Memphis Botanic Garden
Please see instructions on how to apply at the bottom of this page.
Memphis Botanic Garden is a 96-acre public garden geographically located in the heart of urban Memphis. For almost 70 years, the Garden has served as the hub of horticultural and environmental enrichment for the MidSouth. In recent years, a thriving arts program has broadened the Garden's reach with the hosting of performances, exhibits and classes. Recently the Garden has had much success hosting large-scale outdoor traveling exhibits. This summer (May-Sept), we will be bringing Rich Soil at the Garden to Memphis for a 6-month program that will combine nature and art. This new, outdoor exhibit by artist Kristine Mays was developed and first exhibited at Filoli Garden in San Francisco in 2020. It has since been shown at Atlanta Botanic Garden and Hillwood Garden in Washington, DC.
Sculpted from thousands of pieces of wire hooked and looped together by hand, each of Kristine Mays' sculptures embodies a fleeting gesture or expression that delivers a message of strength. The work speaks to identity-- the question of who we are and what we can do with our lives. Our Education. Department will be working to develop interactive companion programs that will encourage students to explore their own identity and inner strength as they view the art and participate in group and individual artistic expressions.
We know that this exhibit will serve as a draw to visitors across our community to experience outdoor art in a meaningful way. In addition to the exhibit, a complete schedule of special events, educational programming, and performance arts collaborations are being developed to reach a broad mix of Memphis Botanic Garden members, guests, students, and tourists.
Intern Responsibilities:
If selected to host an intern, our Education Department would work with them to plan and implement almost all of the public programming centered around the exhibit.
The intern will also be charged with coordinating some weekend events where they will work with local visual and performing artists and organizations to expose our visitors to additional art experiences.
Qualifications:
Since the members of our Education Staff have backgrounds in Environmental Science and not art, we would love the opportunity to work with a student in the Arts field.
It is our hopes that we could learn from each other as we work together to combine nature-based and arts-based experiences.
It would be especially helpful if the candidate had experience or at least a strong interest in working with children and families to engage in art-related discovery activities.
Our staff works Monday-Friday with evening and weekend event opportunities throughout the summer.
Interns will work onsite 28 hours per week and attend a mandatory offsite program day one day per week with their cohort.
Interns must be available for the duration of the program.
INTERNSHIP DURATION:
Total Weeks: 9 weeks
Work Hours per Week: 28
Total Hours: 252
Workdays: 4 days per week onsite
PROGRAM DAY:
On the 5th day of each week, interns will attend an offsite program day with their cohort.
These hours are separate from the internship hours.