ValoreMuseo: the contest where you work at the museum, get paid with vouchers, and win ... a trip!

It was not enough, with respect to young graduates in the cultural heritage sector, to mock the call for civil service in museums with its offer of work disguised as volunteer work. No: we managed to reach an even lower point. The day before yesterday the call for proposals “ValoreMuseo. Innovation and training for Tuscany’s museums and young people”(website here), conceived by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze and the Region of Tuscany and aimed, as we read in the introduction published on the City of Florence’s Youth Portal, at “12 museums in the region (specifically located in the provinces of Florence, Arezzo, Grosseto) that wish to improve their management skills” and at “12 young graduates under 35 interested in strengthening their training.” One might wonder what training (professional upgrades aside) a 35-year-old graduate might need who, in a simple normal situation, should already have accumulated a significant amount of experience, but let’s avoid getting ahead of ourselves and see how “ValoreMuseo” works.

In what appears to all intents and purposes to be a sweepstakes, both museums will participate (they will have to apply and be selected: from the shortlist will come, as anticipated, twelve) and young graduates. The requirements for the latter? Under 35, residents or domiciled in Tuscany, who have at least a bachelor’s degree or alternatively a bachelor’s degree plus a master’s degree (not only in fields related to cultural heritage or otherwise in the humanities: the competition is also open to graduates in “management engineering, economics, statistics, computer science, scientific subjects, etc. ”: in short, to everyone), who have already gained “work and/or volunteer experience directly or indirectly related to the theme of the services and the object” of the call, who possess good computer skills, who know English, and who are unemployed (in fact, a document attesting to this status is required). But what will the lucky winners go on to do? Initially, a “program of training activities of 42 hours” (we speak, in particular, of marketing for culture, and in this case of “quantitative and qualitative analysis of audiences,” “analysis of the reference context, resources and opportunities of the territory,” and “links with tourism, the market and reference communities”), then they will benefit from “a period of residence in museums with remuneration through work vouchers equal to 1.000 euros gross per month (750 net) for a maximum of 100 hours per month lasting about 6 months for the development of activities and projects in support of the museums aimed at achieving the specific objectives indicated in the announcement.” Neglecting the very ugly Italian of the notice, evidently written by someone raised on bread and minutes of condominium meetings, the summary is as follows: you, a graduate and experienced winner, will be subjected to 42 hours of training (even though you already have experience “directly or indirectly relevant to the topic” of the notice, and perhaps know more about it than your lecturers), then you will work part-time for six months with a pay of seven euros fifty per hour (a pay probably lower than you would get if you did unskilled work in a cleaning company).

Now, a candidate might think, “all right, I’ll put up with a training course on subjects on which I will almost certainly already have ample expertise, and I’ll thumb my nose at six months of underpaid work, but in the end I’ll get my coveted museum job.” No, dear candidate, you are very much mistaken: if good fortune rewards you by making you one of the two (2!) final winners, you will get nothing more than a “training trip to Brussels or other European location (round-trip flight, overnight accommodations and registration fees) as part of the continuing education activities promoted by ENCACT - European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centers” as a prize. And after that? And after nothing, you go back to being unemployed exactly as you did before you participated in the call for applications. The two winning museums (because two final winners will also be chosen from among the museums), in return, will get ten thousand euros to bring to life “the realization of a permanent intervention for the improvement of museum fruition (interventions on the exhibition, realization of graphic/didactic apparatus, purchase of hardware or software equipment, materials for laboratories or educational activities, improvement of the system of knowledge and analysis of the publics, etc.).” You, on the other hand, in Brussels or other European location, will also have to pay for your own travel, lunches, dinners, fizz and fizzes. And put up with the 1,000th training course of your career that hasn’t even seriously started yet. In essence, you will continue to be unemployed: but you will be highly trained and up-to-date, and you will have lent your skills for six months to a museum that, like you, seeks glory from one of the most perverse competitions seen in our industry in recent years.

It’s basically the logic of the trashiest talent shows applied to reality. A mixture of Masterchef and a Giorgio Mastrota infomercial. The problem is that if the cultural heritage sector begins to think with the mentality of reality shows on the skin of young people, there will simply be no future for culture in Italy, because it prefers to invest (little) in spot initiatives, of dubious usefulness, and not on stable recruitment programs that can replenish the already stretched staff of museums whose staff is heading towards retirement age without anyone having yet seriously thought about how to manage an adequate turnover that, in fact, is still not in sight. Finally, it is astonishing that this “ValoreMuseo” has been endorsed by entities, such as the Polo Museale Toscano and ICOM Italia, which should instead be putting their foot down, raising their voices and taking the creators of the call to task, protesting and demanding serious work: it is a sign that the ability to look at the future is diminishing and people prefer to make do with what little passes the convent. The hope is that, as with the civil service call for applications, this one will also go deserted: a vain hope, but it would give a very important signal. And if you really feel like winning a trip, indeed enter the contests you find in cereal boxes: there, at least, the treatment is all inclusive.

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.