Academic and Public Programs

Harvard students are encouraged to sign up for our student-only email list to stay connected with the museums and to learn about upcoming student events and opportunities.

Students can also visit our calendar for dates, details, and updates about the wide variety of talks, tours, workshops, films, exhibition openings, and much more happening throughout the year.

We encourage all Harvard students—of all backgrounds and levels of museum experience—to consider our building and collections as a place to explore their identities, creativity, academic perspectives, and life’s big questions during their time at Harvard and beyond. The museums offer many ways for students to become involved throughout the year. Whether it be through one of our three formal student programs, a semester-long internship, or the Student Print Rental Program, there are many ways to engage and be inspired!

Student Programs

Our three formal student programs—the Ho Family Student Guide Program, Programs Assistants, and Graduate Student Teacher Program—put students at the center of museum activities and allow them to play a crucial role in serving both our campus and local community. Supervised by staff in the Division of Academic and Public Programs, each of these programs is a year-long commitment. Applications are currently open for all three programs for the 2024-2025 academic year. See below for more details about each.

Photo: Tim Correira Photography

Ho Family Student Guide Program
Student Guides are trained to create and lead original, research-based tours of the museums for the public, and for other audiences by request. Taking place primarily in person, the tours approach the museums via a theme of each Student Guide’s own choosing, sample the variety and diversity of the works on view, and engage visitors in conversation. Additionally, Student Guides contribute special tours to our free U.S. Citizenship Course, which prepares aspiring citizens for the naturalization test, and other museum-based education programs. Student Guides also develop educational and interpretive materials for social media, including Instagram (@harvardarthappens) and for YouTube (@harvartmuseums). Harvard College sophomores and juniors from all concentrations are encouraged to apply (with the possibility to stay on through senior year); no art history, studio art, or museum experience is required. Student Guides have come from a wide range of concentrations, including Astrophysics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, History and Literature, and History of Art & Architecture. Through their training, Student Guides develop skills in research, critical thinking, public speaking, and how to realize creative projects in an institutional setting.

More information about the program and application instructions for the 2024-25 academic year can be found here. Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis until August 20, 2024.

For questions about the Ho Family Student Guide Program:
Camran Mani
Manager of Student Programs
camran_mani@harvard.edu

Photo: R. Leopoldina Torres

Programs Assistants
Programs Assistants support the Harvard Art Museums’ robust series of lectures, artist talks, film screenings, performances, and workshops featuring the world’s leading voices on art and visual culture. Programs Assistants help with set-up and clean-up, provide customer service to program attendees, and provide light audiovisual support for various programs at the museums. Harvard undergraduate and graduate students from all concentrations are encouraged to apply. No art history or museum experience is necessary, but an enthusiasm and excitement about the visual arts and the Harvard Art Museums is preferred. A background in customer service is helpful, but not required.

More information about the program and application instructions for the 2024-25 academic year can be found here. Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis until September 27, 2024.

For questions about the Programs Assistants:
Jeanne Burke
Academic and Public Programs Coordinator
jeanne_burke@harvard.edu
617-496-3546

Graduate Student Teacher Program
Open to all Harvard University graduate students interested in object-based interdisciplinary teaching at the high school level, this year-long program centers on multi-visit partnerships with classroom teachers at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS), Cambridge’s only public high school. GSTs teach visits to the museums from CRLS classes in subjects ranging from history to Spanish language. The GST cohort works together to explore a variety of active-learning approaches to gallery teaching, build meaningful relationships with high school teachers, use visual art as a tool for interdisciplinary learning, and develop and foster museum literacy and a museum-going identity among local teens.

More information about the program and application instructions for the 2024-25 academic year can be found here. Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis until August 1, 2024.

For questions about the Graduate Student Teacher Program:
Jen Thum
Associate Director of Academic Engagement and Campus Partnerships and Research Curator
jennifer_thum@harvard.edu
617-495-8003

Internships and Student Employment

Opportunities for internships and student employment vary each semester and by department. Below are examples of the types of positions available in a given year. All positions are posted via the Student Employment Office and in our student newsletter. Please note that the museums do not offer uncompensated internships; all opportunities are offered for pay or academic credit.

Undergraduate Internships
We occasionally offer opportunities for Harvard undergraduate students to intern at the museums for pay or academic credit. We are currently streamlining the application process for these internships and will update this page soon with information about how to apply for opportunities during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Graduate Student Internships
Harvard graduate student interns from a range of disciplines provide key research support for curatorial projects, helping develop exhibitions and catalogues, gallery text, digital content, and programming. Students should consult their home departments regarding the eligibility for graduate internships.

The application process for the 2024-25 academic year has ended. Please check back in Spring 2025 for next year’s internship opportunities and application instructions.

Student Assistants
The museums also welcome Harvard undergraduate and graduate students to join us as research assistants, office assistants, and more. Work ranges from administrative tasks and student outreach to research projects like building digital tools, developing programs focused on accessibility, and investigating virtual reality. Most hiring takes place at the beginning of each semester. To inquire about these opportunities, please contact the museum division whose focus interests you.

High School Internship Program
Each Spring the Harvard Art Museums offer two week-long paid internships for cohorts of eight students at public high schools in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville. These internships run during the weeks of February Break and April Break. The application for the Spring 2025 High School Internship Program will be posted in late Fall 2024, and applications will be due in early January 2025. Check back here in Fall 2024 for application instructions.

Internships for Non-Harvard Students
The Harvard Art Museums occasionally offer internship opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students at other colleges and universities, contingent on staff bandwidth and the ability for the student’s home institution to offer academic credit for the internship. To inquire about these opportunities, please contact the museum division whose focus interests you.

Additional Student Opportunities and Campus Engagement

Students are warmly invited to attend all of our public programs, including lectures, gallery talks, workshops, film screenings, special events, exhibition openings, and more, and are encouraged to check our public calendar regularly for what’s coming up next. Additionally, students are invited to attend student-only programs such as exhibition previews, focus groups, listening sessions, student-only artist talks, and student-only M/Lab workshops. Information about these special opportunities are shared regularly in the student newsletter. Harvard students living in Harvard accommodations are also invited to participate in the Student Print Rental Program each year (see below).

Hosting Programs and Events at the Harvard Art Museums
We welcome undergraduate and graduate students, student groups, and campus organizations to partner with the Harvard Art Museums to develop and present programs for their fellow students and the public. Please direct questions to ana_m_barros@harvard.edu.

Student Print Rental Program
The Student Print Rental Program, a beloved part of student life at Harvard since the early 1970s, gives current Harvard undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to bring art into their living spaces and make it a part of their daily lives. For the duration of an academic year, Harvard students living in first-year dormitories, the Harvard Houses, and Harvard-affiliated housing can enjoy their chosen print in their dorm room. This close contact fosters an appreciation of art as students learn to care for the works, form their own interpretations, and come to understand the intrinsic power of art. You can learn more about the Student Print Rental Program through Index, the museums’ digital magazine. All news about each year’s Student Print Rental program is shared in the student newsletter. Subscribe today!