

The historic Ryerson and Burnham Library is one of the nation's preeminent art research libraries. The collection holds more than 670,000 print titles, 100,000 auction catalogs, 200 current serial subscriptions, and extensive digital resources. The Library resources the museum's eleven curatorial departments, supporting myriad research fields spanning the globe and all time periods. In addition to upholding the museum's core activities, the Library makes its collections accessible to the scholarly community, faculty and students, artists and architects, and inquisitive public visitors from around the world.

The intern will research various primary sources to document the sources of items in our library collection. Being able to attribute rare books to specific donors and being able to list items donated by significant donors will be of great value to our Provenance, Philanthropy, and Curatorial Departments.

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 the libraries. 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:

• Discover information access points, such as written and published documentation, as well as investigating physical clues of a book such as margin notes, labels, and book plates;
• Learn about and handle rare books, including artists' books;
• Navigate an integrated library system (Alma/Primo), including editing catalog records;
• Understand how a library functions within a museum setting;
• 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:

• Compile data from a variety of in-house sources to create a spreadsheet documenting key data points about the sources of our library books;
• Add the relevant information into our library database, using a provided structured vocabulary;
• Collaborate with the Library Director and the Associate Director of Access Services to focus the project on the most necessary information;
• Prepare and deliver a presentation to the Research Center staff, summarizing their work and how it was beneficial to their studies;
• Participate in regular meetings with members of the department and the mentors of this position: director of the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries as well as the associate director of access services;
• Attend intern cohort professional development…