SubART Internship
Location:
Payment: Unpaid
Category: Community Development
Contact: Rachel Dinno Taylor
Rachel@SubArtSF.org
Posted: Jan 24, 2013
What: Research Internship
When: Rolling
Where: SubART is a program of SPUR, 654 Mission Street, San Francisco 94105
Seeking:
• A graduate interdisciplinary student with some knowledge, interest and/exposure to public art, land
use, and urban design
• Strong research and writing skills
Requirements:
January through May 2013 (10 to 15 hours a week)
June through August 2013 (20+ hours a week)
SubART Interns are expected to devote 10 ‐ 15 hours per week to their semester‐
long internship and a minimum of 20 hours to a summer internship. Position is unpaid. Students and
recent graduates are welcome to apply.
Note: Work can be in the San Francisco office and/or from your home office
Organization Overview
Founded in 2011 in San Francisco, SubART is a creative place‐making initiative that is reinventing the Bay
Area’s mass transit experience. SubART’s mission is to transform MUNI Metro and BART underground
stations into dynamic public art galleries that celebrate and enrich our cultural life, revitalize
neighborhoods from the bottom up, and enhance the public’s mass transit experience.
SubART is building on investments already being made by the City of San Francisco, BART, and MUNI in
public infrastructures, places, livability, and transit systems. A fiscally sponsored project of San Francisco
Planning and Urban Research (SPUR), SubART is a dynamic start‐up organization that operates as a
catalyst, coordinating a broad foundation of public, private, and institutional support for the integration
of the arts into the most publicly utilized spaces in the City: the existing underground corridors of our
mass transit system.
SubART is proposing to develop a system‐wide framework that will help guide the community process
and art in each of the 49 BART and MUNI metro stations in the Bay Area. While BART and MUNI are the
physical connectors in the Bay Area, SubArt seeks to develop the cultural and historical connectors, the
story that connects the entire region. Once the larger vision is developed, a process can be outlined in
which each community can develop their story, which will be portrayed in the development and
curation of art at individual station.
Position Overview
This position works directly with the Executive Director and senior leadership team across functional
areas including: local and international research, as well as the development of an MFA student
engagement program. It also offers a unique opportunity to influence the development of a major
Bay Area land use and artistic endeavor because it comes at the beginning of an 18‐month planning
and public involvement period which will culminate in the art event, “Envisioning Transit,”
comprised of a series of public art exhibitions, lectures, focus groups, and community workshops
designed to engage and excite the public in an arts‐in‐transit strategy for the Bay Area.
The daily functional tasks include:
• Researching best practices in which art is placed in public metro stations throughout the
world.
• Supporting the development of a MFA student engagement program whose work will be
integral to the “Envisioning Transit” launch
• Research Bay Area cultural and historical data that will heavily influence and build on the
work that will be done in subsequent workshops and focus groups to determine the larger
vision for the Bay Area system, and
• Participation in the development of a comprehensive guiding framework for the Bay Area’s
49 BART and MUNI metro stations, and a publicly based curation process and best practices
guidelines to be replicated system‐wide
The research intern will have the option to work out of SPUR’s offices in downtown San Francisco
and will have access to SPUR’s library, resources and weekly lectures and events.
Qualifications:
• Excellent communication, research and writing skills
• Interested in land use, urban design, public policy and public art
• Ability to take initiative and work independently and unsupervised
• Responsible, reliable, well organized and able to multitask efficiently
• Experienced using Microsoft Office, Internet, social media and other applications
• Proficiency in imaging programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator a plus, but not a
requirement
How to Apply:
To apply for this internship, submit a cover letter explaining your specific interest in this position and
working with SubART and a resume that details your experience. Please include your preferred start and
end dates and hours of availability in the cover letter. Please e‐mail your materials to Rachel at
Rachel@SubArtSF.org. More information about SubART can be found at www.SubArtSF.org
This is an unpaid internship. We provide equal opportunity for all applicants.