The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) is currently accepting applications for a Six-Month Advanced-Level Internship in Preventive Care and Objects Conservation in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Lunder Conservation Center. The anticipated dates are June 1, 2023 to November 31, 2023, and includes a $12,000 stipend.

This internship is open to U.S. and International applicants, proficient in English language skills (both written and spoken). SAAM internships are open to all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, parental status, marital status, or sexual orientation.  

Qualified applicants are those who are currently in or have completed a graduate-level conservation training program, or those who are experienced pre-program students, or preparing to enter a graduate-level conservation program.  

This internship will focus on the conservation treatment of components of James Hampton’s Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly in preparation for a 2025/26 exhibition. The position will include examination, written and photographic documentation, and hands-on treatments of individual Throne elements. These treatments will have a public-facing element, with scheduled times that will allow the public to view the on-going conservation work and engage with the intern and the working conservators.  

The selected person should also be interested in the preservation and treatment of outdoor sculpture. The intern will assist the object conservators in assessments and treatments for SAAM’s on-site outdoor sculptures, as well as for three other sculptures externally on view in the Washington, D.C. area. The preventive work will include a risk assessment for these sculptures, with research and implementation of emergency response plans for each. In conjunction with the risk assessments, the intern will assist in designing a training program for our museum guards; providing the intern an opportunity to address risk assessment and security concerns for the SAAM collection objects on display.  

The intern will receive mentorship, project training and supervision from the Object Conservators and the Head of the Lunder Conservation Center. This position will be part of the SAAM’s Advanced Level Internship Program. It will be located in the Donald W. Reynolds Center, the museum’s main gallery building in downtown Washington, D.C.

To apply, please submit a C.V., letter of interest, and the names and contact information for two references to this email address: DWRCLunder@si.edu, with “2023 Sculpture Internship” in the subject line. The deadline for application submissions is close-of-business April 1, 2023. Interviews will be conducted virtually or by telephone by April 21st, with final decision anticipated by May 1st.  

This internship received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program, and funding from the Dr. Ann Reed Gaines Endowment.