Category Archives: Art History and Visual Culture

Archive Assistant – Unfinished Histories

Access to Internships (A2I), Administration, Art History and Visual Culture, Classics and Ancient History, English, Libraries and Heritage

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Assisting in the cataloguing of the Inter-Action Archive, sorting through new documents for relevant material, helping set up a Facebook page for the project, and transcribing interviews with key members of Inter-Action.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Being able to make practical use of my research skills in a professional environment – rather than using it to write essays I actually got to use my research and analytical skills to analyse key documents and organise documents accordingly.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

The main benefit was probably helping them get through archival material and organise them accordingly which in turn allowed them to search through other garages to collect more documents. Also, I helped in establishing a Facebook page which will make it easier to post updates on the project as well as getting in contact with people who were part of the Inter-Action community group.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Communication, focus on goals and outcomes, IT

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence, initiative, motivation

Museum Assistant – Museum of Witchcraft and Magic

Access to Internships (A2I), Administration, Archaeology and Anthropology, Art History and Visual Culture, Classics and Ancient History, Education, Teaching and Research, English, History, Libraries and Heritage, Sociology and Criminology

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My main responsibilities included cataloguing museum exhibition objects, researching museum objects, and updating the database. The cataloguing and research generally centered on the current Ritual Magic exhibition called ‘Dew of Heaven’. The bulk of the cataloguing material included a donation of various 20th century occult materials, which required further research using the museum library and the internet, and making links to other objects in the museum’s collections. Another main task involved scanning in object labels made by the museum’s founder and matching them with their corresponding objects where possible. Some of my minor tasks also included setting the museum up in the morning – sweeping and lighting incense, as well as operating the till.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

My biggest achievement over the course of my internship included using my research skills to uncover information about the members of the late 19th and early 20th century occultist Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Various sources revealed fascinating and enlightening information about the order’s then-secret members. This task was a part of the cataloguing project that was one of my responsibilities, which I successfully completed by the end of my internship, which I then outlined in a blog post on the museum’s website.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to finish a whole box file of labels which needed scanning and cataloguing on the online database, and I helped with research regarding the cataloguing project which lightened the workload of my colleagues and ensured that anyone seeking information about the objects would find a comprehensive description of them with links to related objects at the museum, as well as the sources that could provide further data.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Teamwork and collaboration, customer service, focus on goals and outcomes

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Initiative, independence, work ethic, professionalism

Marketing Assistant – Hunter Stoves Group

Advertising, Marketing and PR, Art History and Visual Culture, English,

Universtiy of Exeter Internships, UoE Internships, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

  • Sending out emails to clients
  • Managing all social media platforms
  • Writing blog articles
  • Liaising with the website design company about amendments to the webpage
  • Liaising with the marketing company to plan the release of new products

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Efficiently managing the website and the social media, and as a result seeing the online activity increase by over 90% and thus improving our brand image dramatically.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

Really helping the company to move forward and embrace the modern technology and platforms that are available.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

It was tough to begin with as I was provided with little guidance and it did take me a while to grasp the scope of the product range the company offers, but the ‘get on with it’ attitude has definitely made me learn quicker and stand on my own two feet.