30 November 2010

Historic Royal Palaces creates curatorial student internship programme

Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that looks after the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Kew Palace and Banqueting House, has appointed their first ever curatorial interns. The three MA students, who’s posts have been fully-funded by Historic Royal Palaces, will work on a series of projects across the palaces alongside, and gaining experience from, the Historic Royal Palaces’ expert in-house curators..

Applications for the internships were invited from students enrolled on one of six highly-regarded London MA courses at Kingston University, Royal Holloway University, and University College London. The three chosen candidates are studying part-time MA courses over two years  and will be actively involved with research at all the palaces including Kensington Palace (assisting with the £12 million ‘Welcome to Kensington: a palace for everyone’ project), the Tower of London, and  Hampton Court Palace. 

Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator Historic Royal Palaces said: “In challenging economic times when we are seeing many cuts in the cultural and heritage sector it is lovely to have some good news for a change.  The interns will provide vital support behind the scenes to Historic Royal Palace’s team of curators, while building their own CVs, cutting their teeth on research projects, and spending two years surrounded by some amazing buildings and collections. We’re thrilled to have them. "

Mary Gilliespie, Bruce Simpson, and Emily Fildes have just taken up their posts and will be working on various projects:

Mary Gillespie (UCL MA in Principles of Conservation) will intern with the three buildings curators at Historic Royal Palaces, cataloguing and researching sixteenth century architectural terracotta excavated at Hampton Court.

Bruce Simpson (UCL MA in Museum Studies) will intern at Kensington Palace which includes examining the love letters of Queen Victoria for the new displays that will feature at Kensington Palace in 2012. 

Emily Fildes (UCL MA in Museum Studies) will intern at The Tower of London with her work including devising a better system for the management of archaeological records.

Mary, Bruce and Emily have all taken up their posts and  will receive a living allowance of £10,000 per annum, the same amount received by full-time postgraduate students funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.