National Museum Internship Programme
National Museum Internship Programme
Internship Programme Introduction
One of the aims of National Museum is to offer large number of programmes for different audiences through its educational and outreach initiatives. Programmes offered under this enables National Museum to involve its audiences in a creative and effective manner with the museum and its collection. To engage with young and enthusiastic audiences, National Museum offers research-oriented Internships with various departments at the museum, creating a platform for interns to have a dialogue with experts from the art and culture sector.
The internship programme is offered to students of Graduate and Under Graduate levels who are enrolled as a student in any institution and who wish to do research on the collection, learn about museum practices and acquire professional skills. These are unpaid internships and require a minimum commitment of 6 weeks and a maximum of 12 weeks.
Background
The National Museum Internship programme was announced by Sh. N K Sinha Secretary, Ministry of Culture, at the 55th Foundation Day celebrations of the National Museum on 18th December 2015.
Summer Internship
The programme offers internships in the summer months of
May, June and July.
The internship will be for a period of
- 6 Weeks
The last date for receiving applications for Summer Internship is 10th March every year
Winter Internship
The programme offers internships in the winter months of
December, January and February.
The internship will be for a period of
- 6 weeks
The last date for receiving applications for Winter Internship is 10th October every year
National Museum, with more than 10 departments, houses objects representing Pre-historic to Modern times. These departments can host students from various academic backgrounds. The students from history, art history, science, architecture, design, engineering, photography, library sciences and languages are encouraged to apply after going through the projects and themes offered by different departments in detail.
| Department | About the Department | Themes/ Projects | Eligibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropology | The anthropological collection at National Museum consists of about 8,000 objects such as puppets, garments, masks, weapons, utilitarian objects, paintings, adornments, and musical instruments, spread across three galleries: North-East Lifestyle and Musical Instruments Gallery. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of anthropology, history, art history, archaeology |
| Archaeology | This department has a large collection of sculptures spread across 8 galleries on the ground floor of the museum. Most of the galleries are chronologically planned except the bronze gallery and Buddhist gallery. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of anthropology, history, art history, archaeology |
| Arms and Armours | This gallery has on display a fine collection of Indian weapons ranging from the Pre-historic period up to the 19th century C.E. These include, edged weapons, projectiles, smashing weapons, armour for men and animals, ornamental and ritual weapons and fire-arms and war accessories. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of anthropology, history, art history, archaeology |
| Central Asian Antiquities | The collection of Central Asian Antiquities with more than twelve thousand objects from the Xinjiang region of Chinese Turkestan was discovered by Sir Aurel Stein during his three expeditions in 1900-1901, 1906-1908 and 1913-1916. This is one of the most prestigious and rare collections of Central Asian antiquities at the National Museum. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of anthropology, history, art history, archaeology, Buddhist Studies |
| Conservation | The conservation department of the National Museum has made immense efforts to become one of the most superior laboratories in the conservation and restoration of art objects. Initially, its main task was to look after the large collection of the National Museum, but now it also serves other institutions such as the Raj Bhawans and other public agencies in identification examinations. It also performs restoration on oil paintings and artworks. Besides keeping the vast and varied collection in a good state of preservation as per international standards the laboratory engages in research and capacity-building programmes also. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of conservation, sciences |
| Decorative Arts | The rich decorative arts collection of the National Museum covers utilitarian, ritualistic and secular objects, which have been displayed in three galleries: one gallery each for Wood Carvings (second floor), and two galleries devoted to decorative arts (ground floor). Artefacts of the decorative arts group are crafted for daily, ceremonial and religious uses from a variety of materials like ivory, jade, ceramic, textile, wood, metal, glass, paper, leather and bone. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of anthropology, history, Art history, archaeology, Home science/ Fabric and Apparel science |
| Display | All the technical works, such as the preparation of permanent and temporary exhibitions, and maintenance of galleries, offices and public facilities are maintained by the Department of Presentation and Display. This department is composed of a Carpentry unit, a Tailoring unit, a Painter unit, Artist and a Draftsman. Maintenance and monitoring activities of facilities are attended in consultation and association with the various units of CPWD. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of architecture, & civil/electrical engineering, (B.F.A & B. Des) |
| Education | To generate interest towards History and Arts among the young audience, the National Museum has undertaken to offer various educational programmes. These programmes provide a chance to our young viewers to learn about the museum while making the process entertaining and fun. We conduct activities around temporary exhibitions, and also have permanent regular activities. The regular activities are organised twice a year and are called "Playtime at the National Museum". All the educational Programmes are facilitated by experienced personnel from the sector of Museums and Culture. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of history, art history, languages, museology. With a good flair of writing and/or design. |
| Exhibition | The Exhibition Cell of the National Museum, New Delhi organises exhibitions at the National and International levels in the museum. The exhibitions display museum's collections as well as collections loaned from other institutions. The department coordinates with various institutions involved in each collaboration. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of history, art history, design & museology |
| Library | The National Museum Library collects books and journals related to the fields of history, art and culture of the World for specialized research and reference. It covers a variety of themes such as anthropology, archaeology, conservation, decorative arts, history, literature, museum studies, painting, philosophy and religion. It contains over sixty thousand volumes of books, bound journals as well as several Indian and international journals and magazines. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students library sciences, |
| Manuscripts | National Museum has acquired nearly 14,000 manuscripts in various languages and scripts, covering a large number of subjects and representing various schools and provinces. It comprises fragmentary or full manuscripts, of which about 1000 are illustrated. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of Arabic, Persian or Sanskrit |
| Modelling | The Modelling section was established in 1960 for the production and sale of replicas of artefacts made in 'Plaster of Paris' (POP). Several objects have been carefully selected from the collection of artefacts representing the vast history of five thousand years of Indian art, and replicas are made manually with great skill. Due to their high artistic quality, these replicas always remain in great demand with the visitors to the museum. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of fine arts, sculpture. |
| Numismatics | The coin collection of the National Museum is remarkable for its variety, rarity and antiquity. It comprises of more than 1 lakh coins, the collection grew through gifts and purchases. The Parrukh, Jhalan, Nagu, Vyas and Deshikachari collections have contributed to making this one of the richest collections in India. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of anthropology, history, art history, archaeology |
| Painting | National Museum has nearly 17,000 paintings, representing all important styles of Indian miniatures. It is one of the largest collections of miniature paintings in the country. The Miniature painting tradition has been a key form of Indian painting apart from murals, cloth paintings and paintings on wood. Among miniature paintings, the main schools have been- the Deccani (from the South), Mughal (Spanning Central and North India), Rajasthani (West India) and Pahari (From the hills of the North). |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of anthropology, history, art history, archaeology |
| Photography | The well-equipped photography department undertakes the photo-documentation work of the artefacts of the museum's artefacts. Prints of art objects are also being supplied to the scholars, researchers and students. |
|
Students of photography |
| Pre- Columbian Western Arts | The collection of Pre Columbian art donated by Mr & Mrs Heeramaneek represents the principal cultures of the Pre- Columbian world. There are pieces of art from Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and other regions of South America. This is a rare and unique collection and perhaps the only one of its kind in India. It includes gold and silver utensils and ornaments, decorated earthen pots, terracotta figurines, stone implements, stone sculptures, various grave goods and objects used in games and architectural elements. Besides this unique collection there are Christian artefacts from Goa as well. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of anthropology, history, art history, archaeology |
| Public Relations | The department along with the Education Department looks after the Social Media handles of the National Museum. |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students with a flair for writing. Technology-friendly and Public speaking. |
| Pre-Historic Archaeology | This collection grew out of the discoveries of the pioneering excavations made during early 20th century, and later after the independence in 1947. The Harappan civilization is believed to be one of the oldest world civilizations together with Egypt and Mesopotamia. Objects in this gallery remain the richest and most important of their kind in the world. The PHA section has a collection from the Pre-historic times which includes Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Harappan civilisation and from the later time period |
|
Under Graduate and graduate students of anthropology, history, art history, archaeology, Museology. |
- Applications should be channelized through this internship programme. Please do not approach individual curators. All information will be updated on this page regularly.
- Each programme can accommodate 20 interns.
- Applicants should have a keen interest in the field of museums and must have identified a specific subject area where they want to work in.
- The applicant will have to submit a brief bio with a short statement of purpose (SOP).
- NM will select interns based on the availability of projects and supervisors. These are subject to changes.
- Working hours would be 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday to Saturday. Interns are expected to be regular and punctual.
- Interns are expected to be present in the museum at office times, except when assigned work outside the premises.
- Varied tasks may be assigned to the intern depending upon the programmes going on in the museum at that time.
- Any material produced during the time period of the internship will be the intellectual property of the museum. If the intern wishes to use it as part of research permission has to be sought and the museum has to be properly acknowledged.
- A report and presentation are to be made by the interns at the end of the intern period.
- Interns will be awarded certificates upon successful completion of the internship.
- It will be an unpaid internship. Interns may not claim any remuneration for the period of internship, including travel costs, accommodation etc.
- The applicant will be considered provided the interests and skills of the applicant match the need of a particular project.
- The application should be countersigned and it should bear the seal of the Head of the Institution where the applicant studies.
Applications will be shortlisted based on qualifications and SOP. The shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by a panel of experts. The medium of the interview may be
- Video interview
- Telephonic interview
- Personal interview
How to Apply
Interested people should be prepared to work in a team environment. They will gain broad experience in various aspects of the Museum environment.
Please download and fill in the form attached here (Download Application Form) and email it to us at nationalmuseuminternship@gmail.com with the following attachments
- Curriculum Vitae
- One reference letter from any teacher/ professor
- Statement of Purpose (500-750 words)
- Photocopy of Current College I-card
The Last date for submission of forms for the Summer internship is 10th March every year & The Last date for submission of forms for the Winter Internship is 10th October every year.
Orientation Programme :
The date will be communicated by the L&E department.
For further details please contact
Rige Shiba,
Museum Education Officer
Ph.: 011 - 23019272 (237)