WORCESTER, MASS., January 5, 1999 - Thanks to support from Flagship Bank and Trust Company, the Worcester Art Museum will again offer two summer internships for minority high school students from the Central Massachusetts area. Developed in 1996 to encourage diversity in museums, this internship program introduces young minority adults to the museum field. Minority students who will graduate in good standing from high school in spring 1999 are encouraged to apply.
Over the course of eight weeks, interns will learn about the variety of careers available in an art museum by working with staff in the Worcester Art Museum's Education, Curatorial, Administration, and Development divisions. Each intern will work full-time, Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm, and earn $2,250.
Museum staff and members of the Museum's Diversity Committee interview semi-finalists applying for the internships. Some of the previous interns are now studying art and art history in college and/or working at the Museum during semester breaks. Last year's winners were Philip Price of Oakham, and Miguel Toro of Milford.
This program has been funded for the past three years by a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, as part of The Art of Discovery program. To help support the 1999 Minority Internship Program, Flagship Bank and Trust Company has generously agreed to let the Museum keep the 50,000 nickels ($2,500) it let the Museum borrow for the contemporary art exhibition Blurring the Boundaries.
Applications for the Minority Internship Program are available from school principals, social workers, and youth workers in Central Massachusetts, or from the Worcester Art Museum by calling 508.799.4406, x3056. Students must submit completed applications by January 29, 1999.
Museum Background
Opened to the public in 1898, the Worcester Art Museum is the second largest art museum in New England. Its exceptional 35,000-piece collection of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photography, prints and drawings is displayed in 36 galleries and spans 5,000 years of art and culture, ranging from Egyptian antiquities and Roman mosaics to Impressionist paintings and contemporary art. Throughout its first century, the Worcester Art Museum proved itself a pioneer: the first American museum to purchase work by Claude Monet (1910) and Paul Gauguin (1921); the first museum to bring a medieval building to America (1927); a sponsor of the first major excavation at Antioch, one of the four great cities of ancient Rome (1932); the first museum to create an Art All-State program for high school artists (1987); the originator of the first exhibition of Dutch master Judith Leyster (1993); and the first museum to focus its contemporary art programs on art of the last 10 years (1998). The Museum's hours are: Wednesday through Sunday, 11am-5pm, and Saturday 10am-5pm. Admission: FREE for members; Non-members: $8 Adults; $6 Seniors and full-time college students with current ID; FREE for youth 17 and under; FREE for everyone Saturday mornings 10am-noon sponsored by The TJX Companies and Massachusetts Electric Company. For more information, call (508) 799-4406 or visit the Museum at 55 Salisbury Street in Worcester.
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