Spring Break
Museum internship makes promises, sinks
No creative skills are neccesary to sit at an information desk
by Hannah Edber
Features Editor
News | 7/12/07
Posted online at 1:26 AM EST on 8/28/07
It was mid-April and I was assembling my salad in Usdan, when a woman from the Museum of Fine Art's Department of Gallery Learning called me. She asked me if I'd be interesting in spending my summer as her intern.
I was elated. Two weeks ago, I had interviewed at the Boston museum for a position I was told would be full of creative opportunities in art education for children and families. The MFA's self-guided activities for families, called Family Place, were so old that they were either in need of a makeover or no longer relevant to the Museum's collections. During the interview, my future supervisor told me I would be developing new activities for the Museum. One day a week would be spent manning a cart and handing out the activities. One day out of five didn't seem too bad.
But my supervisor told me weeks later that I would only be coming in two days a week. I asked for another day and was told the department didn't have enough work for me to do. Fine, I told myself. If I'm going to spend half of my internship sitting at this cart, I'm going to be the best cart-monitor this museum has ever seen.
Pushing this cart from its storage space to the Lower Rotunda, where I was supposed to sit and hand out the activities, was no small task. It was especially irritating to navigate the beast through a maze of construction work, delicate glass doors and curious children. And all this while wearing heels.
I was told to sit at the cart from 11 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, and I was given half an hour for lunch. During those hours I was supposed to explain the activities and hand them out to children and their families, but I generally spent my time explaining where the bathrooms were.
What about the days of my internship I wasn't spending at the cart? Was I astounding my supervisors with my writing skills and creative inclination? Tragically, no. On my "off" days I mastered the laminating machine (no small feat), answered phones and occasionally got to work on the various projects I was supposed to be doing. Most of the time, however, I was at the cart on my day "off," generally because the other intern was on vacation.
When I asked my supervisor for a recommendation, she responded with a curt e-mail: "Unfortunately," she wrote, "I don't feel qualified to write you a recommendation, since I don't feel like we worked closely enough or that I saw enough of your skill. But good luck!" Why was I told they would need someone creative and qualified, when really all they needed was a warm body to stand at a cart and answer questions? Why, though I asked for more opportunities to show my skills, was I denied those opportunities and then told I showed no remarkable skills? Disappointing, to say the least.
I was elated. Two weeks ago, I had interviewed at the Boston museum for a position I was told would be full of creative opportunities in art education for children and families. The MFA's self-guided activities for families, called Family Place, were so old that they were either in need of a makeover or no longer relevant to the Museum's collections. During the interview, my future supervisor told me I would be developing new activities for the Museum. One day a week would be spent manning a cart and handing out the activities. One day out of five didn't seem too bad.
But my supervisor told me weeks later that I would only be coming in two days a week. I asked for another day and was told the department didn't have enough work for me to do. Fine, I told myself. If I'm going to spend half of my internship sitting at this cart, I'm going to be the best cart-monitor this museum has ever seen.
Pushing this cart from its storage space to the Lower Rotunda, where I was supposed to sit and hand out the activities, was no small task. It was especially irritating to navigate the beast through a maze of construction work, delicate glass doors and curious children. And all this while wearing heels.
I was told to sit at the cart from 11 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, and I was given half an hour for lunch. During those hours I was supposed to explain the activities and hand them out to children and their families, but I generally spent my time explaining where the bathrooms were.
What about the days of my internship I wasn't spending at the cart? Was I astounding my supervisors with my writing skills and creative inclination? Tragically, no. On my "off" days I mastered the laminating machine (no small feat), answered phones and occasionally got to work on the various projects I was supposed to be doing. Most of the time, however, I was at the cart on my day "off," generally because the other intern was on vacation.
When I asked my supervisor for a recommendation, she responded with a curt e-mail: "Unfortunately," she wrote, "I don't feel qualified to write you a recommendation, since I don't feel like we worked closely enough or that I saw enough of your skill. But good luck!" Why was I told they would need someone creative and qualified, when really all they needed was a warm body to stand at a cart and answer questions? Why, though I asked for more opportunities to show my skills, was I denied those opportunities and then told I showed no remarkable skills? Disappointing, to say the least.
Be the first to comment on this story