Organizer Information
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is the Netherlands' leading museum for modern and contemporary art and design. The museum was established in 1874, when the Vereeniging tot het Vormen van een Verzameling van Hedendaagsche Kunst (Society for the Formation of a Public Collection of Contemporary Art) was founded to house Sophia Adriana de Bruyn's donated art and antiques collection along with a substantial sum of money she gave the city. The collection was initially housed at the Rijksmuseum before moving in 1895 into the museum's own building, designed by city architect A.W. Weissman. For its first decades the Stedelijk held a broad, mixed collection, but from around 1920 onward the holdings were culled and refocused more rigorously on modern and contemporary art, including pioneering collections and exhibitions of design and photography. Today the museum holds a collection of roughly 90,000 items and receives over 600,000 visitors annually, under the direction of Rein Wolfs. As the source states, the museum's design holdings — spanning graphic design, applied art, and industrial design — form more than half of its overall collection of over 100,000 objects dating from around 1850 to the present, and the museum has built a strong reputation through its design collection presentations and exhibitions over its 130-year history. The Curators & Research department, where this internship is based, comprises 12.5 FTE across two disciplines: Curators (exhibitions and collection management) and Research and curatorial practice.
Title & Description
Intern, Curators & Research Department — Industrial Design Sub-Collection
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is seeking an intern to join its Curators & Research department, working specifically with the museum's industrial design sub-collection. The internship is embedded within the department's design-focused curatorial work and offers direct involvement in collection research, exhibition preparation, and related projects.
The role centers on supporting inventory verification for the sub-collection, conducting research to inform potential acquisitions and respond to external inquiries, and contributing to the preparation of exhibitions — including concept development — collection presentations, and other departmental projects. The position is supervised by Ingeborg de Roode, Curator of Industrial Design.
The Role Overview
- Position Type: Internship, part-time
- Contract Type: Minimum 5 months; requires a placement contract (stagecontract) issued by the applicant's educational institution
- Working Hours: 24 hours per week
- Start Date: Preferably end of September 2026
- Reports To: Ingeborg de Roode, Curator of Industrial Design
- Department / Programme: Curators & Research (Conservatoren & Onderzoek), Industrial Design sub-collection
- Stipend: €366 gross per month (based on a 24-hour work week)
Position & Tasks
- Conduct research to verify and check inventory data for the industrial design sub-collection
- Conduct research to support potential acquisitions, respond to external inquiries, and similar tasks
- Contribute to the preparation of exhibitions, including concept development, collection presentations, and other projects
Categories
- Curatorial Practice
- Design History
- Industrial Design
- Museum Studies
- Collection Management
- Art History Research
- Applied Arts
Eligibility
- No nationality or country-of-residence restriction stated in the source
- Must be currently enrolled in a (university-level) bachelor's or master's programme in Art History, Design Cultures, or another relevant field
- Must be able to supply a placement contract (stagecontract) issued by an educational institution — the museum states it can only accept interns who can provide this
- Good working knowledge of all Office programmes
- Preferred but not mandatory: knowledge of a collection inventory system such as Adlib or Axiell
- Preferred but not mandatory: experience with Sketchup and other design software
- Research experience required
- Well-developed organisational skills required
- A sociable, curious disposition combined with the ability to work independently
- Precision and attention to detail
- Spoken and written proficiency in both Dutch and English required
- The museum states it actively encourages diversity in perspectives, ideas, culture, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and related dimensions, and takes this into account in its selection procedure
Program Benefits
- Stipend: €366 gross per month, based on a 24-hour work week
- Described by the museum as a challenging and varied placement in an engaging environment and an inspiring team
Application Fee
None
How to Apply?
Online Application
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 6 September 2026
- Preferred Start Date: End of September 2026
- Minimum Internship Duration: 5 months
Location
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Additional Details
- The museum can only accept interns who can provide a placement contract (stagecontract) from an educational institution — this is a hard eligibility requirement, not a formality
- Unsolicited recruitment/agency outreach in response to this listing is explicitly not welcomed by the museum
- Applications sent by email rather than through the official application link will not be processed