We value practical experience as an important part of a professional education. Our students are encouraged to seek out internship opportunities with cultural organizations in their own communities. We have also developed partnerships with some of our nation’s top thought leaders in community-based cultural work.

• Students may take up to 4.5 internship credits throughout their time in the program.
• Internships may be in person or virtual.
• Internships are developed in collaboration with the organization and designed to enhance the student’s skills and interests. 
• Students interested in these opportunities should contact the MACS program director, Amy Skillman.

Local Learning

Local Learning (LL) is a national network comprising folk culture specialists, artists, and educators, who have developed Folk Arts in Education (FAIE) programs in a wide variety of educational venues. The organization advocates for the full inclusion of folklife and folk arts in education to transform learning, build intercultural understanding, and create stronger communities.

Local Learning supports its members and educates others through professional development for teachers and artists, participation in public policy as a national arts service organization, ongoing networking, quarterly electronic bulletins, and annual publication of the peer-reviewed, multimedia Journal of Folklore and Education (JFE). The internship will be directed by Lisa Rathje, PhD who is Executive Director of Local Learning and a former faculty member with the Goucher College Masters of Arts in Cultural Sustainability.

National Council for the Traditional Arts

The National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) is dedicated to the presentation and documentation of folk and traditional arts in the United States. Founded in 1933, it is the nation’s oldest national folk arts organization. Our programs celebrate and honor deeply rooted cultural expressions—music, dance, crafts, rituals, foodways and stories passed on through time in families, communities, tribal, ethnic, regional, religious and occupational groups. NCTA presents the nation’s finest artists in festivals, tours, cultural exchanges, workshops, demonstrations and exhibitions, media productions, school programs and other activities. It works in partnership with communities across America to establish new, sustainable traditional arts events that deliver lasting social, cultural and economic benefits. NCTA champions the interests of folk and traditional artists and organizations in the arena of public policy.

NCTA is committed to presenting those arts that collectively define us as a people, that represent continuity from the past to the present and into the future. It believes that bringing diverse grassroots tradition-bearers of the highest caliber to the citizens of our nation creates powerful experiences that are transformative, fostering cultural understanding and strengthening civil society. NCTA’s community collaborations are exercises in cultural democracy and demonstrate the organization’s commitment to working at the grassroots level, as well as the national, in its many endeavors. 

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage is a research center of the Smithsonian Institution. We work with communities in the United States and around the world to encourage the understanding, appreciation, and vitality of humanity’s diverse living cultural heritage. Programs include the annual Folklife Festival on the Mall in Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Folkways Recordings documenting the diversity of the world’s musical and spoken-word heritage and creativity, and the Cultural Vitality Program working collaboratively with communities around the world to support the sustainability of homegrown forms of cultural and artistic production.

The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage offers internships year-round and are open to anyone looking to further their academic and/or career goals in folklore, cultural anthropology, ethnomusicology, museum studies, arts administration, graphic and Web design, marketing, and library science.