Job Responsibilities
Curating exhibitions: 2 days/week
Research: 1 day/week
Public interpretation (speeches, conferences, groups:1 day/week
Collections, acquisitions: 1/2 day/week
Writing about history & visual culture: 1/2 day/week
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Job Requirements
Needs masters to Ph.D., museum experience, ability to communicate
with general audiences, flexibility, public speaking
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Uppers
Exciting, always new challenges
intellectually rewarding, research components provide a continuing wide horizons
Gratifying work with audiences, classes, young, old
Autonomy -- much discretion in arranging tasks and schedules
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Downers
Low pay
No pension
Little advancement
Huge amounts of night and weekend work
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Lifestyle
Museum work is only possible for the very young or those who have
a spouse or partner with a proper income, or who live in very
cheap areas of the country (e.g. not NYC). Trend is for
blockbuster attitude, increasing show business management style,
with huge disparities between pay at the top and meager staff
compensation (highly unequal and rapidly getting worse).
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Compensation
$48,000, with free health care (Oxford HMO), 3 weeks vacation, 7
paid holidays, 20 sick days a year.
Small contribution to TIAA-CREEF acount for retirement.
No bonuses, no educational benefits, few raises, no contract,
little upward movement, little leverage on compensation issues.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Museum work is only possible for the very young or those who have
a spouse or partner with a proper income, or who live in very
cheap areas of the country (e.g. not NYC). Trend is for
blockbuster attitude, increasing show business management style,
with huge disparities between pay at the top and meager staff
compensation (highly unequal and rapidly getting worse).
|
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