Visual Arts Intern Jobs in Portland, OR (NOW HIRING)

Inspire Vancouver is the City of Vancouver's cultural access program. The program is a long-term investment in the organizations, people, and cultural life that make Vancouver a vibrant place to live. Funded by a.1% cultural access tax, the program supports arts, culture, heritage, and science organizations across the city. The program is guided by four goals: expanding access and engagement, strengthening the cultural community, boosting jobs and neighborhood pride, and encouraging creativity and learning. The program is guided by the Culture, Arts and Heritage Commission, a body of nine community members and our grant review committee that is made up for Vancouver residents. Inspire Vancouver places special emphasis on expanding access for people and communities who have historically faced barriers to participation. As a brand-new team, we're building our programs and our evidence base at the same time, which is where you come in.

We are looking for an intern to help launch our community measurement and learning practice. You will help design and conduct culturally responsive, engaging community surveys with three key audiences: the broader Vancouver community, our grantees, and the local artists, historians, scientists, and cultural leaders shaping Vancouver's creative life. You'll then turn that data into clear, compelling reports we can share with the community, the Culture, Arts and Heritage Commission, and the Vancouver City Council to demonstrate the impact of our grants and funding.

This is a rare opportunity to help shape the data story of a new public program. Your work will directly inform how the City understands its investment in arts, culture, heritage, and science.

Location: Vancouver, WA (Hybrid — Mix of in-person and remote work)
Duration and Hours: 10 hours per week across two consecutive semesters
Reports to: Inspire Vancouver Program Supervisor

Required

• Experience conducting surveys and/or gathering community input
• Experience creating reports from survey or research data (academic, professional, or volunteer experience all count)
• Strong written communication skills
• Interest in arts, culture, heritage, and/or science nonprofit organizations
• Comfort with common survey, spreadsheet, and presentation tools

Preferred

• Experience engaging diverse or historically underserved communities
• Bilingual skills (Spanish, Russian, Chuukese, Vietnamese, and other languages spoken in Vancouver are a plus)
• Familiarity with data visualization tools or qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Experience with community-based, participatory, or arts-based research

Scope of Work

Survey Design & Strategy

• Develop a survey and data collection strategy that reaches across Vancouver's diverse communities, including residents, grantee organizations, and individual artists, historians, scientists, and cultural leaders.
• Design survey instruments that are culturally responsive: accessible, welcoming, and inclusive of different languages, traditions, and lived experiences.
• Use creative approaches to gathering input. Think beyond standard online forms such as in-person engagement at cultural events, partnership-based outreach, participatory or arts-based methods, plain-language and multilingual options.

Data Collection & Community Engagement

• Pilot and refine survey tools with support and guidance from the Inspire Vancouver team.
• Engage community members, grantees, and cultural practitioners in ways that build trust and encourage participation.
• Ensure data collection follows ethical and privacy best practices.
• Track participation and outreach efforts across different communities.

Analysis and Reporting

• Clean, organize, and analyze survey data.
• Create accessible reports and visual summaries that tell the story of the program's impact.
• Help prepare materials for public audiences, the Culture, Arts, and Heritage Commission, and Vancouver City Council.
• Present findings to Inspire Vancouver staff and, as opportunities arise, to the Commission and City Council.

Educational Learning Objectives

By the end of this internship, you will be able to:

• Design culturally responsive research instruments – identify and apply methods for engaging historically underserved communities in civic and cultural research, including creative and participatory approaches.
• Conduct ethical community-based data collection – plan and execute a real-world survey project with multiple audiences, managing outreach, consent, privacy, and community relationships.
• Analyze and interpret real data – analyze survey responses, identify patterns and insights, and translate numbers into meaningful findings.
• Communicate data for public impact – produce clear written and visual reports tailored to community audiences, elected officials, and other stakeholders.
• Present to decision-makers – practice briefing city staff, commission members, and elected officials on your findings.
• Deepen knowledge of the arts, culture, heritage, and science sector – gain working knowledge of how a public cultural access program funds and supports local nonprofits, and how measurement supports public funding decisions.