Summer 2026 UCI Art History Students Intern at the Met!
In August of 2026, undergraduate student Maddy Hua and graduate student Melissa DePierro had the chance to partake in a special Art History internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York! Maddy got to intern at the Met Cloisters Museum, and Melissa was able to work at the Met Museum on Fifth Avenue. When they weren’t at their internship, the students took time to explore the city and experience the lively art scene of the area. Their internships ran Monday through Thursday, and on Fridays, they were instructed to visit local museums.
At Maddy’s internship, she worked primarily on a research project that aligned with her interest in Medieval Art that involved identifying motifs and writing labels for a collection of pilgrim badges. She also had the chance to research the Boppard stained glass collections. The Met staff asked about what she liked to research in Art History, and tailored her projects to what she was most excited about exploring further. Additionally, Maddy went to a variety of professional meetings at the museum that gave her exposure to what goes on behind the scenes at the Met, such as exhibition discussions, talks about visitor experience, and meetings regarding art conservation. During her time at the Met Cloisters, she toured lots of different departments, including conservation labs, and occasionally joined Melissa for different internship activities at the Met as well. She noted that seeing what goes on in conservation labs was especially fascinating, and she got to ask all sorts of questions about the specific projects she saw.
During Melissa’s internship, she worked on a couple of different projects. One project involved writing labels for Ptolemaic horse figurines that had not been labeled previously. She got practice researching the figurines and figuring out the best way to condense the information she found into a brief description, which is an essential skill in a museum-based career. Her other project involved researching archival materials to learn what was displayed in a Middle Kingdom gallery, then writing text about those objects for the museum website. She also got to help out with and observe gallery installations and tour a variety of other departments, and noted that both of those experiences were very helpful for learning more about museum work. Melissa mentioned that one particularly great part of the internship was visiting the Met Cloisters for a full day and getting a tour directly from a Met curator.
During their downtime, both interns took advantage of being in New York and explored the city as much as they could. Maddy checked out lots of art museums and spent time in the different districts of New York. Melissa also visited many museums and won a lottery ticket to see The Lion King on Broadway.
Throughout their internship experience, the students got to work on unique projects, make wonderful professional connections, and see behind the scenes of one of the most famous museums in the world. Trips like this wouldn’t be possible without generous support from the Steckler Family Initiative in Art History, which has given students the chance to go on many outstanding trips. For more information on other Art History Department trips, please check out the Experiential Learning Page.
