The Walters Art Museum values creating opportunities for research and mentoring future leaders in the museum field, both of which are critical to the realization of our institutional mission.
The Walters offers the following paid fellowship and internship opportunities. Internships and fellowships that are open for application will be listed online when available.
Summer Internship Program
The Walters offers 10-week full-time, paid summer internships every year to undergraduate and graduate students or recent undergraduate degree recipients (within two years of graduation date) in a variety of departments in the museum. Interns selected for this program will gain insight into museum work, broaden their understanding of the museum field, gain knowledge of and appreciation for the Walters’ historic collection, and receive mentorship and professional development from museum professionals while building peer-to-peer relationships with fellow interns.
Past internships have included positions in Audience Evaluation, Collections Management, Conservation, Curatorial, Graphic Design, and Library/Archives. College students 18 years of age and older who live in Baltimore or attend a Baltimore City or Baltimore County college or university are eligible to apply. Available summer internship positions are announced in December and applications are due in early March.
The Carol Bates Fellowship
The Carol Bates Fellowship is an annual eight-month, 30 hour per week position that researches and supports learning and community engagement programs, audience engagement, and/or evaluation practices at the Walters Art Museum. Fellows develop professional skills in museum audience engagement while working on a long-term project and learning about museum education and evaluation practices. Examples of past projects include developing a pilot gallery drawing program, researching and writing curricular resources for K–12 school groups, and working on a new standardized process for visitor interviews. Candidates should have an undergraduate degree and an interest in working in the museum field.
The Robert and Nancy Hall Internship and Fellowship Program
The Robert and Nancy Hall Fellowship Program provides undergraduate and graduate students at Johns Hopkins University with the opportunity to gain substantive understanding of the museum profession and to contribute to the work of the Walters. The program is intended for students to work on one or more projects in the Curatorial department. Successful candidates will work closely with a curator or another appropriate staff member as their mentor and supervisor. The fellow will research the Walters’ internationally-acclaimed collections and make this research accessible through online cataloguing and other platforms in service of the museum’s mission.
Two opportunities are awarded each year: one to an undergraduate student for a three-month internship in the summer, and one to a graduate student for a nine-month, 10 hour per week fellowship during the academic year. Applicants must be currently enrolled full-time in either the undergraduate or graduate programs at the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University. Students must have some background in art history. Seniors are not eligible to apply for fellowships for the period following their graduation.
Zanvyl Krieger Curatorial Fellowship
The Zanvyl Krieger Curatorial Fellowship is designed to provide museum and curatorial training for advanced graduate students (PhD candidates) in the Department of the History of Art at Johns Hopkins University. Fellows conduct research projects and play a part in the day-to-day running of the Rare Books and Manuscripts collection, which has more than 900 illuminated medieval manuscripts, 1,300 incunabula, and 2,000 rare printed books.
The fellowship supports half-time work on the fellow’s dissertation and half-time work as a curatorial assistant for a two-year period. If the fellow has completed a dissertation by the end of the second year, the Walters has the option to award a third year at full-time status.
The Andrew W. Mellon and Wieler-Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowships
The Andrew W. Mellon and Wieler-Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowships are designed for outstanding scholars who have recently finished their PhD and wish to pursue a curatorial career in the art museum field. These two-year fellowships support scholarly research related to the collections of the Walters and provide curatorial training and experience.
These fellows will be fully integrated into the daily working environment of the Curatorial department and will work closely with an individual curator. The fellows will also have the opportunity to work with conservators and museum educators in service of the museum and its mission. They will have access to museum collections and research libraries, both within the museum and in the region, and enjoy all of the professional privileges given to other museum staff members.
The fellows will divide their time between specific research projects (two-fifths) and more general curatorial work (three-fifths). General curatorial activities include research on the collection, work on the display of the collection and its publication in print or online, and participation in special exhibition projects. Fellows also participate in the museum’s public programs, such as delivering talks or leading gallery tours. The fellows will receive an annual stipend and a travel allowance.
The Andrew W. Mellon Advanced Training in Conservation Fellowship
The Andrew W. Mellon Advanced Training in Conservation Fellowship is a two-year fellowship providing in-depth training and research opportunities to a recent graduate of a conservation training program. The fellowship rotates between the Books and Paper, Objects, and Paintings labs.
The fellow is integrated into the Department of Conservation, Collections, and Technical Research, a dynamic team of museum professionals with a shared focus on the preservation, study, and installation of the Walters collection. They work as a full member of an active lab that focuses on treatment, research, preventative care, and public outreach with a commitment to participation in professional activities. They gain experience and exposure to the comprehensive nature of a conservator’s role in a museum setting, while focusing approximately half of their fellowship on an in-depth research project.
Graduate Internships in Conservation
A Graduate Internship in Conservation is available annually to a student currently enrolled in a graduate-level training program. This full year internship offers advanced training in conservation in collaboration with university programs that require off-campus training as part of their degree programs. This internship continues the Walters’ commitment to training emerging conservation professionals since the 1970s.
Interns learn in an active conservation lab that focuses on examination, treatment, research, preventive care, and public outreach. They gain an understanding of conservation’s role in a dynamic team of museum professionals with a shared focus on the preservation, study, and installation of the Walters collection. Internships may be available in Books and Paper, Objects, Paintings, Preventive Conservation, and Conservation Science.