This summer I took a job at a summer camp. Now I know what you are thinking; is Shane one of those weirdos who has been going to summer camp for, uh, ever, and continues to go because he just can’t get past that nostalgia of being at camp when he was a kid? (see above picture) The answer is no, I am not. I took the job based on the fact that it is video related, thus kind of photo related but not really at all. I figured in the future teaching kids that are 9-11 would get me somewhere in life. But as the end of the summer comes to a close I am looking into getting a “real” (9-5) job.

In Boston we have a lot of resources for art and thus jobs in the field. There is the MFA, sMFA, Mass Art, New England School of Art, The Art Institute of Boston, and 30 or so universities in the greater Boston area all with art departments, galleries, or labs that need people to work at them. But here is the problem; none of these jobs actually require you to KNOW anything about art. The extent of knowing about art is:

Do you have a BFA? Yes.

Do you know how to, build walls, fix computers, organize students, organize exhibitions, hang prints on a wall, scan? Yes

Oh you do? That’s great! How long have you done that for? We need 5 years of museum experience, do you have that? …No

This is the conversation I have in my head thinking about interviews when ever I read descriptions for jobs and it freaks me out a bit. But do I want to try to rough it in the commercial world? Currently I am working for a few people, shooting weddings on weekends, and working a 40 hour a week job and barely getting by. I realize I have been out of school for two months and do not have to decide what to do right this second, but how many more unpaid internships do I have to do before I have enough experience to hang prints on a wall and run a projector? I think this is why most people in art already have money, they have time for all this free work.

I don’t know if being a 9-5er is part of my personal brand.