Note: this page is not up to date with our latest work – please check our Twitter account to see what we’ve done lately
On this page we will keep a list of the organisations we’ve contacted, why contacted them, and how they responded.

June 2019

Organisation and role: Association of Anaesthetists, Heritage Intern

Why did we contact them? Degree as an essential requirement for a internship

What response did we receive? They agreed to review the job description to be more inclusive. (See their tweet here.)

Organisation and role: Ironbridge Gorge Museums, various roles

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? Ironbridge Gorge Museums updated the 3 of the roles to show the salary within 24 hours. One had already been filled so was removed. One is awaiting salary information being added (See their tweet here.)

May 2019

Organisation and role: RAMM, Assistant Curator and Exhibitions Officer

Why did we contact them? Desirable requirement for post-graduate qualification in Museum Studies/heritage, with no option for equivalent experience.

What response did we receive? RAMM completely agree that post-graduate qualifications should not be essential and have created the job description with that in mind. They will add “or equivalent experience” to future adverts, although perceive it to be superfluous given that they specify the required experience in the essential criteria.

Organisation and role: Paxton House, Education Officer (part-time)

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? No response received.

April 2019

Organisation and role: Waddesdon Manor, five unpaid internships

Why did we contact them? Unpaid positions, demanding 3 days per week for 5/6 months; some with stated responsibilities and duties but not all of them have advertised formal learning outcomes.

What response did we receive? Waddesdon Manor stated that their internships followed the National Trust guidance. They described how they work with their interns to provide learning outcomes, and encourage them to take paid work on-site during their placement. They explained the financial value of of the housing and how it allows them to house candidates from further afield who would not be able to travel to their site. In future they will consider how the descriptions of the roles can be altered to remove ambiguity and clarify expectations.

Organisation and role: English Heritage, 8 roles across 6 properties.

Why did we contact them? Salary listed as below National Minimum Wage (as updated on 1 April 2019)

What response did we receive? Job adverts updated immediately to reflect the April increase.

March 2019

Organisation and role: Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, Volunteering Manager (Interpretation & Core Activity), Programmes and Marketing Manager, IT Officer

Why did we contact them? Salary for both posts is low in relation to the requirements of the roles and the MA Salary Guidelines for similar posts. Request that the requirement for a degree level education or equivalent is phrased to clearly identify if equivalent experience is acceptable.

What response did we receive? No response received.

February 2019

Organisation and role: V&A Museum of Childhood, Senior Curator

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? The Head of HR explained that in instances where they wish to retain flexibility for attracting candidates, and when a role is a significant change to a previous post, they will not advertise a range or spot rate for salaries. When we reported this on Twitter, Prospect union picked this up and contacted the V&A, the salary range was then given after the closing date for the role (Prospect rep on Twitter)

Organisation and role: St. Paul’s Cathedral, Director of Visitor Engagement

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? As of 15 Feb, our concerns are under consideration.

Organisation and role: Coventry City of Culture 2021, Curatorial roles

Why did we contact them? Via Twitter we raised the use of the phrase ” be youthful” in a job description. First tweet to Coventry

What response did we receive? Initially they released a statement and revised the job description: Coventry Statement, Coventry second JD, the revised job description was still an issue, which we raised with them again. They subsequently removed the phrase from the role descriptions Coventry apology

Organisation and role: St. Paul’s Cathedral, Director of Visitor Engagement

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? As of 15 Feb, our concerns are under consideration.

Organisation and role: The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, Visitor Assistant posts

Why did we contact them? Raised by many followers on Twitter: degree level qualification listed as desirable, with further qualifications an advantage; no experience equivalency listed – all for a front of house role.

What response did we receive? No response received.

January 2019

Organisation and role: Museum of the Mind, Registrar

Why did we contact them? Essential requirement for a degree in art/history and desirable post-graduate qualification in Museum Studies, with no option for equivalent experience.

What response did we receive? The Museum of the Mind stated that they engage in serious discussion for every role what level of education is necessary. They also must adhere to NHS recruitment processes, including for shortlisting, which allow for candidates without formal qualifications to be considered for role with stated qualification requirements. They also feel that access to higher education is very widespread, and that the issues surrounding student debt and “perceived and/or real discrimination within university admission procedures” are not issues which the museum sector can be expected to solve.

December 2018

Organisation and role: Bletchley Park, Digitisation and Archive Assistant

Why did we contact them? Salary undisclosed in advert and on their own website but listed on museumjobs website.

What response did we receive? No response received.

Organisation and role: Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, Deputy Director and Head of Collections and Interpretation

Why did we contact them? Salary for both posts is low in relation to the requirements of the roles and the MA Salary Guidelines for similar posts. Request that the requirement for a postgraduate qualification is amended to include equivalent experience

What response did we receive? No response received.

Organisation and role: National Museum Scotland, Assistant Curator: Earth Sciences and Assistant Curator: Science

Why did we contact them? To confirm whether the phrase “or equivalent” in their qualification lines was exclusively referring to other qualifications, or also covered experience.

What response did we receive? No response received.

Organisation and role: Chatsworth, Visitor Welcome Supervisor and Assistant Supervisor

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? No response received

Organisation and role: York Museums Trust, Head of Public Engagement

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? York Museums Trust responded that they agree with our information about the challenges of museum careers and as such, they use salary ranges for the majority of adverts. For this particular role, they decided that they wanted to “retain the flexibility to attract and negotiate with the best possible candidates without constraining [ourselves] by advertising a particular range.” We responded that it was our belief that the principles of recruitment should be the same across all roles, and commended some of their other work.

Organisation and role: Hull Culture and Leisure, Assistant Curator – Projects

Why did we contact them? Essential requirement for post-graduate qualification in Museum Studies or AMA.

What response did we receive? Hull Culture and Leisure replied with a comprehensive email outlining their commitment to good practice in recruitment in many areas including salaries and staff benefits. They explained that any new curatorial roles would specify that post-graduate qualifications or the AMA are desirable rather than essential.
They also raised concerns about our practice of publicising our challenges through social media, which we have taken into account and will ensure that all organisations we contact are notified of our intention to publicise our communications.

Organisation and role: Cultural Innovations, Senior Interpretation Developer

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? Cultural Innovations promptly responded and relisted this job and another (Interpretation Developer) with salary bands disclosed.

Organisation and role: Liverpool Biennial, Director

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? The Liverpool Biennial replied that they share our concern about fair pay and always conform to or exceed best practice, and pointed us to previous recruitment for less senior roles which always carry a salary range. In this instance they felt that binding themselves to a salary range would not offer the flexibility they wanted to recruit the best candidate from their wide potential pool.

Organisation and role: Mercers’ Company, Collections Manager

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? No response received.

November 2018

Organisation and role: Hanmi Gallery, Gallery Assistant

Why did we contact them? Role originally advertised with a range of £15k-£20k – £15 is below the legal minimum wage. Given the demands in the person specification, the minimum wage would be far too low (as per the Museums Association Salary Guidelines), and the London Living Wage should be considered. A degree is listed as an essential criteria with no mention of equivalent experience being acceptable.

What response did we receive? Hanmi Gallery stated that the salary was listed incorrectly due to a template error. They agreed that in light of the salary guidelines they would list the role at £18k-£20k. They agreed to revised the person specification to allow for “Educated to degree level or equivalent work experience”.

Organisation and role: Goldsmiths Company, Deputy Curator

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing

What response did we receive? Goldsmiths indicated that they believed their approach to recruiting without a given salary would allow a wider range of applicants, especially as they have the ability to be flexible. However they recognised that our points regarding unconscious bias, lack of transparency and potential for discrimination and will consider them for future recruitment.

Organisation and role: Raby Castle, Curator

Why did we contact them? Undisclosed salary in job listing (Archived listing available here https://jobs.theguardian.com/job/6797492/curator/?LinkSource=PremiumListing)

What response did we receive? Acknowledgement of our email.