Employment

Job Title: Archival and Curatorial Intern

Hours of Work: 35 hours/week; 9:00am to 4:30pm – includes weekends

Hourly Wage: $19.50

Placement Date: October 14, 2024 – March 2, 2025; 20 week term position

Located in Sidney, B.C. the Sidney Museum and Archives (SMA) is a local historical museum and archives that preserves objects and records of significance to the people of Sidney and the Saanich Peninsula. The Museum hosts an annual cycle of both travelling and internally-developed exhibitions in addition to offering special events, workshops, and other programming activities open to the public. The SMA is in the midst of a transition period with a new and motivated staff team and ongoing projects working towards the implementation of a new collections management database, updating records of museum and archives collection inventories, and revitalizing permanent historical displays. This creates an exciting opportunity for emerging museum and archives professionals to gain experience with a half-century old collection.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Curatorial and Archival Intern will be expected to complete a number of diverse projects both in the Museum as well as the Archives, in addition to contributing to the regular daily tasks of the SMA’s operations.

In the Museum, the Curatorial and Archival Intern will have opportunities to develop their skills related to exhibition design, curation of displays, collections management, and public programs. Curatorial projects will include the proposing, planning, and implementing of a seasonal exhibition of the SMA’s permanent collection focused on a specific theme or time-period; developing a series of “Object of the Month” displays using items from SMA’s permanent collection that can continue after the completion of their time at SMA; and contributing to the development and installation of feature exhibitions.

In addition to this curatorial work, the Curatorial and Archival Intern will engage in extensive collections management work in the course of inventorying, processing, and cataloguing an area of the SMA’s storage rooms. There will be additional opportunities for the Curatorial and Archival Intern to contribute to the development and execution of public programs.

In the Archives Department, the Curatorial and Archival Intern will undertake a number of projects related to increasing accessibility to the collections. Significant experience will be gained in appraisal, processing, describing, housing, and developing finding aids for new acquisitions to the collection. The Curatorial and Archival Intern will additionally have the opportunity to digitize, research, and describe an SMA photo collection of their choice. Opportunities to develop plans for Archives outreach initiatives will be available to the intern. In addition to these projects, the Curatorial and Archival Intern will assist the Archives Manager in operational tasks of the Archives, including responding to research requests and facilitating researchers in the research room.

Qualifications, Knowledge and Skills:

The ideal candidate for the Curatorial and Archival Intern role with the SMA will possess the following qualifications, knowledge, and skills:

• Must be a recent graduate from an accredited program of study, preferably in the fields of Museum Studies, History, Library and Information Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, or Cultural Resource Management. Graduates of other programs of study will be considered depending on the candidate’s relevant professional and lived experience;
• A thorough attention to detail and well-honed organizational skills;
• Strong written and verbal communicative skills;
• Experience conducting and compiling historical research;
• Existing familiarity with museum and archives standards and best practices including collections management, Rules for Archival Description, exhibit design, and interpretive content development considered an asset;
• The ability to work both independently and as a member of a team, as well as having the ability to work with individuals of diverse ages, identities, and backgrounds.
• Experience with the Google suite, collections management software, and efficient and accurate spreadsheet data entry

Note: Applicants identifying as a member of a group historically underrepresented in the GLAM sector are strongly encouraged to apply.

Eligibility Criteria:

As this is a position funded by the Young Canada Works at Building Careers in Heritage (YCWBCH) program, only applicants who meet the below eligibility criteria will be considered:

• are a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident, or have refugee status in Canada (non-Canadians holding temporary work visas or awaiting permanent resident status are not eligible);
• are legally entitled to work in Canada (have a valid social insurance number);
• are between 16 and 30 years of age inclusively at the start of employment; and
  are a college or university graduate (certificate, bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate).

Note: Priority will be given to graduates that have not previously participated in YCW internship programs and that are unemployed or underemployed.

This position is considered a position of trust and the successful candidate will be required to have a police information check as a condition of employment (Not required as part of the application process).

Please submit a cover letter and resume to [email protected] by the application closing date, September 22nd, 2024. We appreciate all applications, however, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.