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Essential volunteering
A letter in the July issue of a-n Magazine talked of there being a “fine line between voluntary work and blatant exploitation”. There are an increasing number of volunteer placements and internships on offer nowadays. One recently-listed volunteer offer stated that “as first point of contact to the public you will play a vital role in ensuring the smooth running of the gallery and in giving a warm welcome to visitors”, indicating the importance of such a non-paid post in contributing to audience development. Beyond the arts, it is suggested that around fifty per cent of the population is engaged in volunteering in some form or another. So, has the use of volunteers by arts organisations become a cheap solution to the delivery of essential parts of their programme – such as exhibition installation, marketing, invigilation, educational and community workshops and audience development programmes? Or do these unpaid posts bring career credentials for arts practitioners and would-be arts administrators, curators and educationalists? And as the vast majority of art students nowadays work their way through university in regular part-time jobs in call-centres,...
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