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ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� College Utrecht has been running the Cultural Heritage Programme (CHIP) within its Faculty of Humanities since 2011. Flora Scott is one of the students who had the opportunity to do her internship at the British Museum in London. 

In the CHIP programme, students follow courses in Museum and Heritage Studies, attend to several guest lectures and do an academic internship about which they write a paper. Next to Museum Studies, Flora’s major subjects were Art History and History major. Therefore, she was happy to find a placement at a world-known museum with a vast and diverse collection of art and artefacts of all ages and from all places. 

Practical experience 

“My placement was with the Americas, Oceania and Africa department. My internship partner, Sebastiaan Beschoor Plug, and I worked with curators from each subsection on several different projects. We were involved with several digitisation projects, mainly working with photographic collections. One of the projects I found most interesting was the Google Maya Project, which was aiming to digitise a collection of photographs taken in the 1880s by an English colonial officer, Alfred Maudslay, across Mesoamerica on Mayan archaeological sites,” Flora tells. 

“The practical experience has been completely invaluable, both in the sense of working out what I would like to do in the future and simply being able to say that I have that practical experience. Being able to work in a world class institution during my undergraduate degree is incredible. I gained direct experience working with collections that I would not have been able to gain elsewhere, and it showed me what it would be like to potentially work in a museum one day. It greatly impacted what I decided I wanted to do after graduating from ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� College Utrecht, and I am now aiming to work in collections management. I am planning to apply for an Art History masters next year.”

Love of Art History

“ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� College Utrecht allowed me to develop my interest in subjects I may not have otherwise, such as Anthropology, and I do not think I would have found my love of Art History if I had not studied here.”

“My CHIP internship report, which focused on the Google Maya project, allowed me to fully understand my interest in photography. I went on to focus on photography in my thesis. The CHIP team also helped me publish a version of my CHIP report in a Dutch visual arts and media journal. Academically, the program has also been an incredibly helpful and enriching experience, and I would encourage anyone at UCU, whether a Humanities major or not, to see if it is something they could benefit from as I did,” says Flora.

On the museum studies track

Inspired to follow on the Museum Studies track, Flora is doing another internship in at the Dorset County Museum. “Working here has been incredibly interesting, because I’m working with collections and on projects happening in my hometown, with material I’ve known since I was a child.”

“I am again very lucky, as I was at the British Museum, that curators and collection staff have allowed me to get such hands-on experience with the Museum’s collection. I currently work with the fine arts team and the visitor experience team. This is how I am gaining experience working with paintings, etchings and drawings, but also learning how the public may interact with the material we have in a very direct way. The British Museum allowed me to see how a massive museum operates and the day to day workings of a world-renowned collection. The Dorset County Museum is allowing me to see how local history stays alive and enriches the lives of people still living in these areas.”