Company: Octagon Center for the Arts
Address: 427 Douglas Avenue
Location: Ames, IA
Application Deadline: February 22, 2013
Position: Part-time, Unpaid
Timeframe: 03/01/13 — 05/31/13 (Flexible)
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Description
The Octagon Center for the Arts is a not-for-profit 501(c)-3 organization located in the heart of downtown Ames, Iowa. For more than three decades, the Octagon has steadfastly worked to make the arts more accessible to the general public. We enhance people's lives by encouraging individual creativity, spirit, and potential. The Octagon continues to contribute to the quality of life and economic growth of the Ames community by making it a more livable and prosperous place. The Octagon serves more than 30,000 people annually though education classes and outreach programs, rotating exhibits, retail gallery shop, and special evets such as the annual Festival of Trees and the Octagon Art Festival.
The success of the Octagon relies heavily on the support of its members and volunteers. Interns will play a pivotal role in the daily operations and tasks of the organization. The Spring 2013 Exhibits intern will assist the Exhibits Manager with the ongoing inventorying, cataloging, organizing, researching and digitizing of the collections. The intern will also provide a supporting role in the planning, publicizing, and installing of the annual Masters of Fine Art Candidate and High School Exhibitions.
The internship will begin in the beginning of March, and will endure through late May. The intern will be expected to provide a minimum of 10 working hours per week. There will be preliminary orientation training, followed by any additional instruction deemed necessary by supervisor. The intern will also be given weekly meetings with their supervisor, the Exhibits Manager, for guidance and instruction.
This is an unpaid position, though we regularly work with institutions to fulfill internship credit requirements.
Responsibilities
The intern will assist the Exhibits Manager with maintaining the art center’s collections, as well as researching and compiling supporting information for collection items. They will also have the opportunity to help plan and prepare the annual Masters of Fine Art Candidate and High School Exhibitions. They will be responsible for assisting the Exhibits manager in installing these exhibitions, as well as participating in the opening receptions for the exhibitions. Additionally, they will assist in creating press releases, exhibit labels, and promotional material for exhibits.
By the completion of the internship, the intern will have learned standard cataloging and archiving methods, gained hands-on experience working with collections, and learn standards of care and instillation guidelines for works of art.
They will gain invaluable curatorial experience designing an exhibition with supporting materials.
Requirements
The perfect intern will be reliable, prompt, and professional. They will display responsibility and time management by arriving on time, staying the full time, and dressing appropriately. They will posses excellent interpersonal skills to maintain a professional, respectful work environment. They will need proficient basic computer skills, able to create and edit basic Microsoft Office Suite documents (ie: Word, Excel, PowerPoint) with technical and grammatical accuracy. While no specific prerequisite coursework is required, they are expected to have maintained a minimum 3.00 collegiate grade point average.
