Working at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. This is what happened to me. It does not exist in a vacuum.

Lilly Lai is a Chinese/Anglo artist who has lived and worked on Darug and Gadigal land of the Eora Nation At 18 I got offered the role of Business Administration Trainee (BAT) at the MCA. The position was advertised as an opportunity for young people wanting to begin a career in the arts sector with little to no prior experience. I remember hearing an MCA director later speak of it as an outreach program to help ‘disadvantaged’ youth. As someone who dropped out of high school, getting the opportunity to work full-time in an internationally highly regarded art museum felt like I’d won the lottery. The first thing that presented as a big struggle for me was the pay. It was around $20k per annum, which came down to $700 per fortnight, $350 per week. As someone who had moved to Sydney for the job, with zero external financial support I struggled to make ends meet. I did not know the city very well and could only find accommodation at around $250 per week, so I’d only have $100 to get through the week, meaning I could just barely manage to make it work. I was told by my manager that I’m entitled to additional income from Centrelink which took me 8 months to get approved for and begin receiving payments. At first I was so excited to be a part of the institution, but then gradually I began noticing disparities in treatment towards myself and my white colleagues that were also BATs. At my weekly catch ups with the HR manager who was my direct manager, I would receive regular comments on my appearance not being up to standard, and of coworkers making complaints to her about it. She told me that she was disclosing this information about receiving complaints in the interest of transparency and she also would repeatedly say that if I didn’t work on dressing and appearing more professional, she would have to use disciplinary action. I was never told what disciplinary action meant. <a href="https://medium.com/@lillylaimui/working-at-mca-australia-this-is-what-happened-to-me-it-does-not-exist-in-a-vacuum-75642ce8c4b3">Visit Now</a>