Long-term Fellowship

The primary advantage for being a Long-term Fellow is the wide breadth of projects that you're able to participate in, as well as the type of work that you're able to do in those projects... Because I'm here for a longer amount of time, I can take on more projects and be involved with more teams, as well as see my contributions in those environments over a more full arc.

- FRANK REDNER (UPPER SIOUX), CURATORIAL & INTERPRETATION MELLON FELLOW, 2018-19

Frank Redner, Mellon Curatorial Fellow in Exhibitions and Research. © 2019 Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Kathy Tarantola.

Growing Beyond

Committed cultural-heritage and museum professionals with a clear focus on the work they want to do receive additional experiential training and support for relevant scholarly research to enhance their qualifications for permanent hiring in the field.

Integrating Fully

Like Summer Fellowship placements, Long-term Fellows are matched according to personal interests, professional development needs, and available projects. Long-term Fellows can expect to fully integrate into one of PEM’s many departments with duties comparable to those of full-time team members.

Unlike other post-grad, pre-doc, or post-doc fellowships, our Long-term Fellowships provide 12-24 months of solid, real-world work experience succeeding as part of PEM's teams, researching and producing world class exhibitions, and providing other programmatic support.

Long-term Fellows are full-time employees of PEM and eligible for the museum’s employee benefits program, including medical and dental.

Honing Vision

An extended placement of 12-24 months in the PEM community offers Long-term Fellows the time to more fully realize the museum's resources, support, and network as they refine their strategic and creative thinking skills. Long-term Fellows provide support on smaller and larger-scale projects to senior staff, curators, and team members, working independently and collaboratively. Fellows have access to NAF summer experience workshops, supplemental field trips/museum events, designated professional development funding, and mentorship opportunities throughout their time, and serve as an additional fount for cultivating the spaces where indigenous voices can be expressed and heard in the field.

Leading the Way

Long-term Fellows contribute as a member of one of our teams, interacting across many PEM departments, including Collection Services, Curatorial, Interpretation, and the Phillips Library. Our first two Long-term Fellows assisted collection curators on exhibition planning, implementation, and other curatorial projects as members of the Exhibition Research and Publishing (ERP) and Interpretation teams.

This long-term fellowship position will give me the necessary skills to elevate Native art in broader art contexts. Since the projects I am working on are particularly directed toward that goal, this experience is invaluable.

- RACHEL ALLEN (NEZ PERCE), CURATORIAL MELLON FELLOW, 2017-18

2017-2018 Curatorial Mellon Fellow, Rachel Allen (Nez Perce). © 2018 Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Mel Taing.