American Association of Museum Directors calls for an end to unpaid internships

Our daily round-up of news from the art worldUK

American Association of Museum Directors calls for end to unpaid internships | The board of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) has adopted a resolution recommended by its Professional Issues Committee encouraging its members to end unpaid internships. Jill Medvedow, the director of ICA Boston, who co-authored the resolution, said: ‘By failing to pay interns, we ensure that these experiences are only really accessible to those who already financially secure and, often, people who have established career networks available to them.’

Survey finds museum front-of-house staff feel undervalued | The results of a new survey suggest that front-of-house staff working in museums across the UK feel undervalued and powerless. Five hundred and sixty-four respondents completed the survey, written by Front of House Museums, an independent body committed to sharing and championing the experiences of front-of-house staff. Fifty-eight per cent of respondents working front-of-house claimed that they felt undervalued, while only 48 per cent said they were dedicated to pursuing a career in the museum sector.

Poster museum opens in New York | The USA’s first museum dedicated to historic and contemporary posters opened on Thursday, the New York Times (£) reports. Poster House, which has taken over a 15,000 square-feet Manhattan venue, has launched with an initial collection of 7,000 posters from around the world, ranging from the 1870s to the present day. Introducing the new, privately funded venture, its director Julia Knight said that ‘we don’t want to be an art museum […] even though there is clear artistry and beauty here, we still consider this design’.

Illinois community college invests millions in expanded museum | The board of trustees at the College of DuPage last night voted in favour of expanding the Cleve Carney Art Gallery by 1,000 square feet, renaming it the Cleve Carney Museum of Art. Designed by Kevin Havens of Wight & Company, the renovation is set for completion by March 2020 ahead of a major survey of Frida Kahlo’s work, the largest retrospective in the Chicago-area since 1978. In a statement, the museum’s director and chief curator Justin Witte explained that the development will ‘open up the possibility of hosting more museum-level travelling exhibitions in the years to come’.

Recommended reading | Junya Ishigami’s Serpentine Pavilion opened during a turbulent week for the gallery; The Guardian reviews the installation, which has been blighted by health-and-safety regulations. After new international research, the New York Times (£) assesses the evidence, suggesting some of Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings could be labelled as copies. Finally, the New York Observer joins Christie’s as it explores the potential of AI to trace provenance.