Eligibility

Existing positions are open to graduate students currently enrolled in a degree program and to recent recipients of a relevant advanced degree. For postgraduate participants with a master's degree, the degree must have been conferred within one year of the proposed start date; for PhD recipients, the degree must have been conferred within two years of the proposed start date.

Terms

Eligible applicants may request participation for a period between 1 and 4 months depending on the project. Typically, the intern would commit to complete 90 to 120 hours. Applicants should submit a cover letter outlining why they want to do the internship, and include a preferred schedule detailing number of hours per week and days available. A minimum commitment of 8 hours per week is expected.

Deadlines for Applications: Spring/Summer 2012: March 2, 2012. Complete application packages must be received by the deadlines listed above, which apply only to that term. Late applications will not be considered.

Application Materials

Complete application packages must include:
1.Cover letter as described above (outlining reason for interest in the internship, preferred schedule) and include details of course credit that may be received. Clearly identify the project that you prefer to work on.
2.A full résumé or CV, with the names of two referees; one must be from your advisor and one is of your choosing.
3.A digital copy of a writing sample. The sample should be approximately 20 pages, including footnotes, endnotes, bibliography, and images. If the sample is an excerpt from a longer paper, please include a short paragraph indicating what portion you are submitting and what the paper goes on to address.
4.A photocopy of your latest transcript [an official copy is not necessary]
5.Please note that all of the above must be submitted in electronic format.

Electronic submissions to: CLGA, generalmanager@clga.ca

Inquiries
For additional information about the CLGA, see www.clga.ca
Please do not contact Gallery curators or other department heads directly regarding possible placement or projects.

The two internships for April 2012 are:

1. Curatorial assistant for Activism in the Archives: Representing the first twenty-five lives. May 4 – June 16, 2012; dates to be confirmed.

The exhibition will focus on the first twenty-five inductees to the National Portrait Collection (NPC), established in 1998. The exhibition asks: where are they today, 14 years later? From KD Lang to Richard Fung, Gloria Eshkibok to Svend Robinson, Douglas Stewart to Jane Rule, these men and women were singled out for inclusion in the NPC as a way of acknowledging their contributions to queer activism at many levels of society. The focus of the exhibition is on the lives (and some deaths) of these activists. The exhibition features interviews, recent work, and stories about the sitters.

The intern will work on updating the biographies (as currently reflected on the NPC website) and will identify significant activities in the lives of the first twenty five inductees to the NPC. The intern will have opportunity to contribute to the planning, production and installation of the exhibition in early May. Interns may also choose to participate in related activities such as planning the opening, preparing promotional materials, and/or conducting tours of the exhibition. Interns are expected to spend approximately 90 hours on this project, with the bulk of the hours in April 2012.

2. Curatorial assistant for Public/Private: Tracing Lesbian Lives in the Archives, 1950 – 1980. June 21 – Aug 1, 2012 [Pride is June 22 to July 1] dates to be confirmed.

The exhibition celebrates the 20th anniversary of Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman’s 1992 documentary, Forbidden Love: Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives. The exhibition Private/Public will consist of three elements: 1. A presentation of the film Forbidden Love and display of related artifacts 2. An exhibition of enlarged pulp fiction cover art alongside textual excerpts from the novels that illustrate the conflicts and contradictions in representations of lesbian identities and 3. A selection of artifacts from the CLGA archives and older lesbians in Toronto will be displayed in a series of vitrines. These call attention to the public lives of lesbians in the 1950s, 60s and 70s – lives that required them to keep private/hidden their forbidden love/life. Nurses, teachers, athletes and legal professionals hid their evenings from the light of day. They kept traces of these lives in their collections of letters, photographs, matchsticks, buttons, and other ephemera.

The curatorial task will be to bring these stories together in ways that provoke memories and the subsequent telling of stories, out loud in the archive. In bringing the film, the fiction and the lived realities together, the curatorial goal is to create revised and expanded archival records of these lesbian lives. Ultimately, the archival traces will be catalogued and available for young queer students who are combing the archives looking for traces of their histories.

The intern will participate in various tasks related to the preparation and installation of the exhibition. Interns may also choose to participate in related activities such as planning the opening, preparing promotional materials, and/or conducting tours of the exhibition. Interns are expected to spend a minimum of 90 hours on this project between early April and late June, 2012.