Click here to hear the audio recording About the Remembering What’s Forgotten Curator Internships.

Remembering What’s Forgotten  has created two new part-time Curator Internships for 18- to 30-year-old Leeds residents from black and South Asian backgrounds. The internships are for people who are interested in heritage, culture, raising awareness of mental health and wellbeing, and representing their communities’ lived experience through the arts and heritage sectors.

A part-time learning opportunity spread over four-weeks (two to 2.5 days per week), the hybrid Curator Internship is a collaboration between Synergi-Leeds, Words of Colour and Heritage Corner, hosts of the award-winning Leeds Black History Walks. The internship is being supported by Thackray Museum of Medicine and Museum X, with Melanie Abrahams, Creative Director, Renaissance One, as an expert contributor. And Leeds Playhouse as a venue partner.

Curators usually assemble, catalogue, manage and present and/or display artistic and cultural collections or work in a range of settings, most typically museums and art galleries, but also libraries and community settings. They develop ways to present objects, archives and artworks for them to be interpreted by audiences through exhibitions, publications, events and audio-visual presentations.

Funded by the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, the Remembering What’s Forgotten Curator Internship programme has been created in response to the over-representation of black and South Asian men detained under the Mental Health Act and as in-patients in psychiatric wards, in Leeds – and nationally.

Deadline has been extended

The deadline for applications is now Thursday 29th August 2024 by 11.59pm.

Click here to hear the audio recording on what the curator interns will do and the support they will receive.

As part of the internships, the two selected candidates will undergo an induction programme, have access to mentoring and guidance and have the opportunity to co-curate a mini exhibition at a preview event for Remembering What’s Forgotten at Leeds Playhouse on Monday 23^rd September 2024.

The successful curator interns will receive:

• a £1,000 bursary, including travel and subsistence
• a virtual curator masterclass with Renaissance One
• a virtual session on decolonising heritage and working in heritage institutions with Museum X
• an in-person tour of Thackray Museum of Medicine and curatorial advice
• access to a tailored Leeds Black History Walk with Heritage Corner
• hands-on curator experience for the Remembering What’s Forgotten preview at Leeds Playhouse on Monday 23^rd September 2024
• mentoring, support and tailored guidance from Words of Colour

Click here to hear the audio recording on Eligibility.

1. Remembering What’s Forgotten Curator Internships are for Leeds-based young people, aged 18-30, from black and South Asian backgrounds.
2. To apply, you need to indicate why the themes of mental health and wellbeing, heritage, culture and racial justice are important to you and/or play a part in your lived experience, either directly or through family, friends or in your community or peer groups.
3. If you are a student, you are eligible to apply. If you get to the interview stage, you’ll need to confirm your availability to attend in-person events or activities.
4. This programme encourages applications from those who wouldn’t normally consider applying for internship opportunities.

If you have any queries, please email [email protected].

Click here to hear the audio recording on How to apply and the timeline.

Click here to fill out the monitoring form.

To apply for the Curator Internships you must:

1. Send a cover letter (no more than one page of A4) explaining why you are applying for the Remembering What’s Forgotten curator internship, including your interest in or connection to heritage, mental health and wellbeing, racial justice and culture. And what interests you about curation, heritage and culture and how your feel black and South Asian cultures are represented or misrepresented in these sectors.
2. Your CV (up to two pages). Please include any work experience, hobbies or examples highlighting an interest in the main themes of the internships.
3. Please provide two references on your CV.
4. Please complete the monitoring form which you can access here.

Submitting your application

Please email your application and completed monitoring form to [email protected] using the subject header: ‘RWF Curator Internship application’.

DEADLINE: Tuesday 27th August 2024 by 11.59pm

If you need any reasonable adjustments made for you to complete the application and/or to attend an interview, please email [email protected].

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend an online interview.

All applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application, but we regret we will be unable to offer feedback on unsuccessful applications

Application timeline – key dates (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Closing date for applications: Thursday 29th August 2024 by 11.59pm

Interviews conducted (online): Thursday 5th September 2024

Successful and unsuccessful candidates are notified: Friday 6th September 2024

Curator Internship starts: Tuesday 10th September 2024

Internship completed: Tuesday 8th October 2024

Click here to hear the audio recording on Why the Curator Internships are being launched.

Remembering What’s Forgotten Curator Internships have been co-produced as a creative response to a range of research on mental health inequalities that show:

• Black people are four times more likely than white people to be detained under the Mental Health Act.
• Black and minority ethnic people are 40% more likely to access mental health care via the criminal justice system than white people.
• Black and minority ethnic people are less likely to access primary care support, through their GP and more likely to end up in crisis care.

With regards to curators, according to the ‘It’s All About Handing Over Power’ report 2022 by Museum X and Culture&:

• Museums and galleries need to do more to address structural and institutional racism.
• Most diversity initiatives in the UK arts and heritage sector failed to make the curatorial workforce more representative.
• There needs to be better research and data on workforce diversity and to create new and better funded career pathways.
• Museums and galleries need to encourage school-age children to see their organisations as good places to work.
• More collaboration with the higher education sector to increase diverse students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, widen participation and create stronger pipelines and training schemes.