A new Arts Leadership Curatorial and Collections Internship offered by Art Galleries at Black Studies provides opportunities to enter the fascinating, but highly competitive, world of the museum curator.
There aren’t a lot of professions with as many barriers to entry as the museum sector. From the limited number of openings in the curatorial jobs market, to the modern-day requirement that newer (greener) applicants have a Ph.D. to be even considered, these barriers are further compounded for some groups with few role models to look to for inspiration.
In reality, the visual arts industry is a world that can often seem quite alien to many of us, not just those who have been historically excluded based on race, ethnicity, and class.
But while having a naturally gifted eye for ‘good work’ is important, curatorial training is a very teachable craft, according to Art Galleries at Black Studies’ (AGBS) Curator of Art, Phillip Townsend.
“We focus on experiential learning through an internship designed to introduce young people to curatorial professions and, hopefully, helping them understand and consider careers in the museum world,” added Townsend, who is currently an Art History doctoral candidate in the Department of Art History at UT Austin focused on the politics of identity and representational strategies of BIPOC artists. The new Pathways for Arts Leadership (PAL) Curatorial and Collections Internship from AGBS includes responsibilities such as inventory and condition checks of AGBS’s permanent collections, exhibition planning, and researching artists in AGBS’s collection.
A shortage of different viewpoints in the curatorial sector is problematic for society as a whole. As a medium that so often invites the spectator to rethink their understanding of the world, art produced and curated by a narrow cohort of the broader population is destined to lack fresh perspectives, rendering one of the key societal impacts of visual art obsolete.
AGBS explores work that has either been created by Black artists or addresses themes related to African Diasporic culture. In contrast to the museum experience for many Black people in this country, they are open to working with artists from any background.
“While we are focused on increasing diversity in the curatorial industry, we do not discriminate,” said Townsend.
This is important because other barriers, besides racial hangovers, currently serve to exclude people without the means or a prior background in the art world. In recent times, intellectualism has raised the academic bar required for access into the sector significantly, says Townsend, making an already crowded space even more difficult for most people to even consider.
“In the past you could get a curatorial job with a master’s degree, or sometimes just a bachelor’s degree,” Townsend said.
Today it is different. Without a couple of decades of prior experience under your belt, anyone applying for a curatorial position will likely need a doctorate to even be considered.
“I know a lot of people who are unemployed currently,” he said. “Museum professionals in their 50s and 60s didn’t necessarily even need a bachelor’s degree. But if you are under 40, you almost certainly need a Ph.D.”
Challenging Audiences
Founded in 2016, Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS) may describe itself as a collecting institution that exhibits “modern and contemporary art and cultural materials from Africa and the African Diaspora,” but there are other, equally consistent, themes that often are reflected in their shows.
On any given day, a visit to UT Austin’s Christian Green Gallery, one of the two spaces AGBS uses for its exhibitions on campus, visitors are frequently met with more than just the aesthetically pleasing. The works curator Phillip Townsend looks for tend to challenge established norms – moving people from comfort zone to, not quite discomfort zone, but to a place where a reexamination of the things we consider to be “true” becomes unavoidable.
“Art curating isn’t simply about aesthetics,” said Townsend. “Aesthetics is one part and then there is the intellectual part. Exhibitions don’t necessarily start with something that looks pretty. They start with a rigorous idea or concept that you want to explore. You start there and then you get into the aesthetics of something.”
Townsend works closely with the Department Chair of African and African Diaspora Studies and Professor of Art History, Cherise Smith, Executive Director of the AGBS (along with many other titles on a list too long to catalog here.)
Smith has helped create two exhibition spaces – the Idea Lab and the Christian-Green Gallery – on campus that put BIPOC artists front and center. The curatorial training internship is the logical next step in engaging underserved communities and other aspiring art lovers through opportunities to see the work going on behind the scenes in the world of visual art.
The PAL Curatorial and Collections Internship is a rare opportunity, therefore, to not only enter a highly competitive sector, but do so equipped with valuable real-world experience.
The internship, which runs anywhere from 10-14 weeks, was piloted in 2022 and the two students who participated are now both gainfully employed.
“My internship with AGBS (and MINDPOP) has proved formative for me as both a student and a thinker,” said Michael Cordova, one of the two interns from last year’s pilot, currently working at UT Austin’s Gender and Sexuality Center. “It allowed me to meet folks who not only taught me crucial skills during the training but who have also provided long-term, ongoing support.”
This summer, AGBS Gallery Manager, Joy Scanlon, is leading Curatorial and Collections interns through a series of site visits, lectures, and projects designed to provide hands-on experience and foster critical conversation. The entire AGBS team will also play their part to ensure interns are exposed to a wide-range of topics – such as art historical research, exhibition design, the Black museum landscape, artwork acquisitions, and art installation – and gain as much from the experience as possible.
MINDPOP Goes the Easel
This is one of the most highly-paid internships on the market, thanks to AGBS’ partnership with MINDPOP – the national arts education non-profit organization that works with school districts and arts organizations to expand access to the arts and the benefits of creative learning equitably.
“MINDPOP is very good at fundraising,” Townsend said. “It’s what they do. They spend considerable time writing grants and strategizing so they can fund initiatives like this. It helps that they’re also super cool to work with.”
Anyone interested in the Art Galleries at Black Studies / MINDPOP Pathways for Arts Leadership Curatorial and Collections Internship should contact Phillip Townsend at: ptownsend@austin.utexas.edu