In article <1996Apr9.102057.4923@clp2>, [log in to unmask] (Robin Panza) wrote: > Certainly, a paid internship is a great idea, and something to strive for. > However, where do students get the idea that they are owed a living for being a > student? You don't get paid for the courses you take. You don't get paid for > the time you put in on a thesis. Why do you expect to be paid for the > internship? well, this is all true, but depending on the student and the point they've reached in experience/schooling, museums are also getting unpaid, educated, sometimes trained and experienced labor. we were required to do a summer internship for grad school after our first year--so most of us were educated in art history or whatever area of museum-ing we were considering, collections management and other first-year grad-school courses, and a lot of my class already had volunteer or other experience in museums, galleries, auction houses etc. behind them. as it happened i lucked out and when i finished my M.A. the museum where i'd interned hired me, but if i hadn't had student-loan money to live off of that first summer, i wouldn't have been able to give them that unpaid time that got me the job. the SUNY school where i got my BA just cut their art history program entirely--meaning poor folks like myself who aspire to culture will be out of luck. soon art history will be back in the hands of the elite, where everybody outside the field (and a few inside?) thinks it already is... kerry