Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College Offers Summer Intern Gallery Talks

Lakeland, Florida – The Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College will offer special student-led gallery talks this summer through the college’s budding Museum Studies program.

The affiliation between Florida Southern College and the Polk Museum of Art allows the college to build upon its Art History program by adding a Museum Studies program, which is set to launch this fall.

The new Department of Art History and Museum Studies, led by the Museum’s Executive Director & Chief Curator Dr. H. Alexander Rich and housed in the Museum, will typically offer four to six courses a semester. Students will experience a close-up look at what museum work entails. They will have the added benefit of being exposed to works of art in person rather than via projected images in a traditional classroom setting alone.

“The premise for the program is first and foremost to expose students to works of art and, beyond that, to permit students to glimpse firsthand future applications of their classroom learning in the career opportunities they see around them at the Museum,” said Dr. Rich.

Along with the new department, FSC students can apply for a competitive six-week summer internship program that will work in tandem with the Museum Studies program. Open to all undergraduate students at the college, no matter their major, summer interns are given the unique opportunity to work across a range of disciplines, such as art history, education, or marketing and learn the inner workings of the Museum.

One highlight of the summer internship program — now in its second year — is the gallery talks the interns offer the public. Interns will enhance their research and speaking skills by presenting on a specialized subject related to the Museum’s current exhibitions.

“Members of the community in attendance will gain fresh perspectives on our summer exhibitions and experience a unique set of programs that speak deeply to the life of the Museum as an educational institution,” Dr. Rich said.

Both the summer internship program and the new Department of Art History and Museum Studies aim to utilize the Museum as an educational resource and provide a link between the public community and FSC students.

The summer intern gallery talks will be held on Wednesday, June 26, 2019 from 2:00 – 3:00 pm and Wednesday, July 3, 2019 from 2:00 – 3:30 pm.