Luciana Berger is the MP for Liverpool Wavertree and Charlotte Holmes is the museum development officer at the Museums Association.
Dear Charlotte:
Figures from the department for culture on the use of unpaid interns in publicly funded museums and art galleries show they employed nearly 800 unpaid interns over the past two years.
While many arts organisations have had drastic funding cuts, I believe this practice should end. Unpaid internships restrict the type of people able to have a career in the arts. Having a homogeneous group of people dominating the arts will naturally reduce creativity and damage the industry in the long term.
Best, Luciana
Hi Luciana:
I agree that exploitative internships should end and that as a sector we should be seeking the brightest talent from a broad range of backgrounds. But focusing on payment of internships rather than how we support culture shift in the sector is a red herring.
Those wishing to gain employment in museums need meaningful work-based learning opportunities, and as a sector we need to find a way of meeting this need.
Charlotte
Dear Charlotte:
I agree on the need to have meaningful work experience opportunities and I welcome many of the guidelines on internships recently published by the Museums Association. It’s important that interns are given a clear structure, specific job content and a training and development plan.
I don’t agree that focusing on payment is a distraction. Cost is still the biggest barrier for people wanting to take up an internship. While high-quality work placements are important, if they aren’t combined with proper payment then internships will continue to be the preserve of the few.
Luciana
Hi Luciana:
Many paid internships fail to recruit people from different backgrounds. Museums need to use innovative recruitment practice to attract the best talent from a broad range of backgrounds, and then ensure that this talent is nurtured; combine this with fair remuneration, and I think we are on to a winner.
The issue then becomes how we fund this; many museums have seen a reduction in funding, losing valued staff. While it’s essential that museums adhere to minimum wage legislation, is paying all interns really a sustainable solution? Surely it would just mean fewer opportunities are offered?
Charlotte
Hi Charlotte:
You say that museums must adhere to minimum-wage legislation, yet you then question if paying interns is a sustainable solution. Museums should pay interns where they effectively are doing the work of a full-time member of staff.
Any museum that receives public subsidy should be required to offer a certain number of paid internships in exchange for receiving this funding; they could also explore intern sharing with private companies. More needs to be done to cover the costs required to take up an internship.
Encouraging universities to provide spare accommodation at a lower price during summer months may be a way of doing this.
Luciana
Hi Luciana:
I welcome your call for less exploitative entry routes and agree that paying internships, as you define them, is essential. Any discussion of internships should include different models of work-based learning, such as part-time placements, apprenticeships, traineeships, volunteering, and the use of social enterprise.
Many of these will be paid and all should include some sort of remuneration, however in some cases that could take the form of paid expenses.
It is important to consider how funding can encourage broader culture change and good recruitment practice in order to support organisations of varying size and capacity to offer more developmental opportunities to talented people from a range of backgrounds.
Best, Charlotte
Dear Charlotte:
Figures from the department for culture on the use of unpaid interns in publicly funded museums and art galleries show they employed nearly 800 unpaid interns over the past two years.
While many arts organisations have had drastic funding cuts, I believe this practice should end. Unpaid internships restrict the type of people able to have a career in the arts. Having a homogeneous group of people dominating the arts will naturally reduce creativity and damage the industry in the long term.
Best, Luciana
Hi Luciana:
I agree that exploitative internships should end and that as a sector we should be seeking the brightest talent from a broad range of backgrounds. But focusing on payment of internships rather than how we support culture shift in the sector is a red herring.
Those wishing to gain employment in museums need meaningful work-based learning opportunities, and as a sector we need to find a way of meeting this need.
Charlotte
Dear Charlotte:
I agree on the need to have meaningful work experience opportunities and I welcome many of the guidelines on internships recently published by the Museums Association. It’s important that interns are given a clear structure, specific job content and a training and development plan.
I don’t agree that focusing on payment is a distraction. Cost is still the biggest barrier for people wanting to take up an internship. While high-quality work placements are important, if they aren’t combined with proper payment then internships will continue to be the preserve of the few.
Luciana
Hi Luciana:
Many paid internships fail to recruit people from different backgrounds. Museums need to use innovative recruitment practice to attract the best talent from a broad range of backgrounds, and then ensure that this talent is nurtured; combine this with fair remuneration, and I think we are on to a winner.
The issue then becomes how we fund this; many museums have seen a reduction in funding, losing valued staff. While it’s essential that museums adhere to minimum wage legislation, is paying all interns really a sustainable solution? Surely it would just mean fewer opportunities are offered?
Charlotte
Hi Charlotte:
You say that museums must adhere to minimum-wage legislation, yet you then question if paying interns is a sustainable solution. Museums should pay interns where they effectively are doing the work of a full-time member of staff.
Any museum that receives public subsidy should be required to offer a certain number of paid internships in exchange for receiving this funding; they could also explore intern sharing with private companies. More needs to be done to cover the costs required to take up an internship.
Encouraging universities to provide spare accommodation at a lower price during summer months may be a way of doing this.
Luciana
Hi Luciana:
I welcome your call for less exploitative entry routes and agree that paying internships, as you define them, is essential. Any discussion of internships should include different models of work-based learning, such as part-time placements, apprenticeships, traineeships, volunteering, and the use of social enterprise.
Many of these will be paid and all should include some sort of remuneration, however in some cases that could take the form of paid expenses.
It is important to consider how funding can encourage broader culture change and good recruitment practice in order to support organisations of varying size and capacity to offer more developmental opportunities to talented people from a range of backgrounds.
Best, Charlotte
