Summer 2024 Bartley Fellowship - Arts Criticism Internship

The Wall Street Journal's Arts in Review section seeks aspiring journalists—juniors, seniors or recent graduates with reporting and writing backgrounds at their school newspapers or elsewhere—for a 10-week paid summer internship.   The in-person internship is an opportunity to get hands-on experience working alongside some of the best opinion writers and editors in the world.

Our internships—formally, the Bartley Fellowships—honor our section's former editor, Robert L. (Bob) Bartley. Opportunities will be awarded to young thinkers and writers who intend to pursue a career in journalism or cultural criticism.

The Arts interns are among several fellows selected each year through an application process that is overseen by senior editors. Bartley Fellows will be assigned to a department within the Opinion section—Arts in Review; Book Reviews; or Features (op-eds and columns). The fellow(s) selected to work with the Arts team will assist in commissioning reviews, researching, fact-checking and editing content for the print and digital editions of the Journal, contribute to social media and digital production, and will be encouraged to submit their own ideas for exhibitions or other cultural events to review. They may also submit ideas for articles or projects to editors in any part of the Opinion section.

Internships are paid, and generally take place during June, July and August, though start dates can be flexible. 

If you are interested in applying for the Opinion, Books, Arts and Social Media Bartley Fellowships, please submit separate applications for each position.

Guidelines and Application Deadline

Though a reporting and/or writing background is a plus, the fellowship is primarily an editing internship. Therefore applicants should have experience editing arts or arts-related copy for their college newspaper, literary magazine or a comparable publication. Students from any discipline may apply, but preference will be granted to those concentrating in literature, history, a foreign language, classics, pre-law, music, theater, art history, studio art, architecture, philosophy, political science or archaeology—via coursework (though not necessarily a major) or sustained leisure-time activity.

An appreciation for both the Western and non-Western canons is desirable, as is an understanding of current issues in the arts. A demonstrated ability to multitask and meet daily deadlines is critical for success, as is attention to detail and a focus on accuracy. Applicants should be familiar with technology as it relates to journalism. Social-media experience with a publication or brand would be a plus.

Applicants who are able to demonstrate familiarity with our section’s content will be especially attractive (student applicants without campus-wide access to the WSJ can purchase discounted subscriptions at https://www.wsj.com/studentoffer).

If you’d like to be considered, please submit the following in one single, complete PDF file:

•               Cover letter

•               Resume

•               Links to or cited full text of your two best clips

•               Your response to the following prompt in no more than 800 words:

Write a “Masterpiece” column. In these essays that appear every Saturday, a writer discusses a single work of art (painting, book, film, etc.) and explains why, in their view, it is of surpassing cultural significance. (Examples: https://www.wsj.com/news/types/masterpiece)

All materials must be received by November 27, 2023. Only complete applications that include a cover letter, resume and prompt responses will be considered. Please do not include any additional materials, such as transcripts, recommendation letters, etc. In order to be considered, you must be a U.S. citizen, or a holder of a green card or visa that will allow you to work in the United States.  Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and we endeavor to make selections by the end of January. Only finalists will be contacted.

About Arts in Review 

Criticism of the arts are recognized at the Journal as Editorial Page functions, and as such operate under the umbrella of the Opinion section. Like the rest of the Opinion section, in our Arts reviews we believe in rendering clear, independent judgments that are as well argued as they are deeply informed.

In its Arts reviews, the Journal covers the full spectrum, from high art to TV, movies, theater and the many forms of popular music. Our approach is strictly art-for-art’s-sake: We review things because they are intrinsically interesting, not to fulfill a quota. We believe in the past and its traditions, but are keenly interested in the new—not in novelty for its own sake but in the ways those traditions are being extended and new ones invented. And we prize above all a lively, lucid prose style free from jargon of all kinds.

About Bob Bartley

Throughout his 30 years as The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Page Editor, Bob Bartley inspired principled and original thinking that changed and shaped the society in which we all live. He also devoted attention to teaching and motivating talented young people, many of whom have gone on to careers in journalism at the Journal and elsewhere. The Bartley fellowships are consistent with that legacy.

Bob Bartley achieved many honors during his long tenure here, including a Pulitzer Prize and, shortly before his death in December 2003, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In awarding that medal, President George W. Bush cited Bob as “one of the most influential journalists in American history.” The Robert L. Bartley fellowships will help to perpetuate not just Bob’s memory but, above all, the principles and priorities to which he devoted his distinguished career.

About the Opinion Section

Following the American newspaper practice, the heads of News and Editorial report independently to the publisher of the Journal and CEO of Dow Jones, Almar Latour. The Editorial staff is responsible for the Opinion content published on WSJ.com, the editorial and op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal in print, and criticism of books and the arts, which are recognized at the Journal as an Opinion function.

While The Wall Street Journal’s news pages are committed to informing our readers, our editorials are dedicated to advocating a consistent philosophy and positions that emanate from it. That philosophy can be summed up as “free markets, free people.” We have stood for these fundamental principles even in times -- and places -- when they were not considered fashionable. While specific issues differ in various parts of the world, we view those issues through a consistent lens everywhere; for example, while protectionism is more popular in some parts of the world than others, our publications around the world are committed uncompromisingly to free trade.

We believe in the individual, in his wisdom and his decency. We oppose all infringements on individual rights, whether they stem from attempts at private monopoly, labor union monopoly or from an overgrowing government. Our section is not easily pigeonholed or predictable. We resist the label “conservative,” in the sense of preserving the status quo, because we think it too confining, too devoid of the optimism inherent in trusting individual wisdom and decency.

It is also important to state clearly what our section does not represent. It is not partisan. Unlike many American publishers, we do not endorse political candidates, and from time to time we have important disagreements with all leading political figures. We view issues through the lens of our philosophy and let our readers decide which person or party best serves to protect market capitalism and self-government.

We believe that the ultimate function of opinion journalism is the same as the rest of the newspaper, to inform. But in opinion journalism we have the additional purpose of making an argument for a point of view. We often take sides on the major issues of politics and society, with a goal of moving policies or events in what we think is the best direction for the country and world. Our experience over many years is that even those of you who disagree with us on particular issues -- or even on broader philosophical grounds -- nevertheless respect us for the clarity, consistency and eloquence with which we present our point of view. In stating our own views forcefully, we hope to raise and sharpen the level of debate and knowledge. And we hope that our editorials reflect not merely the passing whim of passing editors, but a body of thought shaped by a century of tradition.