Empowerment in a Bad Art History Job Market

Fellow Art History fans, the US economic "collapse" comes as no shock to most of us. And when I speak of "us," it's not in reference to art buyers of comfortable means. I'm talking about people who hold, through love of the discipline and years of work and study, the unwavering belief that the visual arts matter to human beings. We're the people who bring this passion to a public that very often doesn't know how important art is in our shared history, but may come to know so because we care.

This is not as lofty as it sounds. Instead, it's more of a love story. One truly *must* love art history to pursue it as a career. The bottom rungs of the salary ladder, where competition is the highest, are notoriously low-paying. Many art museums either aren't hiring or are upsizing remaining job descriptions as other employees retire/are laid off. Community outreach programs are struggling by on shoestring budgets. In public schools, where art history is often one of the first programs to be cut, involved parents volunteer to teach. Art history professors are having their class loads scaled back, even while tuition costs continue to rise. I place no blame on employers--none!--because they work miracles with available funding. My points are merely these: (1) Art history is seen as an expendable luxury in the best of times. When times are tough, it gets really ugly. Which means that (2) the always-tight art history job market has gotten tighter, and we probably haven't seen the worst of it yet.

So, what can we do?

As a firm believer in grass roots efforts, I propose we help each other. For years now, I have run a weekly-updated page of available Art History Jobs, Fellowships and Internships. It's my labor of love, or attempt at good karma, or whatever you want to call it. The important part is that it's completely free, both to job seekers and employers who wish to post job listings. There is no cost to anyone, save for me with a bit of my time each week. But, and this is a huge but, I can only post jobs if employers tell me that jobs exist.

Ironically, I see many art-historic employers who would rather PAY to post jobs to more generalized online entities, instead of getting in touch. Perhaps--and, believe me, I hold no illusions about this website's "fame"--they're unaware of the jobs page here, read by men and women who have the art history, education and museum studies degrees, training and experience that are listed as job requirements.

Here's what you can do: Help me spread the word! Forward this. Tell your art history friends there are job listings here. Tell your school's art history career counselors the same thing. Tell every HR department or hiring chair in every art museum or art history department that this resource is available. Tell them to tell their colleagues. Tell them you read the jobs page, as do thousands of other art history job seekers. Tell them they are missing out if they don't post here. We have had opportunities pass through from unpaid internship to museum head, along with every curatorial, conservatorial and professorial description imaginable from employers all over the globe. It's a simple process to have a position posted, and an even more simple process to see the postings 24/7. Heck, you can even subscribe to the About.com Art History newsletter and I will send you the new listings every week.

Let's do what we can to spread hope and opportunity in our little corner of the world through these dark economic days. Are you up for it? Will you help spread the word?

Related Reading:

• Art History Jobs, Fellowships and Internships
• Post an Art History Job
• Subscribe to the About.com Art History newsletter
• Art History Calls for Papers, Posters and Proposals
• Art History Seminars, Symposia, Conferences and Workshops

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