Museum Studies, Internships, and Professional Development

The Department is committed to offering students special opportunities in museum-related areas.  Many of our graduates have successfully pursued museum work after finishing the degree.  A graduate seminar in Museum Studies is offered regularly and takes full advantage of the rich and varied collections in New England.  The University often has informal internship arrangements with the University Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as the museums at Amherst, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges. The Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts and George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in Springfield, the Worcester Art Museum, and the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford also provide valuable internship possibilities. Graduate students have completed internships at Historic Deerfield and other area historic sites, and have won positions in competitive summer internship programs at major museums in Boston, New York, and Washington.

Departmental funding is available for graduate students pursuing both unpaid and paid internships during the school year and especially in the summer months through their Professional Development funding (see below).

The University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) houses a permanent collection that is especially strong in 20^th- and 21^st-century works on paper.  The Museum mounts a number of significant exhibitions during the year, often focusing on site-specific works by visiting artists. M.A. candidates regularly curate their own exhibitions at UMCA.

Both professionally staffed and student-run galleries on campus also provide opportunities for students interested in producing exhibitions.  From time to time, campus galleries offer internships that carry a stipend and tuition waiver.

Professional Development and Research Funding

The Graduate School and the Department of History of Art and Architecture established a Memorandum of Agreement regarding Professional Development funding for internships, language study, research travel, and the presentation of papers for graduate students in the M.A. program whose applications are supported by their faculty. The funds are administered by the Graduate Program Director and normally made available the summer after the first year in the program. Students who need to access this funding earlier (during their first year) should submit to the GPD a description of the internship, professional opportunity, or research travel, with an explanation of how it will benefit the student and an overall budget with a specific request for funds.

In order to qualify for Professional Development funding, a student must have completed two or more of the Graduate School’s Professional Development workshops during the year. The GPD will request an account of which programs they attended before the Professional Development funding is made available. These programs vary from year to year and are offered on topics from how to engage students with active learning in class to work-life balance or how to approach the job interview. See the current offerings and schedule at https://www.umass.edu/graduate/professional-development.