Arts administration: Questions of privilege

The rights and wrongs of internships for those who are seeking a first job have been hotly debated in the press recently, and nowhere more so than with reference to young people who hope to make a career in arts and music administration. But the principles remain the same whatever the discipline: is it legal for an organisation to employ people who are usually given a stipulated job when they become an intern, and not to pay them; and is it acceptable that these opportunities tend to go to young people who are already rich enough (through parental support or earnings from a gap year many cannot afford to take in the first place) to underwrite the costs of living while earning nothing?

The argument in favour runs along these lines: there are so many applicants for jobs these days that it has become necessary for employers, in order to make a decision, to have more evidence of how suitable the candidate is for the position on offer. Since the candidate is in an unprecedentedly weak position — assuming it is true that numbers have indeed gone up — it has not been difficult for employers to call all the shots; and those shots are fired in the context of a credit crunch when businesses are thought to be poorer than they were. Add to this the fact that jobs in arts administration have never been thick on the ground and tend to be financed out of the public purse, which is shrinking, and you will understand that young people with a sense of vocation for the arts will do almost anything they are told to get on to that career ladder.