History of Paid Internships and Past Interns

In 1995, the Harvey W. Branigar Jr. Native Fellowship was created in order to support Native individuals in pursuit of a museum or cultural center career. From 1995–2001, the Indian Arts Research Center was pleased to provide six nine-month long internships to a wide array of young men and women, eager to pursue their goals.

In 2008, the IARC reintroduced the Harvey W. Branigar Native Fellowship as the Harvey W. Branigar Native Internship. Revamped as a comprehensive internship allowing Native individuals to equally pursue museum and academic work, the Branigar internship provided a strong background to advanced students interested in pursuing museum training and stimulating academic intellectual thought. Although this program ended in 2010, two intern positions made available under the Anne Ray Internship program continue to be available.

In 2009, the IARC introduced the Anne Ray Internship, which allows the IARC to train two young professionals in the field of museum work and research. One position is open to a Native American individual, while the second position is available to any recent graduate or graduate student whose career plans focus on working with Native American collections. Both internships are made possible with the generous support of the Anne Ray Charitable Trust.

Today, interns spend half their time working on collections/registration projects and half of their time working on academic/programming projects. Interns will also have the opportunity to work with and be advised by the annual Anne Ray Resident Scholar.