Provenance Research Assistants 2023-2024

The Eskenazi Museum of Art is currently seeking graduate students at IU to contribute to provenance research projects during the 2023-24 academic year. These part-time positions will focus on two curatorial departments at the Eskenazi Museum: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Art of the Americas, and European and American Art. The students will learn valuable skills in provenance research important to curatorial practice that seeks to also support professional development during their IU graduate program. Graduate students with arts and humanities research background, including archival research and museum work, are especially encouraged to apply. Included below are more details about the positions by each department.

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Art of the Americas

Provenance research on ownership histories of artworks in this collection will include studying artworks in person, reviewing archival records, and conducting secondary research to document and assess prior ownership. This work will contribute to a larger provenance research initiative for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Art of the Americas that seeks to more fully document the collection and better understand the collecting histories of these artworks. The researcher will work between 5-15 hours per week at $20/hour.

European and American Art

The provenance research assistant will contribute to the museum’s long-established World War II-Era Provenance Research Project, which focuses on European paintings, sculptures, and drawings produced prior to 1946. The researcher will help update existing provenance records, preparing them to be posted online. Other responsibilities will include conducting additional provenance research, utilizing primary and secondary sources and online databases. The position is open to graduate students with backgrounds in fields such as art history, library science, museum or curatorial studies, and history. Experience with archival research and a working knowledge of European languages such as German or French is preferred. The researcher will work between 5-10 hours per week at $20/hour.

To Apply

To apply for either position, please submit a cover letter and CV/resume to Allison Martino (Laura and Raymond Wielgus Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Arts of the Americas) at martinoa@iu.edu, or Jenny McComas (Curator of European and American Art) at jmccomas@indiana.edu. Any questions may also be submitted to the appropriate curator. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the positions are filled.