ArtHistoryandMuseum

Hello all, I am wonder if anyone here has interned or interviewed at Winterthur Museum for their one year (or summer) curatorial/collections internships? Personally, I love early American history and material culture, and I have been considering applying for their MA in American Material Culture for Fall 2013; as I seek to one day curate at a museum, the internship is a terrific fit for my current research interests, and also my professional and academic goals. I feel fortunate to interview. Winterthur Museum 1.) Have you interviewed for the internships? What is the process like? How can I best prepare for the hour and a half interview? What kinds of questions might I field? 2.) If so, where did you go after the internship? Did you advance in the museum field, or return for further graduate school (as I hope to do these both)? 2a.) If a return to academia -- Were you able to conduct research/do conferences, and generally, develop academically, concurrent to the internship? Did you connect with the department of art history at University of Delaware or the profs in the American Material Culture program? To add to this internship interview, I also have applications out for non-academic museum positions. Positions which are not too taxing (so in the evenings I can work on my SOPs and study GREs), and positions which are higher paying, so that I might be able to submit more grad school apps. Of course, it depends on what I am offered, and if I am offered suitable museum employment, I will definitely accept it however it comes, because I want to keep working in the field. Although, if I have two or more offers on the table, I want to start thinking about how to prioritize short-term... for the long-term goals (of further graduate school.) Any thoughts are welcome.

Indeed. I have an English master's degree and my end of term paper was "dissertation". As an American, and when in the United States, I will absolutely use the word "dissertation" for my MA work, but will qualify the research as a "master's dissertation", or note roughly how many pages the paper was, as I do not want to imply I wrote a three hundred page book! There are academics in the US who are uninformed unfortunately of the title difference in the UK... and there are hard-nosed academics in the US who reject the usage of dissertation for a MA level. There are others in the states, who push for using "thesis" when in the US. For instance, I had an Art History college professor encourage me strongly to use "thesis" when discussing the work with American academics. Personally. I do not think MA dissertation v. MA thesis are interchangeable, like UK "chips" and US "fries" (where you use the appropriate word of the country). You use what word the degree-granting university considers the work as.

Hooray for another generalist! There are PhD hopefuls like you - I sway personally between early American decorative arts, 20th/21st century public art which I assign "contemporary", and oh and there's a strong interest in the relation between art and science. While I recognize it is requisite to have an academic focus you prefer over others (chiefly, I declare my primarily academic interests "American art and design"), I see no reason not to be interdisciplinary a little; the multi-tier knowledge can open up the possibilities in the job market for researching/teaching. Having a couple of academic interests also can be useful when writing exhibition text and putting together exhibits as a curator in a museum. Having multiple interests or subfields can start unique research, too. By no means does adjoining unlike academic interests always work, and yes, it is different to bridge together distinct disciplines (e.g. physics, art history, cultural studies) than what I truly meant (study in graduate school in "mod/con" AND "American folk art"), a book like Arthur Miller's "Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty That Causes Havoc" is a fascinating pursuit. This "interdisciplinary" openness I have is why I am also drawn to seeking terminal MA/PhD programs with museum(s) onsite. Unless extended study was for the dissertation, it does not sound as pleasurable for me to be holed up in a corner several with a fixed esoteric focus; I want study many things under the umbrella of American art and design. I want to get at: what things exactly make it American; what can we learn about American culture from its objects over time; how do American artists look to the past and to the future; what makes someone an American artist (questioning, e.g. Is Mary Cassatt an American or French Impressionist? Why?). The interdisciplinary sort of exhibition, finally, I think this can be pursued well in a university museum especially. If anyone out there has university/college recommendations pertaining to my sprawling academic interests I outlined above, please speak up; I am currently researching MA/PhD graduate programs in Art History.