Moma Reviews

-Sadly, with the downturn in the economy we got half the usual salary of summer interns at MoMA; $1000 for two months instead of the usual $2000. I was living with my brother who paid most of the rent so I could make it but a lot of the other interns were under a lot of pressure and some had to work two jobs, which is very tiring considering we all worked full-time five days a week. However it's great they kept the program going at all, because I know a lot of other places scrapped theirs. MoMA has also done a better job than the Met in minimizing lay-offs and holding onto their employees. -My department was great. I know for a fact that numerous other departments were not, and in particular one fellow intern had a horrible time due to the fact that her manager was an idiot; I do not understand how she got that position in the first place. She also dragged me into extra-time menial work for a very stupid, non-effective marketing campaign that I had not volunteered for in spite of the fact that I was NOT part of her department (including over-time requests at night, and requests to come in over weekends; I was "sick" over the weekend.). My managers eventually got me out it, politely, but my co-intern had to keep doing these stupid, menial tasks involving mostly putting numbers into Excel in spite of her excellent qualifications (used to work at a very prestigious art-firm before) and I could not understand her manager's sheer stupidity. My co-intern later wrote on her experience review that her experience was absolutely horrid and she would never work for MoMA again, saying she did not care about the consequences, she just hated the job so much. There were very good workers within that department who were in conflict with the manager, but in spite of it they carried out great campaigns. I honestly feel that in this case it would be better if the manager was gone and the other workers could carry out the innovative marketing they have done to the fullest extent. -Also heard from other interns in curatorial departments that they had extremely boring jobs, not only that they got to witness the cut-throat, brown-nosing environment where favoritism and nepotism ran rampant. The new head of MoMA is trying to get the curatorial departments to work together and change the old culture in which the Painting department was the king of the museum, but has met some resistance; for the curious, this was written about in the New Yorker to a great extent, and you can look it up. Gossip from department to department carries far; I have heard complaints from non-interns, actual workers at curatorial departments to a great deal as well, mainly consisting of the fact that younger workers don't really get a chance to work and don't get their due time to shine. Also, it's not really clear what it takes to move up in the corporate ladder. One older intern kept asking at various educational functions but everyone kept dodging her questions, which made me question that aspect of the museum a bit. -Another great department to work for, from what I heard; Graphic Design. IT. Curatorial is hit or miss depending on your manager. Retail and Sales is rather boring. Grant-writing is very exciting if that's your area. When applying, some might want to keep in mind that curatorial is the most competitive, but I had no interest in curatorial in the first place so I did not list any on my first three choices. I am VERY glad that I did not get chosen for Marketing, which I stupidly added as second of my top three choices. Very, very glad.

The price for this incredible work experience is laughable pay and a senior management that (despite their frequent vocal claims to the contrary) does not value its staff. A job at MoMA will broaden your horizons, expand your mind, and beggar your wallet.