Industry Cluster: Artists, Arts Organizations & Cultural Institutions

Lisa Melandri, executive director of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, shares career advice with students April 12 at the Arts & Cultural Institutions Bear Trek. Students also visited the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the Missouri History Museum and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to learn about careers in arts administration, including curatorial, education, development, marketing and finance roles. 

WashU alumni from across academic units have pursued successful careers in arts administration at cultural institutions of all shapes and sizes — from encyclopedic museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and blue chip contemporary art galleries like Pace Prints, to smaller upstart art collectives and community art initiatives. Typical departments/roles in the field include development/fundraising; publications; marketing and PR; exhibition design; education and outreach; finance; curatorial and collections management; artistic/artist direction and management.

Some professionals, like BFA alum Jack Radley, editor at MoMA’s PS1, manage to admirably balance their arts administration roles with their own artistic practice or curatorial side hustle (like Radley’s ACOMPI).

Many arts organizations and cultural institutions offer summer internships. While some large and more established institutions might have earlier deadlines (December/January), there isn’t really a hiring or recruiting seasons for these roles, so best to be proactive and start making lists of organizations you admire and/or browse our WashU Network for Artists, Arts Organizations & Cultural Institutions. In recent years, students have interned at art and history museums; historic houses; science centers and natural history museums; symphonies and philharmonics; opera and theater companies; galleries and auction houses; print shops; art publishers; and multidisciplinary art centers.