The Frist Art Museum (FAM) is committed to equity and inclusion at all levels. One of the primary goals of FAM’s board-approved strategic plan is ensuring that the museum is stable, sustainable, equitable, and a great place to work. This includes recruiting, developing, and retaining museum professionals, with a focus on encouraging mentorships and providing supervised internships to build a pipeline for emerging professionals and future museum leadership that reflect the demographics of Nashville-area communities. FAM’s internship program is designed to introduce college students to the many career pathways offered within a noncollecting art museum.
Internships are offered to students currently enrolled in an academic institution during the school year, or recent graduates, with internship periods coinciding with the fall and spring semesters and summer break.
Any student or 2022–2023 graduate may apply. Preference is given to juniors and seniors majoring in art education, art history, business, communications, design, education, fine arts, museum studies, and/or related areas, and recent graduates with degrees in these fields.
Successful candidates for all programs must complete a background check and submit all application materials.
Interns will be paid $15 per hour on a weekly basis.
Summer 2024 Internship
Interns are expected to fulfill a maximum of 160 hours to successfully complete the program. They are generally expected to complete a minimum of 16 hours per week, but this expectation is flexible with the agreement of the supervisor.
Applications for the summer 2024 semester will be accepted until March 25, 2024. No late applications will be accepted after the deadline.
Application Process
To be considered for an internship, you must submit a PDF to internships@FristArtMuseum.org containing all the following documents:
- A cover letter explaining why you would like to participate in the selected internship at the Frist Art Museum, and how it fits into your long-term career goals
- A letter of recommendation from a faculty member
- The completed intern application
All applications must be submitted as one digital package with the following filename format:
LastName_FirstName_Summer2024app
You will receive a notification when your application has been received. We will contact those whom we wish to interview.
Please note that this is a competitive program and submitting an application does not guarantee an internship.
The following departments/areas within the Frist Art Museum will offer internships for the summer 2024 semester:
- Education and Engagement
- Communications
- Curatorial
Summer 2024 Internship Schedule:
Application deadline: March 25, 2024
Internship start date: May 17, 2024
Internship end date: July 26, 2024
Length of internship: 10 weeks
Required commitment: 160 hours maximum (16 hours/week)
The Frist Art Museum is deeply dedicated to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion at all levels of governance, management, and operations.
The Frist Art Museum is an equal opportunity employer that values and seeks out a diversity of perspectives.
Frist Art Museum Internships and Fellowships are supported in part by:
Project Uplift Summer 2024 Internship
Project Uplift is an internship offered to current students or 2024 graduates from local colleges or universities in Nashville. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to curate, design, market, and create programming for an installation featuring a local artist. The piece, a vinyl cling showcasing an assemblage of the artist’s work, will be installed in the elevator accessible on the Frist Art Museum’s Main Level outside the Auditorium. The intern will be mentored by our curators as they develop the foundation of the exhibition––creating the title, artist bio, and other written materials. After working with the Curatorial team, the intern will work with our in-house design team to design the title treatment, exhibition layout, and supplementary graphics. The final design will be completed by the end of the internship, with the installation to follow shortly after.
The student will also work with the Education department to create a public program accompanying the exhibition and the Communications department to create a campaign to promote the exhibition and related programming. This project will be fast-paced with fixed deadlines—we strongly recommend choosing artists who have existing artwork(s) that could be comfortably reproduced within the elevator space.
The Frist Art Museum (FAM) is committed to equity and inclusion at all levels. One of the primary goals of FAM’s board-approved 2017–2021 strategic plan was to ensure that the museum is stable, sustainable, equitable, and a great place to work. This includes recruiting, developing, and retaining museum professionals, with a focus on encouraging mentorships and providing supervised internships to build a pipeline for emerging professionals and future museum leadership from the Nashville community. FAM’s internship program is designed to introduce college students to the many career pathways offered within a noncollecting art museum.
This intern will be paid $15 per hour. The artist will receive an honorarium of $1,500. This internship runs from May to August.
Successful candidates for all programs must complete a background check and submit all application materials.
A background in design is preferred.
No late applications will be accepted after the deadline.
Application Process
To be considered for an internship, you must submit a PDF to internships@FristArtMuseum.org containing all the following documents:
- A letter of recommendation from a faculty member at the college or university you are enrolled in or recently graduated from.
- A completed Intern Application
- A resume
- A list recommending 1–3 local artists for inclusion in the project, with images or links to their work. Applicants are responsible for confirming the artists can participate and commit to the timeline before applying. Because of the compressed schedule, we recommend selecting artists with existing work that could be featured.
All applications must be submitted with the following filename format:
LastName_FirstName_UpLift2024app
You will receive a notification when your application has been received. We will contact those whom we wish to interview.
Please note that this is a competitive program and submitting an application does not guarantee an internship.
Project Uplift Summer 2024 Internship Schedule:
Application deadline: March 25, 2024
Internship start date: May 17, 2024
Artwork Selection: June 14, 2024
Internship end date: August 9, 2024
Required commitment: 192 hours (16 hours/week minimum)
The Frist Art Museum is deeply dedicated to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion at all levels of governance, management, and operations.
The Frist Art Museum is an equal opportunity employer that values and seeks out a diversity of perspectives.
Project Uplift is supported in part by Amazon