Jennifer Rubio and Stewart Butterfield, cofounders of Slack, just gave the Metropolitan Museum of Art $23 million. The gift targets the museum's paid internship program, a move that signals where serious collectors are putting their money right now.
Paid internships in the arts have become a lightning rod issue. For decades, museums relied on unpaid labor, a system that effectively locked out anyone who couldn't afford to work for free. The Met's decision to pay its interns represents a shift, however incremental. A $23 million pledge accelerates that change considerably.
The gift matters beyond its dollar amount. Rubio and Butterfield sit among the Met's top 200 collectors, meaning they've already built significant relationships with the institution. This isn't a first-time donor testing the waters. These are serious players doubling down on their commitment to access.
The museum hasn't specified how many interns the program will support or what the compensation structure looks like. Still, the pledge sends a message to peer institutions watching how major donors respond to equity concerns in the art world. Other museums will likely face pressure to match or justify why they haven't.
For the Met, this secures funding for a program that's both logistically expensive and ideologically important. For Rubio and Butterfield, it's a high-profile way to address a real problem in an industry they care about.