Undergraduate training programs, internships, and fellowships provide invaluable behind-the-scenes museum experience, offering access to museum resources and mentorship with staff and partners that are relevant for futures in the museum field and beyond.
Applications for the 2023 Summer Intensive are currently closed. Please check back in early December for next year’s information.
The McMullan Family Foundation Summer Intensive
The McMullan Family Foundation Summer Intensive is a weeklong program exposing undergraduate students to museum professions through workshops, behind-the-scenes tours, field trips, and networking events.
The 2023 program returns to the theme of “The Museum Space,” which considers the museum’s relationship to real and imagined environments, both within and outside of its physical footprint. This year’s iteration puts particular emphasis on collaboration, networks, and community, while engaging with exhibitions on view featuring artists such as Gio Swaby, Kwame Brathwaite, Peter Hujar, Lui Shou-Kwan, Van Gogh, and more. This year’s program will run June 12–17, 2023.
Students who complete the summer intensive are eligible to apply for a two-year fellowship at the museum, a part-time opportunity to pursue alongside their academic programs.
Undergraduates who are currently enrolled at a university, college, or community college, and, if selected as a fellow, can commit to two years on-site in the program. Typically participants are current first- or second-year students and/or nontraditional students with two years of undergraduate study remaining and graduation planned for May 2025 or a later date.
Students who have an interest in learning more about museums and how museums work, art and art history, and the wide range of career paths in the museum field. Previous coursework or job experience in these fields is a plus, but not required.
Students who are based or attending school in the Midwest or Chicagoland area. Applicants must be eligible to work in the United States and able to physically access the museum for the duration of the program.
Students who are able to attend the McMullan Family Foundation Summer Intensive program for the entire week.
Most importantly, students who aim to support the goal of promoting inclusive museums that showcase a multiplicity of voices, perspectives, and identities, and who would benefit from the unique support and access that this opportunity provides.
Applications for the 2023 Summer Intensive are currently closed. Please check back in early December for next year’s information.
We anticipate accepting 15 students into the 2023 program. Applicants will be notified whether or not they have been accepted by Friday, April 7, 2023.
Summer Intensive participants will be eligible to apply for the undergraduate fellowship after attending the Summer Intensive. It is not possible to apply for the fellowship without participating in the Summer Intensive.
Participants will be given a stipend the week before the program begins to assist them for the duration of the program.
We encourage all participants to stay in SAIC student housing provided as part of the program. Each participant will be given a single-person room. Student housing is walking distance to the museum and will enable participants to reach the museum in a timely manner each morning, while also allowing space to connect with their cohort and work on assignments together after hours.
Check in for SAIC student housing will occur the Sunday before the program begins, and check out will happen the Sunday after the program concludes.
The McMullan Family Foundation Summer Intensive and the McMullan Arts Leadership Initiative are supported by the James and Madeleine McMullan Family Foundation.
