B&E Goulandris Foundation Museum Internship

The information below concerns the most recent internship completed. Future updates will ensue.

  • Dates: June 27 - July 31, 2021
  • Location: Virtual
  • Organized by:  Basil & Elise (B&E) Goulandris Foundation, CHS Greece
  • Open to: Harvard Graduate students (one position per year)
  • Application Period: Late February - April 1, 2021
  • Internship Coordination: Fleurette Karadontis (B&E Goulandris Foundation) and Katerina Georgopoulou (B&E Goulandris Foundation)
  • Activity Administration: Evan Katsarelis (CHS Greece)

Find information on the application procedure for the B&E Goulandris Foundation intersnship via the CARAT Database for Grants and Fellowships. CHS Greece will contact applicants in April.

About the internship

Overview

The program is designed to encourage art education through an interdisciplinary approach and extend the intern's practical knowledge of museum programming and research. Representatives from the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation will provide an in-depth induction into the modern art Μuseum in Athens, the collection, and its history.

The intern is expected to gain valuable experience in facilitating the digital shift of an art museum, and a comprehensive overview of the Museum's digital ecosystem, while conducting research and developing an educational project over a five-week period. The internship will consist of flexible shifts in consultation with the Museum supervisors and based on the assigned tasks. This summer internship program is fully supported by the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation. A stipend of €1200 will be provided to the successful participant.

Contingent on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in Greece and only if Harvard's prospective travel guidance allows international travel in the coming summer, the intern may be invited to travel to Greece for a few days in order to visit the Museum in Athens and its collection on which s/he will work remotely. The transportation and accommodation for this trip will be provided by the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation. Otherwise, the intern will be introduced to the Museum's collection virtually.

Description

Amid an ongoing global pandemic, museums are actively searching for ways to navigate the digital shift, and create new strategies for engaging with audiences while physical exhibition and communal spaces remain closed. This has opened up a new range of possibilities for creating a dynamic, fully integrated digital ecosystem. This art education internship program provides an opportunity to research and implement new strategies that will target a wider audience through the Μuseum's digital ecosystem, by developing a project framework and formulating a comprehensive plan. The intern will be presented with the option to work on one of the two projects below:

  1. Identifying New Opportunities for Inclusive Teaching Practices
    Taking museum education online is not just a matter of adapting to new needs. The digital shift could help make the Μuseum collection more accessible and make teaching more inclusive for a wider audience. The intern will examine how digital applications can support individuals, intervention specialists, paraeducators, and families through online learning. Specifically, this project will seek to address issues around vision, hearing, learning disabilities, neurodiversity, mobility issues, or mental health.  The intern will be asked to select one or more areas of interest from the above (or any other issue affecting accessibility) to formulate a learning program that will be tested and applied through the B&E Goulandris online platform.
  2. "A Museum Without Walls"
    Working with the collections department, this project will interrogate, analyze, and develop the concept of the museum tour through a virtual medium in order to make it more accessible and appealing while still retaining the philosophy of the B&E Goulandris Foundation. The intern will be asked to contribute to an immersive virtual tour that will increase audience engagement and ensure long-term relevance and sustainability. The intern will be responsible for devising narrative strategies to convey the sociocultural and historical perspectives represented by the collection, and proposing methods for relating these narratives to an online audience. This project will be implemented through an alternative interdisciplinary understanding of the visual arts, art history and theory, by using specific artworks from the collection as a starting point and a source of inspiration. Digital tools and interactive media, such as mobile apps, can be further integrated to create a participatory experience.

For all the stages of the program, the intern will be in contact with both the CHS Greece coordinator and the B&E Goulandris Foundation supervisors. At the end of the program, the intern will submit a brief report summarising the evaluations and outcomes of their project.

Eligibility

Any Harvard graduate student from the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences with the following academic backgrounds and interests are eligible to apply:

  • Art History
  • Cultural/Heritage Management
  • Museum Studies
  • Digital Humanities

Strong information technology skills are beneficial to this role, and some previous experience working with databases would be considered an advantage.

About the Foundation

Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation was designed from the onset to house its collection. The collection in Athens focuses on modern and contemporary art by Greek and foreign artists, including rare works by masters of the European avant-garde as well as works by distinguished Greek modern painters and sculptors. The building's total surface area is 7,250 square meters and consists of 11 floors, five of which are underground. The exhibition areas cover a total of five floors. The underground floors host the library, the workshop space, which accommodates educational programs and art classes for children, as well as a state-of-the-art 187-seat amphitheater that hosts several events, including lectures, conferences, screenings, performances, concerts, and other artistic and scientific activities.

Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation logo