Venice, with the Civic Museums still closed, the city council seeks civil service volunteers

The story of Venice’s Civic Museums is enriched with further developments: as is now well known, the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, has expressed his intention to keep the city’s museums closed until April, regardless of the government’s decisions on the Veneto region (whose entry into the yellow zone is imminent, which could allow the museums to reopen, according to the January 14 dpcm). According to Brugnaro, it is indeed not convenient to open Venice’s museums in the absence of tourists.

It is the latest news that the City of Venice will participate in Civil Service 2021 with a project that is precisely dedicated to Venice’s Civic Museums. Among the dozens of active projects throughout Italy, there is also one at the City of Venice, entitled The Civic Museums of Venice: study, preserve, educate for the sharing of heritage. There are 13 positions put out to tender, with no room and board, and with an expense reimbursement of 439.50 euros per month (or 14.65 per day), in exchange for service for five days a week (the annual amount is 1,145 hours). Volunteer workers will be employed on several sites: Ca’ Rezzonico, Ca’ Pesaro, Palazzo Mocenigo, Natural History Museum, Doge’s Palace, Correr Museum, Catalogue Center, Photographic Archives and Multimedia Production. Despite the title of the project, volunteers will not only be employed in activities such as cataloging, scientific support, research, digitization, and promotion. In several locations they will also have to deal with public reception, handling requests, managing reservation systems, counter activities, including via phone or email.

And on social media now mounts a further controversy: to many, in fact, it seems grotesque that the municipality is looking for volunteers when the workers of the Museums are still laid off. It should be specified that this is not the first time the Municipality has resorted to Civil Service for the Civic Museums: it has happened before, in the pre-Covid era. But it certainly causes discussion that now Venice is still using Civil Service with closed museums and laid-off workers. At the moment, the City Council has yet to make any statement regarding any link between museum closures and the search for volunteers.

Venice, with the Civic Museums still closed, the city council seeks civil service volunteers

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.