Types of Fellowships
Applicants come from diverse backgrounds and nationalities and vary widely in their perspectives and training. Each year, The Met creates a close knit community of scholars whose individual interests collectively illuminate the Museum's collection of artworks spanning 5,000 years of human creativity. Exploring new avenues of research in the history of art and visual culture, education, public practice, and critical theory, fellows expand, challenge, and actively redefine the very limits and purview of these disciplines by introducing fresh ideas drawn from philosophy, anthropology, museum studies, historiography, conservation, and the material sciences.
Applicants submit a specific, independent research project that makes use of the Museum's collection and resources. Accepted fellows spend the majority of their time working on their proposed project.
Many fellows will have an opportunity to assist the hosting curatorial departments with projects that complement their approved proposal. Not all departments request this assistance.
Note: There are several subcategories of fellowships included within the Fellowship in History of Art and Visual Culture. However, applicants need not specify the endowed awards for which they would like to be considered, as all determinations are made by the Museum’s Grants Committee:
- Theodore Rousseau Fellowships support 12 months of travel abroad to conduct research related to paintings collections in Europe.
- Slifka Foundation Interdisciplinary Fellowships combine art historical research with training in the technical investigation of The Met collection. Applicants must apply to work on a specific project sponsored by the Museum.
The following projects are available for the 2023–2024 Slifka Foundation Interdisciplinary Fellowship:
Robert Lehman Collection
The Slifka Foundation Interdisciplinary Fellowship will provide significant training in both the curatorial and conservation fields for a scholar of early Italian art. Working with several members of the Department of Paintings Conservation and the Robert Lehman Collection’s curator of Italian art, the fellow will have the opportunity to conduct in-depth scholarly research and technical examination of the Robert Lehman Collection’s fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italian paintings.
In consultation with both the curatorial and conservation departments, and based upon individual research interests, the fellow will focus their study on a select number of Florentine and Sienese paintings on view in the galleries. Through close study and examination of individual panels, the fellow will play an essential role in updating scholarship in this area of the collection. More specifically, fellows will produce catalogue entries for The Met’s website that will incorporate a range of perspectives and make cross-references to related works (i.e., panels originally belonging to the same altarpieces in other museums and in other departments of The Met). Entries will also include images of altarpiece reconstructions. By publishing these entries online, fellows will contribute to concerted efforts to make this information accessible to a broad public.
Barye Bronzes at The Met
The Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts (ESDA), working in collaboration with colleagues in the Departments of Objects Conservation and Scientific Research, seeks a specialist in nineteenth-century French sculpture to participate in a study of bronze sculptures by Antoine-Louis Barye (1795–1875) in The Met collection.
The Met holds a significant group of Barye bronzes, with nearly 60 sculptures—most of them gifts—in its nineteenth-century art collection. A master of anatomical form, Barye elevated animal subjects to the rank of fine art, even while working to make his sculptures accessible to the middle class through serial editions. One of the best represented sculptors in the Museum, his animaliers are foundational to the development of French naturalism. Yet much of The Met’s Barye collection remains off view today, and never has it been the subject of study. Bringing our understanding of The Met’s Barye sculptures into the 21st century requires systematic, collaborative study of the collection.
Significant aspects of the project for which the Slifka Fellow would be responsible include: organizing and participating in a survey of the collection conducted by curators and conservators; updating curatorial object files and entering this information into the Museum’s collection database (TMS); conducting primary research in The Met archives; conducting research on Barye’s bronze editions and foundry practices; and drafting texts for the object pages published on the Museum’s website.
As a member of the curatorial department engaged in a collaborative project, the selected fellow would gain invaluable experience in interdisciplinary museum practice. The fellow would benefit from the specialized expertise of Met conservators. Ideal candidates include those with a PhD in art history as well as advanced graduate students. All applicants must have excellent French language skills.
More information regarding both the Theodore Rousseau Fellowship and Slifka Foundation Interdisciplinary Fellowship is provided in our Frequently Asked Questions.
Fellowship Period
The fellowship period is September 1 through August 31. All fellowships must take place within this period. All fellows, with the one exception of Theodore Rousseau Fellows, must be in residence at The Met for the entirety of their 12-month fellowship period.
Eligibility
Predoctoral fellowships are available to those applicants who are working on their PhD at the time that they submit their application. Senior fellowships are available to those who hold a PhD on the date of application and/or are well-established scholars.
We encourage applications from those with backgrounds in fields including, but not limited to, the history of art and architecture, critical theory, media studies, anthropology and archaeology, linguistics and philology, literature, linguistics, theology and religious studies, and musicology.
Requirements vary depending on the fellowship.
Funding
The number of fellowships awarded depends on funds and resources available. Junior fellows receive a stipend of $47,000. Senior fellows receive a stipend of $57,000. Both junior and senior fellows also receive up to an additional $6,000 for travel (maximum of six weeks).
Projects
There are two types of Conservation Fellowships: junior and senior. Junior fellows work closely with Met staff to receive training in scientific research and conservation practices. Senior fellows work on a specific research project that makes use of the Museum's collection and/or resources.
Learn more about the Conservation and Scientific Research departments, including departmental research interests, staff, and publications. We also welcome applications for time-based media projects in the Department of Photograph Conservation.
See a list of the Department of Scientific Research's primary areas of research interest.
Fellowship Period
The fellowship period is September 1 through August 31. All fellowships must take place within this period. All fellows must be in residence at The Met for the entirety of their 12-month fellowship period.
Eligibility
Recent master's graduates, PhD candidates, postdoctoral scholars, and senior scientists and researchers are eligible to apply.
Junior fellows are those applicants who have recently completed graduate-level training. Senior fellows are well-established professionals with at least eight years of experience in the field and a proven publication record, or those who have their PhD in hand by the deadline date.
We encourage applications from those with a background in, but not limited to, conservation, conservation science, chemistry/physical chemistry, botany, and earth sciences/geology.
Funding
Junior fellows receive a stipend of $47,000. Senior fellows receive a stipend of $57,000. Both junior and senior fellows also receive up to an additional $6,000 for travel (maximum of six weeks).
Founded in 2013, The Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art is a leading center for scholarship on modern art, by which we mean architecture, drawing, design (including exhibition, graphic, interior, and stage design), film, painting, performance, photography, and sculpture in the period from the last third of the nineteenth century through to the 1960s, from any country, region, or culture. Each year, The Met offers three fellowships in the Research Center: a two-year position for a predoctoral candidate who is embarking on a dissertation; a postdoctoral fellowship for a qualified scholar at an early career stage, which may be one or two years in duration; and a midcareer fellowship for an established scholar with an appropriate publication record. Fellowships in The Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art offer an exceptional opportunity for scholars of modernism to conduct focused research on an independent project, while contributing to the activities and programs of the Research Center. Recent fellowships have supported the work of scholars focused on such topics as Art Brut, Czech Modernism, Dada, Brazilian modern art, interwar European Abstraction, Romanian avant-gardes, Russian Constructivism, and Surrealism, in addition to the agents, dealers, and reception of Cubism. Find out more about the Research Center.
Fellowship Period
All Leonard A. Lauder Fellows must be in residence at The Met during the fellowship period.
Predoctoral fellowships are for 24 months and must take place between September 1, 2024, and August 31, 2026.
Postdoctoral fellowships may be 12 or 24 months in duration and must take place between September 1, 2024, and (depending on the length of the fellowship) August 31, 2025, or August 31, 2026.
Midcareer fellowships are for 12 months and must take place between September 1, 2024, and August 31, 2025.
Funding
The stipend amount for one year is $47,000 for predoctoral fellows, $57,000 for postdoctoral fellows, and $65,000 for midcareer fellows.
During the fellowship period and at the Museum's discretion, Leonard A. Lauder Fellows receive a travel stipend of $6,000.
This two-year fellowship is devoted to a specific Met project and provides curatorial training and an opportunity for the fellow to engage with a community of scholars from around the world. The fellow is fully integrated into one of the Museum's curatorial departments. The individual works directly with one or more curators, who serve as supervisors and mentors throughout the term of the fellowship.
The fellow also has the opportunity to undertake an independent project in consultation with their supervising curator. Through weekly gatherings and discussions, the fellow takes part in research-sharing workshops that expand dialogue and foster a community of intellectual engagement.
Projects
Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Having profound impacts on acquisition policy and on the art market more broadly, provenance research is emerging as an essential skill for curatorial practice. It is also one of the most quickly changing spheres of research—with new data bases, claims, and legal thresholds put forward each year. As part of the Museum’s commitment to the study of the provenance of works in The Met collection, the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow will dedicate the greater part of their two-year position to the history of specific objects under the supervision of curators and other provenance researchers in the Museum. With the principle aim of producing original scholarly and provenance research on the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts’ (ESDA) collection, which includes more than 50,000 objects from Western Europe from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century, the Mellon Fellow will contribute to ongoing efforts to produce new, and synthesize existing, scholarship for various audiences within and outside The Met.
Some of the primary responsibilities will include conducting original research on selected target areas of the ESDA Department’s collections in coordination with the supervising curator/s by consulting and checking archives, monographs, exhibition catalogues, periodicals, sales catalogues, and other literature; thoroughly documenting one’s research and sources in The Met’s collection management system (TMS) by entering and updating data according to Museum-wide standards, and conducting research on the constituents and constituencies that objects in the collection passed through, including collectors, commercial galleries, auction houses, and dealers.
Robert Lehman Collection
The Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship will provide significant curatorial training for a scholar in the field of early Italian art. Through in-depth scholarly research and the cataloguing of the Robert Lehman Collection’s fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italian paintings, the Mellon Fellow will develop advanced research skills fundamental to curatorial work and acquire knowledge of all facets of collection cataloguing.
Over the course of the two-year fellowship, the Mellon Fellow will be responsible for conducting research, compiling up-to-date bibliographies, writing short descriptions (web labels) and longer catalogue entries on a selection of Italian paintings in the collection. The small size of the Lehman Collection’s curatorial staff will enable the fellow to play an especially vital role in curatorial projects and be integrated into the fabric of the department as a whole. The Mellon Fellow will make a significant contribution to the department’s ongoing endeavor to update scholarship in this area of the collection and make it accessible to a broad public.
Since the fellowship period will dovetail with a project to re-install several fifteenth-century Venetian and northern Italian paintings, the fellow will also have the opportunity contribute to permanent collection installations.
Fellowship Period
Fellowships are 24 months in length, beginning on September 1 following the application deadline. All fellowships must take place within this two-year period.
Eligibility
Candidate must hold a doctoral degree (or international equivalent) in art history or archaeology with a specialization related to one of the projects above. The candidate must have received the degree within five years of the start date of the fellowship (that is, September 1 of the year following the application deadline).
Funding
The fellow will receive:
• An annual salary of $60,770
• Fringe benefits
• A stipend of up to $6,000 for research-related travel
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellows are temporary full-time exempt employees of The Met.
Unique among Met fellowships, the purpose of this 12-month position in the Department of European Paintings is to train students and emerging museum professionals in the practice of cataloguing works of art, including researching and compiling provenance information, exhibition histories, and bibliographic references, as well as documenting critical opinions from literature. The position also provides training in The Museum System (TMS) database, which is used throughout the museum world. These skills are central to the mission of all museums to inform and educate scholars and the general public.
The fellow participates in a range of activities over the yearlong period, typically focusing on a specific portion of the collection, and works closely with curators, conservators, and cataloguers under the direction of the Senior Collections Cataloguer. In consultation with European Paintings colleagues, the fellow has opportunities to develop areas of personal interest within the closely linked fields of collections cataloguing and art history. At the discretion of the department head, the fellow may also undertake travel related to research of objects in the European Paintings collection.
Fellowship Period
The fellowship period is September 1 through August 31. All fellowships must take place within this period. All fellows must be in residence at The Met for the entirety of their 12-month fellowship period.
Eligibility
Eligible candidates should either have completed their MA or be PhD candidates. A background in cataloging is helpful but not required. Basic language skills pertaining to the area in which the fellow plans to work are essential.
Funding
The fellow receives:
• An annual salary of $47,000
• Fringe benefits
• A stipend of up to $2,000, pending approval, for travel or projects directly related to collections research
The Eugene V. Thaw Fellow for Collections Cataloguing is a temporary full-time exempt employee of The Met.
The Research Scholar in the Department of Photograph Conservation (DPhC) is based in the Sherman Fairchild Center for Works on Paper and Photograph Conservation. The Research Scholar is fully integrated into the life of The Met and is given unique access to the inner workings of the Museum through a rich program of tours, roundtable discussions, and workshops. The scholar conducts a research project based on the Museum’s resources and its collections of photographs, in addition to participating in the preservation- and exhibition-related activities of the Photograph Conservation Department. Successful candidates will propose focused research, built around The Met collection, which furthers the Museum’s academic mission and contributes to the field of photograph conservation.
Projects
Current topics of interest for the DPhC include the characterization of the photographic papers and applied media used by James Van Der Zee (1886–1983) or Charles DeForest Fredricks (1823–1894). The Met’s Department of Photographs has recently acquired the archive of the former and a large group of works by the latter.
Examples of previous research projects include a technical and historical investigation of E. J. Bellocq’s working methods; methods for imaging and tracking silver mirroring; the characterization of photographs in The Diane Arbus Archive; measurement and documentation of color change in photographs using densitometry, spectrophotometry, and micro-fading; and the application of anoxic enclosures for conservation of photographic objects, focusing on the effectiveness of these packages for long-term preservation of autochrome plates. Further information about the DPhC’s research endeavors and analytical capabilities can be accessed here.
Fellowship Period
Fellowships are for 24 months, beginning on September 1 following the application deadline.
The Research Scholar in Photograph Conservation Fellowship carries the possibility of renewal for a third year.
Eligibility
The Research Scholar is expected to have a graduate degree in conservation or equivalent experience and should be completely committed to the conservation of photographs as their area of specialization.
Funding
The stipend amount is $57,000 per year, with up to an additional $6,000 for travel (maximum of six weeks).
This one-year fellowship is part of the Museum's History of Art and Visual Culture Fellowship program and is intended as an independent research project. The fellowship encourages cross-departmental projects that explore connections between various cultures and collections in the Museum and that go beyond traditional boundaries, bridging the visual arts and other disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, performing arts, and fine arts. Fellows may explore connections between public practice, education, and the humanities, relating but not limited to curriculum development, gallery teaching, and interpretation. The project should relate to and make use of the Museum's resources, including its collections, libraries, archives, and programs.
Fellowship applications integrating independent research projects and artistic practice are welcome. However, since the Museum has a separate program for artist residencies, the Interdisciplinary Fellowship is not intended to culminate in an exhibition, installation, or public program, nor can the Museum provide studio space for fellows.
The fellow will work with one or more supervisors and mentors across department areas, and will have the opportunity to work closely with other members of the professional staff and as part of the larger community of fellows at The Met. The fellow is invited to participate in the annual Fellows Colloquia to share research results.
We strongly encourage applications from individuals who are members of groups or from disciplines that have been historically underrepresented in the museum field.
Applicants should demonstrate the following:
- Excellent achievement and potential for future achievement
- Realistic project goals that will be accomplished within the fellowship period
- Project goals that make innovative or original use of the Museum's collection and resources or engage with its institutional practices, history, and culture, with particular reference to crossing traditional disciplinary boundaries
- Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment
- Excellent communication and organizational skills
Fellowship Period
The fellowship period is September 1, 2024 through August 31, 2025. All fellowships must take place within this period. All fellows must be in residence at The Met for the entirety of their 12-month fellowship period.
Eligibility
The fellowship is open to candidates holding either an MA or MFA, or currently pursuing or holding a PhD in the arts, humanities, or social sciences. Eligible fields may include but are not limited to anthropology, archaeology, history, literature, medicine, philosophy, psychology, political science, ethnic studies, sociology, gender studies, religion, education, film studies, and performance (music, dance, theater, etc.).
Funding
Junior fellows receive a stipend of $47,000. Senior fellows receive a stipend of $57,000. Both junior and senior fellows also receive up to an additional $6,000 for travel (maximum of six weeks).