Evaluation of the Pérez Art Museum Miami’s Museum Management Internship Program

Client: Pérez Art Museum Miami | Location: Miami, FL | Funding: Citi Foundation

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We collaborated with the Pérez Art Museum Miami for their Museum Management Internship program to develop an impact-driven strategy, assess the program’s successes and challenges, and document the program's evolution.

OVERVIEW

From 2019-2020, we partnered with the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) to evaluate its newly established Museum Management Internship program (funded by the Citi Foundation). 

The program provides paid internships to a diverse group of young adults in Miami to prepare them for a career in arts management and ultimately diversify the pool of applicants for management positions in art museums. Paid internship programs like PAMM’s are a critical step towards achieving equity in the museum and cultural sectors. 

APPROACH

To fully understand and evaluate the internship, we supported PAMM through each stage of program development–from before the internship’s launch to the end of its pilot year.  

In 2019, we facilitated cross-departmental workshops to help envision the program impact and co-created a journey map of interns’ experiences as well as measurable outcomes to guide program activities and our evaluation. 

Throughout the internship’s first year, we interviewed interns at various stages of their internship and PAMM staff who were directly and indirectly involved with the internship program. 

CLIENT TAKEAWAYS

We helped PAMM identify four main qualities that made this program successful in its first year: 

• A centralized program structure (detailed systems and strategies for managing interns’ activities)

• A team culture (where everyone is trusted with responsibility and given positive affirmations). For example, PAMM staff made interns feel like part of the museum by giving them high-level, visible tasks.  

• A constant reflective practice followed by action - the internship coordinator regularly checked in on staff and interns and adjusted accordingly. 

• A responsive, detailed, and reflective internship coordinator - PAMM’s internship coordinator was an essential collaborator for staff and a critical support system for interns. 

All of these are important things for other museums hoping to develop similar equity-focused art-management internship programs to consider.