A recently circulated public spreadsheet of art industry salary information included details about a number of unpaid internship positions—some of them at institutions whose directors are AAMD members.

Internships are early career stepping stones for many aspiring arts professionals. A study by the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) found that a full 69 percent of undergraduates in the U.S. who graduated from arts programs between 2009 and 2013 had interned at least once while they were in school. The same study found that 89 percent of recent graduates who’d done paid internships found work within a year of graduating, compared to 77 percent of recent graduates who had not done paid internships.

Another sample in the same study found that students who worked an unpaid internship had only a 2% better chance at getting a job in the first year after graduation compared to those who had not.