Volunteer

Are you looking to give back to the community? Learn more about the maritime world? Meet new friends?  Then Houston Maritime Center is the place for you! HMC offers exciting volunteer opportunities for many diverse skill sets. Start volunteering at HMC today!

Training is provided and no prior knowledge is required. Schedules are flexible, though we do recommend that volunteers spend at least four hours a month at the museum.

VOLUNTEER POSITIONS

COLLECTION AND ARCHIVES

Love working with museum collections and artifacts? Join our curatorial team to help keep our collection up to date, intake new items, research items, and keep the collection organized. Volunteer time would include filing collections paperwork, updating our collections database, photographing items, cleaning items, packing collection items for moving and storage, and researching items that are missing information.

Houston Maritime Center is also searching for volunteers to assist with digitizing some of our physical exhibits for a virtual platform. This would include photography, videography, transcription, web design/development, and data management.

DOCENTS

Docents are encouraged to design their own tour of the museum highlighting their personal interests. No prior knowledge is required and all volunteers receive training from Houston Maritime Center’s experienced guides. Tours usually last about one hour and each guide leads no more than ten visitors at a time.

Docents are essential to the museum’s mission – the more guides we have, the more tours we can schedule, allowing us to share the wonder and influence of maritime history and industry with a wider audience. Join the HMC family today!

EVENTS

HMC hosts a variety of events including an annual celebration, monthly industry professional networking events, lectures, special fundraising events, and more. We’re always looking for volunteers who love thinking on their feet and helping our event’s team plan and execute these events. Volunteer time would include setting up for events, bartending, assisting catering, welcoming guests, running audio-visual equipment, tearing down events, and more.

EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

The Houston Maritime Education Center offers numerous opportunities to work with the public. Volunteers would assist the Outreach & Education Coordinator in a wide variety of educational programs, including:

  • Monthly Family Days offer programming for elementary-aged children and their parents. Volunteers help assist with implementing lessons and activities while working with visiting families. 
  • The Lecture Series features experts in maritime history and industry fields. Volunteers assist in setting up refreshments and other necessary tasks prior to and following the lectures. 
  • Outreach opportunities offer volunteers time in local elementary classrooms assisting HMC staff with traveling lessons and activities.

Sign Up!

“Lighting up the imagination of young and old about sea history is a unique way to spend several pleasurable hours.”

Ed Christensen
Docent

Front Desk

HMC is working to re-open our doors to walk-in visitors. Front Desk volunteers can help us reach that goal! Working the front desk, you’d be responsible for accepting payments from patrons, greeting visitors, checking customers out from the gift shop, and assisting guests as needed.

Research and Content

Houston Maritime is currently searching for volunteers who are interested in assisting our staff to write articles and curate virtual exhibits on a variety of topics. These positions can be done from home and would require occasional touch-base meetings.

Ship Model Maintenance and Repair

Maintaining our collection of models is always a major project! We are always looking for ship modelers who can assist with the maintenance and repair of our collection. You would work with our curator to assess any models that may need repairs and use your expert modeling skills to repair any damage or wear and tear the models may have suffered.