Internship Opportunities
Internship Opportunities
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the College of Arts & Architecture offer a variety of opportunities for students to participate in internships, including the CoA+A Paid Internship Program, internships for course credit, and the University Professional Internship Program (UPIP). Learn more below!
Internships for course credit
Internships are a great way to enhance your education and facilitate professional development as you earn course credit toward your major in the Department of Art & Art History.
University Professional Internship Program
Offered by The University Career Center, the University Professional Internship Program (UPIP) can help you gain valuable professional experience in your field without leaving campus.
CoA+A Paid Internship Program
The CoA+A has established semester-long paid internships on campus and across Charlotte’s cultural community that provide students with engaging professional experiences. Our rotating list of partners includes institutions such as the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, The Mint Museum, Charlotte Art League, and more.
Are you an internship employer? You can provide students with professional mentoring and experiences where they will bring their energy, classroom training, and fresh ideas to the workplace. Learn more about working with students!
Eligibility & How to Apply
These opportunities are open to CoA+A students only and some can be completed for course credit, however, you will need to follow the steps for Internships for Course Credit.
Our visual arts community partners and paid internships are described above. We highly recommend that you begin at the University Career Center, where an expert in your field can help you prepare your résumé, cover letter, and portfolio (if required).
- Search Hire-A-Niner for CoA+A Internships or by organization name.
- If there are no results found, then search again in a few weeks and watch for emails from the Career Center or faculty announcing that the internships have been posted.
- If there is an active posting, then apply for it through Hire-A-Niner. In order to do so, your résumé must first go through an approval process, which typically takes 48 hours.
- Your application will then be reviewed, which may take several weeks. If selected, you will be contacted for an interview and/or portfolio review. Hiring occurs after interviewing.
To receive course credit, you also need to follow the steps for Internships for Course Credit.
Hear from our past interns
Community Outreach Intern, Bechtler Museum: Ashley Jung, BFA with a concentration in Painting and Illustration ’20
“My primary duties as the Bechtler’s Community Outreach intern are to assist with outreach programs and classes, help create research lesson plans, and collect data that will enhance the Outreach Program.
I really enjoy meeting all the different kinds of people I work with, as well as being part of a community that is making art accessible to all.”
Intern, Charlotte Art Leauge: Asia Spinks, BFA Illustration ’22
“My primary duties include assisting with classes, assisting artists who use the studio space, and helping set up the gallery space for artist shows and classes. This internship is important to me because the position allows me to work outside of the studio and meet other artists who can teach me their process and help me to build my skills as an artist. This internship is also important to me because it enables me to gain experience in a work environment and increase my skills as an intern.”
Curatorial Intern, Mint Museum: Ruby Kate Byrd, BA Art History, BA Music ’21
“I will primarily be working with both the curator and the librarian of the Mint Museum to compile a set of usable images of the artists in the museum’s collection, which will then be added to the museum’s database. I am so excited to finally experience the “behind the scenes” in a museum and have the privilege of working under the museum’s curator and librarian. I also love research, which will be most of what I do there – having the opportunity to do this in an actual museum setting is so exciting!”