This tumultuous year in the economy has caused wrenching change in the economy. Those pressures have filtered through to arts institutions and caused an interesting anomaly. Summer interns are being exposed to the reality of work in ways no one ever intended. Here’s the Brown Daily Herald on one Harvard student’s experience at LA’s MoCA:

Harvard sophomore Daniel Villafana has felt the effects of ailing markets this summer at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, where he is an intern. Well, not quite.

“They would not take an intern,” Villafana said. “You have to pay interns.  I am volunteering. I work, like, 12 hours a week.” As a volunteer, Villafana’s responsibilities include standard intern duties, such as filing and organizing, as well as a few slightly less routine tasks linked to downsizing at the prominent museum. “Two days ago, my job was to clear out the office of somebody they had to lay off,” Villafana explained.  “It was a person in charge of the membership department.”

In Challenging Job Market, Art Students are Hit Hard (Brown Daily Herald)