To our overseas friends:
You are getting a glimpse of the inside of what it is like to be a
young American with the desire to be a part of Museum system. I am not
sure when it happened but the doors seemed to have slammed shut for most
of the Curatorial, Education, Director (etc) hopeful applicants. What
you are witnessing is a few die hards trying to shove the door back open
again.
This has also happened in the academic community. My own experience has
been with the Fine Art departments of the US. People with terminal
degrees are falling all over themselves to land these few coveted
positions. In order to follow this road - a person must be willing to
beg for a job each year, (and these are not inexpensive applications -
at 40 slides per application), endure the humiliation of CAA conference
and then be willing to relocate each year until they are awarded that
precious elusive prize known as "tenure." At this point this person
must also be willing to live the rest of their life in this college town
for fear of not becoming employed again. Great life - huh? Makes you
wonder why anyone would want to be a part of it.
You see - all through school - I was sold the bill of goods that I would
be able to follow in my professors footsteps. I would be able to walk
into a tenure track position like they did upon completion of my
terminal degree. But my professors - as good hearted and well
intentioned as they were - had become unaware of the changes on the
outside world. The job market had become saturated and there were so
few positions available. And so - many of my contemporaries are becoming
angry, jaded and bitter. There is a feeling of being all dressed up
with no where to go. Why isn't there a place for us in the system? And
(I know this is speculation) perhaps for those who are in the positions
there is a feeling of uneasiness - wondering if they will be replaced by
a young kid and then they will have no where to go. There just aren't
enough jobs to go around.
And so the competition is fierce.
The irony is that these positions are not all that well paid. All that
work and fighting and these are some of the lowest paying positions
around.
I finally solved the problem for myself by learning ASP and web
development. No humiliation, no fighting and I save my thoughts for my
studio. DeKooning was a house painter, Warhol a commercial artist and
Theresa Devine was a web developer. Each one of us trying to make a
living and our art - each one of us a product of our time.
Welcome to the end of the 20th century.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Boylan P [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Sunday, October 31, 1999 8:32 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Recruitment by Resume - what about Equal Opportunities
> policies?
>
> On Sat, 30 Oct 1999, Indigo Nights wrote:
>
> > On Saturday, October 9, I took a course at UCL wherein a recruiter
> was
> present. The recruiter is responsible to find staffing for academic
> and
> nonprofit jobs.
>
> >According to that person, recruiters (headhunters) do use posted
> resumes.
>
> ====================================
>
> I've been following this debate with both interest and growing
> bewilderment, though not from any of the points of view that have
> emerged
> from the North American side so far!
>
> In Europe, and especially in Britain, the impression is that the USA
> is at
> least 20 years ahead of us in terms of "fair employment" practices:
> e.g.
> equality of opportunity, affirmative action, recruitment and promotion
> procedures etc. - and indeed international comparative research
> supports
> this impression.
>
> However, recruitment in response to an unsolicited letter of
> application,
> phone call, visit, or by selecting a posted resume, would be regarded
> as
> utterly unacceptable and a grave breach of fair employment principles.
> It
> could potentially lead to legal action on the grounds of indirect
> gender,
> racial, ethnic, or disability discrimination, (religious
> descrimination
> also in Northern Ireland, though the religious discrimination in
> employment law does not apply in England, Scotland or Wales at the
> moment).
>
> Complete "transparency" of process at all stages is demanded by most
> legally enforcible Equal Opportunities Policies and internal Codes of
> Practice - including amongst other things offering all new recruitment
> employment opportunities publicly, and notifying all internal
> promotion
> opportunities at least internally. I can't even re-engage a temporary
> Research Assistant whose short-term contract finished just a few weeks
> earlier for my next project without both external and internal
> advertising.
>
> This would not, of course, prevent you from copying an advertisement
> to
> those known to be interested in that sort of job. When I was director
> of
> a large arts & museums service we kept a special file with the names
> and
> addresses of people wanting to be notified of vacancies in their area
> of
> work, but they still had to apply formally through the normal
> channels.)
>
> Indeed, since 1996 it has even been compulsory in the UK to advertise
> publicly completely UNPAID Trustee positions and for other Board or
> committee members of publicly financed bodies, including the national
> museums and galleries and both national and regional level Arts or
> Museums
> Councils, tourist boards, heritage councils etc. (Note the starting
> date:
> these additional measures were introduced before the change of
> government
> in 1997.)
>
> In all this we THINK we are following the splendid lead of United
> States
> law and practice as it evolved in response to the equal rights
> concerns
> and legal rulings etc. of up to 40 years ago! Is it just private
> sector
> museums and other small non-profit organisations that feel they are
> not
> bound by such principles, and can therefore recruit by "word-of-mouth"
> or
> in response to approaches, or has equity and transparency in human
> resources management practice collapsed generally in the USA?
>
>
> Patrick J. Boylan
> (Professor of Heritage Policy and Management)
>
> City University, Frobisher Crescent, Barbican, London EC2Y 8HB, UK;
> phone: +44-171-477.8750, fax:+44-171-477.8887;
> Home: "The Deepings", Gun Lane, Knebworth, Herts. SG3 6BJ, UK;
> phone & fax: +44-1438-812.658;
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]; Web site: http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/
>
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
> http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may
> obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a
> one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of
> the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message
> to
> [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read
> "Signoff
> Museum-L" (without the quotes).
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).
|
