Mr. Sisley:
I coordinate the intern program at The Minneapolis Institute of Art. What I
have done to insure that the intern gets the most from the experience,
regardless of the seemingly mundane tasks often associated with internships,
is to schedule talks with different members of the staff. These talks are
designed to educate and illuminate. They also create an occassion for the
intern to make a contact with someone they might not meet during their
intern duties.
I had twenty-five staff members volunteer their time for these talks. From
the Director's office to the art storage facilitiy most aspects of our
museum's operation were covered.
The idea is to open a door for these interns . It is then up to them to make
the contacts and continue to learn from their intern experience. I am in the
process of evaluating this program to see if it worked for this season's
interns.

I believe that the internship is an open door and that once inside the
intern should apply their enthusiasm towards learning as much as possible.
The intern should find out what else there is besides the "grunt" work. Make
contacts, ask questions, find the answers.

I welcome further inquires/comments off list : [log in to unmask]

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>From: Alan Sisley <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Newsgroups: bit.listserv.museum-l
>Subject: Re: Internships - what to do?
>Date: Thu, 7 Aug 97 21:16:18 +0000
>
>I have seen a number of threads relating to internships on this list in
>the past four or five months, most of which seemed to be ex interns
>complaining of the  way they were treated in American museums.
>
>Internships are a fairly new development in smaller Australian museums
>such as our own, only recently have the academic bodies given us the
>necessary accreditation.
>
>A potential intern doing a masters approached me today to ask what she
>might do...my immediate reaction was to load all of those things on to
>her that the permanent staff  did not have the time or the inclination
>to do....but then I thought - no, that is what the interns on Museum-L
>complain about.
>
>So, would kind list members please advise me of "best of all possible
>worlds" solutions to my intern's query - what could she do that would
>both benefit her studies of museology, and also benefit this
>contemporary art museum?
>
>Alan Sisley
>Orange Regional Gallery
>New South Wales
>Australia