Working for free in museums to keep them open? Open letter from a student to the mayor of Rome

There has been a lot of discussion in recent days about the protest of the workers of Zétema, the company that manages Rome’s municipal museums. In fact, the City of Rome has planned numerous cuts for Zétema, and the museums, the quality of services offered, and the number of jobs will obviously be affected.

On the subject, we received an open letter to Mayor Ignazio Marino from a Roman student, Valentina Bortolotti. It is right for workers to protest for their rights, but on the other hand the risk is to keep museums closed (and if there are cuts, the risk could be repeated over time). Valentina therefore wonders whether it might not be a good idea to keep museums open for free by using young staff who need to gain experience. This is certainly a strong point of view, one that a great many people will not agree with, but one that there is much to discuss. Here is what Valentina writes to the mayor of Rome:

Dear Mayor,

my name is Valentina Bortolotti and I am a student of art history at the faculty of Romatre. Let me preface this by saying that I love art, all of it. From the Villanovan age to the present day, from the remains of the antefixes to the most famous paintings. I love-no indeed I LOVE it, because it is the symbol of an intellectual activity that never ceased, not even when the Persians invaded Greece or when the barbarians invaded the Italian regions. Not even during wars does man stop creating, making art. It is about the extrinsicity of civilization, the liveliness of intellect. That’s why reading articles explaining that for economic reasons, from April, many museums might be closed makes my heart cry. Because because of the crisis, we are facing a decadence to which we have to react. I want to react therefore, and that is why I am here, with my heart in my hand, writing to you that I would be willing to work for FREE in order to keep even one museum open. For me it would be a dream to be able to gain experience in a museum, to live in contact with my passion. And like me there are many, many young people who would do that. So I would like to ask you if it would be possible to do this, to be able to provide a service to the public in exchange for an experience that I will take with me forever. I hope you will consider this request, which will allow you to invest human resources rather than economic resources.

Cordially,

Valentina Bortolotti

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