The School of Design and the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at South Dakota State University invite applications for a new Museum Studies Fellow for the spring and summer 2023. This fellowship initiative has been made possible thanks to combined funding from the FUNd for Museum Studies and the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.
South Dakota State University offers the only program in Museum Studies across the state. Founded in 2015, the Museum Studies at SDSU is a dynamic, robust, collaborative and interdisciplinary minor. It provides students with a solid background in the preservation and presentation of cultural materials and artifacts, as well as in communication, design, and management skills.
Our minor is shaped and delivered as an academic-professional partnership with five institutions in Brookings: the South Dakota Art Museum, the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum, the Children’s Museum of South Dakota, McCrory Gardens, and SDSU’s Archives and Special Collections at Hilton M. Briggs Library. The minor’s operations are managed within the School of Design, an interdisciplinary academic unit housing programs in Art Education, Studio Art, Graphic Design, Landscape Architecture, Architecture, Interior Design.
The Museum Studies Fellow will be a graduate student (Master’s or PhD) with a Museum Studies background or some experience in collecting institutions, for instance museums, library archives, public gardens, state or national parks, or historic sites.
The Fellow will be actively involved in our spring 2023 Introduction to Museum Studies course and in our Summer 2023 Internships. They will shadow the Instructor of Record, visit all the partner institutions, be involved in the class activities, share insights with our undergraduate students. The fellow will also be actively involved with our partner institutions here in Brookings throughout the fellowship.
During the spring semester, the Fellow will deliver a public lecture centered on their own exhibition record, career path, research, and/or relevant experiences in the field.
The Fellow will be required to submit a progress report periodically throughout the fellowship and a final report at the end of the fellowship period. The report will be detailing the activities completed throughout the duration of the project and the learning that occurred; it will provide insights on how this multi-layered mentoring model has contributed to the Fellow’s professional growth.
The Fellow will receive a $19,046 all-inclusive stipend to travel and live in Brookings for seven months, from January 7 to August 7, 2023. We will assist in identifying housing options.
We are excited that our interdisciplinary vision is further expanding through partnership with three prestigious institutions in New York: the Brooklyn Museum; the National Park Services (Roosevelt and Vanderbilt homes in Hyde Park, NY); and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. The fellow will be given an additional $2,000 stipend to travel to New York City to visit the museums of our out-of-state partners, talk with some of the staff, and catch a glimpse on connections between the fine arts, architecture, landscape architecture, industrial design in institutions, whose strengths complement those already present in Brookings.
A complete application package will include:
- The applicant’s full CV.
- A statement of academic research and/or professional experience in the museum field (including past internships).
- A statement explaining how the applicant envisions this fellowship program to benefit the progression of their career.
Please, email your application to Dr. Leda Cempellin, the Museum Studies Coordinator and Associate Director of the School of Design ([email protected]) by no later than September 20th, 2022. Finalists will be selected among the applicants for a Zoom interview during the month of October and the Fellow will be finalized by early November.