Smithsonian Gardens is offering summer internship opportunities for 2012. Smithsonian Institution Gardens (SG) designs, manages, and maintains the gardens and grounds of the many Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., which attract over twenty million visitors each year. Smithsonian Collections Management and Education branch is responsible for developing educational programs and materials, managing the Archives of American Gardens.
While SG offers a number of diverse horticulture-based internships that entail regular garden maintenance, plant installation, and plant production, Collections Management and Education branch offers internships in the following areas:
The SG Education and Outreach internship will foster experience in horticultural programming. Interns gain hands-on experience in the areas of education, horticulture, or research. The educational component consists of developing educational content for use in social media platforms, backpack tours and trunk program based on existing themes or special concepts. The intern may have an opportunity to develop interpretive labels, guided and cell phone tour text for exhibitions or living plant displays, using both standard references and staff guidance to gather the appropriate material. The intern will work with horticulture records and resources under the guidance of the Collections Management and Education staff to develop these materials.
The Archives of American Gardens is a growing photographic archives that documents American garden design and landscape history from the 19th century to the present day.
The internship will foster experience in the following areas: collections registration, cataloging and description, research, development of finding aids, inventory, and basic preservation practices.
Projects focus on organizing and processing photographic materials, maintaining archival records, locating and verifying data for research purposes, editing and checking the accuracy of electronic records, cataloging images by describing their content according to recognized data standards, assisting with basic reference duties, image digitization, computer automation of collection records, and developing outreach materials. This experience will help interns learn the practices necessary to prepare archival collections for curators, staff, and outside researchers.
Requirements: Collections and education applicants must be a current undergraduate or graduate student who has completed coursework or currently enrolled in courses in archival science, library science, museum studies or museum education, history, horticulture education or other related field.
Applicants must have excellent organizational, analytical, and interpersonal skills, special attention to detail, and strong computer skills. An interest in horticulture or garden history is highly desired.
Internship Details
● Open to all current undergraduate and graduate students who study horticulture or a related discipline and wish to further their knowledge through practical hands-on work experience
● Ten to sixteen week long internships / 40 hours per week
● Opportunities to complete special projects that may relate to the intern’s special area of interest
· To learn more about our internship program visit http://www.gardens.si.edu/horticulture/res_ed/intern/intern3.htm
How to apply
To apply, applicants must submit an application on-line at https://solaa.si.edu.
On SOLAA, you can locate Smithsonian Gardens’ internship application under the Office/Museum/ Research Center: OFFICE OF FACILITIES ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS.
Next, under "Program that you wish to apply for:" select either "Horticulture Services Division Internship Program" or "Smithsonian Gardens Internship Program." You only need to submit one application for full consideration.
Requirements for applying to the Smithsonian Gardens’ intern program:
Submit an on line application
Two letters of recommendation or reference
Unofficial College transcript(s)
Essay describing background, interest in field, career goals and chosen project
Summer internship applications are due February 1.
For additional information, contact:
Smithsonian Gardens
P.O. Box 37012 | Capital Gallery, Suite 3300, MRC 506
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Telephone: (202) 633-5840 | Fax: (202) 633-5697 | E-mail: gardens@si.edu
