Volunteers will be employed in Milan's civic museums: protest begins

The Municipality of Milan published on March 10 a call for applications addressed to volunteer organizations and social promotion associations that will be employed in “activities to facilitate the enjoyment of the cultural heritage of some institutions of the Municipality of Milan.” Specifically, the notice says, “volunteers will be asked to facilitate the processes of knowledge of cultural sites by communicating the main information to visitors in order to stimulate curiosity and improve the enjoyment of the heritage.” The museums in which they will work will be the Francesco Messina Museum, the Antiquarium Alda Levi-Parco dell’Anfiteatro Romano, the Boschi Di Stefano House Museum, the Marieda Di Stefano School of Ceramics, the Crypt of San Giovanni in Conca, the Grassi-Vismara Collection and the Mudec warehouses.

On the scale, the City puts resources of 236 thousand euros, spread over three years (such is in fact the duration of the agreement), which will be used for expense reimbursements: reimbursements are contemplated for employee expenses or professional assignments, but only for volunteer training activities, out-of-pocket expenses incurred by volunteers or employees (e.g., fuel, transportation, and so and so on), insurance policies, expenses for security activities, and a maximum of 10 percent of the total expenses for the purchase and rental of equipment and instrumentation, as well as total expenses attributable to activities (stationery, utilities, secretarial expenses, and so on).

The dissemination of the notice on social media generated a large protest reaction from cultural professionals, to which the contextualization provided by the municipality did not, according to the workers, provide an acceptable response, especially given the current context of a very serious crisis for workers in the sector. As a result, associations that protect cultural work have taken action: the movement Mi Riconosci? I’m a cultural heritage professional in particular has sent a letter to the Milan City Council’s councillor for culture, Filippo del Corno, and has started an online petitionforthe withdrawal of the call addressed to volunteer associations for the entrusting of activities of protection and enhancement of Milan’s cultural heritage.

“If the entrusting to volunteers of such important and crucial activities as the protection and enhancement of our cultural heritage was unacceptable in a pre-Covid era,” the association explains, “it becomes absolutely scandalous at this time, when workers in the sector have been at home for a year, surviving on paltry severance pay or refreshments, which always arrived too late (when they did arrive). How can work done by volunteers, unpaid and unskilled staff, concretely help, in the long run, the restart of Milan’s cultural venues? Especially when the municipality is willing to put up 263,000 euros.”

“As professionals of cultural heritage, as citizens of Milan,” the association continues, “we ask that the call for proposals be withdrawn, because we cannot and do not want our work to be continually debased and downgraded, but not only that: we ask for a change of course on the part of the Department of Culture in support of qualified and properly paid work as well as support for the professions in the sector in this delicate historical period. A change of course that passes through the regulation of volunteerism, a useful tool only if used wisely and not as a gimmick to replace missing staff. We call on the directors of cultural places affected by the call, but not only, to support the withdrawal of the public notice so as to curb the scourge of free labor disguised as volunteer work. We call on all professionals and workers to support this request for the sake of cultural heritage and the work itself, and for this we need everyone’s contribution.”

Pictured: the Levi Antiquarium in Milan. Ph. Credit

Volunteers will be employed in Milan's civic museums: protest begins

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