Those who control institutions arrogate privilege to themselves, whether it be corporate executives or bigwigs of “socialist” states—or union leaders.
It was a good idea for these art workers to unionize. It was not a good idea for these workers to be organized by a powerful, non-related union with a well-paid bureaucracy. It would have been a far better idea if the had formed their own independent union, with officers making no more than they had in their previous jobs in the art world. Remember Orwell’s dictum.
9
I worked at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston for 6 years teaching painting and drawing in their studio arts program. It was appalling how little they paid us artists while their endowment is in the millions. The museum buys art in the millions, they pander to their rich clientele in so many ways while paying their artist teachers a pittance. One good artist friend who is a brilliant teacher and portrait artist was paid just above minimum wage for years and years, he has 3 kids - the studio arts museum head said we were all lucky to get a raise at $1.00 per hour when we complained about the pay. We all protested when, 2 years ago, the “new” policy was that they no longer would pay us for snow days yet the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston did not refund the students this money. Terribly unfair. This caused an outrage in our ranks. We were powerless there and I left. Because it’s the MFA Boston many artist teachers “justify” being there since it’s brilliant to have the enormous opportunity to teach using their collection but honestly the studio arts program is a huge disgrace. Glad to tell the world about this.
43
I know people who work at the Broad in LA making less than $13 an hour. The Broads, multi -millionaires could pay their workers more but choose not to. Many people who work low end jobs at museums are artists with masters degrees. There’s really big money in the art world, but not enough morality to pay museum workers a living wage. Unionizing is the right way to go. I hope soon enough many of these workers will have a union to protect them.
30
SLD I hear you loud and clear. This is exactly what the Museum of Fine Arts Boston does. The head of our studio arts program told us that if we didn’t like the pay we could go. We were powerless but I do think creating a union is the only way up. Many friend artist teachers there are working 3 jobs to stay afloat and are exhausted- it’s time the public knows about these practices.
14
I’ve several graduate degrees in the arts.... and when I do get work for a client and tell them my fee, they often balk. My work is the result of years of experience and training, and is all done by hand.
I am still charging much less than you would pay a plumber. What we are asking for is proper respect for our work and abilities and a wage which reflects that.
28
I was fortunate enough to work in membership at MoMA throughout my 20's. I always knew I was never going to make a ton of money there and that it was a very specific time in my life. I scraped by and lived cheaply (crazy cheaply) because I was learning so much from the senior leadership who were deeply supportive of staff who were willing to work hard and innovate in whatever they did. I learned more at MoMA than I did in college and graduate school combined. Of course people need to be paid a living wage, but working in a place like MoMA is a privilege. And it was an experience that has allowed me to professionally flourish since leaving.
7
@Courtney As long as there are enough people who think it’s a privilege to accept low pay to work in a museum, the museum is happy to continue paying low
46
Yes, for sure, and that is how unconnected people like I was can get their foot in the door and the opportunity to prove themselves. The experience opened doors to me I would have never had opened. I'm glad I knew how to put the work into context, budget like crazy, and make it work to build a life.
5
"“I came back to the Guggenheim after 17 years,” Ms. Dyer said, “and found my salary to be about the same.”"
have to wonder how many people applied for that position over the years. if you have a lot people applying for a low paying job then that is the market price for the position. if you don't get any applicants or the applicants are unqualified then you raise the starting salary.
also I saw know where in the article a description of the art handlers job beyond a few words about hanging art. would be helpful if a job description had been supplied
5
I worked as a senior curator for 32 years at a city museum in San Francisco
The Director at the museum was also a “ city worker “and received a “ city “ salary.
However , the trustees quietly “ supplimanted “ their salary hundreds of thousands of dollars but myself and the other curators and professionals never got so much as a Starbucks gift card from the trustees as a “ supplimant “.
It’s not that I begrudge the directors salary but the fact that after the trustees highly reward the Director , they then pull up the plank and blithely sail away from the rest of the staff.
Trustees dreamily view the rest of the staff as doing their job for the pure “ love of art “ and possibly have some delusion that they support themselves on trust funds .
It is a blantantly unequal system that must change.
If every museum is so equitable, then they should be happy to open their books and publish the true salaries of all their employees .
The resulting figures would be shocking how poorly highly skilled ,experienced professionals are compensated in the museums of America
32
“These are liberal, progressive people,” said Howard Z. Robbins, a partner at the prominent law firm Proskauer Rose, who represents the Museum of Modern Art, the Tenement Museum, the New Museum and others. “It’s bizarre they are being demonized as if they’re Henry Clay Frick.”
I guess Mr. Robbins thinks its OK for museum directors to enjoy the benefits of huge salary disparities between themselves as the staffs they lead, so long as the espouse the right values over cocktails.
Sorry, but as a "liberal, progressive" myself, I gotta say its EXACTLY this sort of attitude that contributes toward the gulf between liberal progressives and the working class voters who should be their natural allies but who instead gravitate to charlatans like Trump!
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@Don Carleton
Very true. The skilled craftsmen and laborers in the art world are very poorly compensated comparatively to those who claim the name and take the credit.
12
Has anyone ever heard of the law of supply and demand? Who is forcing MAs to take these jobs? The reasons the salaries are low must be related to the abundance of people who are willing to work in a desirable sector. I don't think a union is going to fundamentally alter that situation.
All this hand-wringing about directors' salaries also seems misplaced. Very talented and successful directors like Adam Weinberg or Lisa Phillips or Richard Armstrong are still making a fraction of what very average corporate lawyers and finance professionals in New York make. The directors are shouldering much more stress and responsibility than any curator or art-handler.
So spare me the outrage and let's get real.
11
@EN
Yes, let's get real. If the law of supply and demand requires that the vast majority of the museum staff accept pitifully low salaries for the right to work in a desirable sector, why isn't that also the case for the directors? Although I am a member of several NYC museums, I have never joined because I was wowed by the star power at the top. It is the curators, art handlers, visitor service people and membership teams that have found ways to connect me to the institutions and have inspired me to support them to the best of my ability. As for your suggestion that a union may not fundamentally alter the wage inequality, I disagree. Following the efforts at New Museum and BAM in publications such as artnet.com, artnews.com and artforum.com, I was impressed with the comraderie and genuine care for the institutional missions expressed by the organizers. You want real? Fair is fair, right is right, like it or not change is coming to the art world. If Adam Weinberg, Lisa Phillips and Richard Armstrong are as talented as you believe them to be, they will be instrumental in the transformation.
28
@Maura
The fact is there is a shortage of effective directors at museums. They are expected to set the tone of the institution, serve as the public face, raise the money, establish the vision, inspire the Board, and manage the budgets and the people. Given these expectations they are able to command top salaries. They also burnout or catch the blame if anything goes wrong. You can follow the high turnover rate in the art press. The Directors of major institutions like the Met, the Walker, or MOCA were forced out once the Trustees grew disaffected with their performance. There is not a shortage of talented museum educators and smart curators. In fact graduate schools are flooding the market with them every year. Similarly IT professionals and Development officers are relatively well compensated because there is a very high demand for their skills. You don't have to like it but that is how the labor market operates. Maybe the unions will help the some of the hourly workers with wages and benefits but they will not magically impart them with new highly desirable skills.
7
there is some truth in the idea that these folks are lucky to have the jobs they do. it is true that a great many people would happily take their place. from that it does not follow that they should make do on a starvation wage (ie anything under 60k in NYC). if these orgs start paying people like they don't have trust funds, then maybe they'll start receiving applications from people who actually don't. if that's not their goal then they have no business running an arts org.
21
@AJK
Isn’t that the general attitude toward the laborers of the world ? “ they are lucky to have this job” . Isn’t this the problem of the world and the vast disparities and quality of life is the result.
13
I don't have much hope that an equitable, much less liberal or progressive settlement will be reached if the museum lawyer equates skilled workers asking for a living wage and safe working conditions with anarchists who used violence.
19
what about Christies and Sotheby's, which require new applicants to pay for and attend their own company sponsored "graduate schools" before even applying for the most low level jobs, most of which pay equal to the museums? Thousands of dollars for years long programs that neither promise a job at the auction house nor have any value anywhere else. Like many other commenters, I went to school with the dream of working in the arts in New York, just to learn that its mostly just a day camp for the uber-riche. Architecture, I found, is *slightly* more respectful of its administrators.
33
Could somebody honestly tell me what would our lives be like without the arts? Personally I believe it would be without joy, emotions and beauty. I appreciate artists and the workers who find the balance to share their works with us. Please support the arts and it's employees.
22
I worked at the Art Gallery of Ontario during a gap year from my art history degree back in the '80's. Rather than firing up my enthusiasm for my projected career, the year made me realize that I did not want to put in the effort to get a master's degree in a field that would never allow me to financially support myself. Obviously nothing has changed in the ensuing thirty years.
21
Fantastic work by the powerhouse union Local 2110 of the UAW and its members!
18
Very happy this is happening but as an ex BAM worker, why no comment from them? I'm elated they finally have a union that can call attention to atrocious salaries and sub-par working conditions.
10
Perhaps we can start putting every job title in the museum up for sale, since those named positions are always the highest paid... “The Bill and Melinda Gates Visitor Services Assistants” or “The Warren Kanders Security Guards”
22
@DJ You have a clear future in Development!
9
Paula Wallace, the President of Savannah College of Art and Design makes $19.5 Million in annual salary. She is the highest paid university president in the US, exceeding Ivy League presidents. It sickens me that she enriches herself (wardrobe budgets, hobnobbing with celebrities, global travel, etc) at the expense of vulnerable students who take out loans they cannot pay back only to obtain low paying jobs in the art world if they are lucky.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ajc.com/news/special-reports/how-scad-sells-dream/VVfRSVilHliyrTe9LAd5hN/amp.html
28
@FilmFan - Thank you for this link! It's a long article, but especially relevant to me, a parent helping her brilliant, prolific, and accomplished daughter apply to MFA programs in Illustration & Design. We had actually never heard of SCAD, but we will be sure to avoid it like the plague now. Buyer (and students) Beware!
4
@FilmFan When the (metaphorical) tumbrils start rolling, let's hope folks like her are at the head of the line....
1
@FilmFan
I applied for a job there but read they treat their professors badly.
1
None of these jobs are productive for society. Get a real career, losers.
3
@asdfj Oh, unlike all the folks out there selling unnecessary and overpriced financial products?
Or contributing to the administrative bloat of the healthcare sector?
32
alienate donors, ask for more money, whatz's wrong with this picture, nothing if you're a cultural warrior
3
"These are liberal, progressive people!"
What an interesting comment from the lawyer for a couple of these museums. He makes it sound as though liberal, progressive people are by definition above the possibility of putting the screws to their employees. That's obviously not the case. He needs to come up with a better argument than that!
35
@Bob Right? That left such a sour taste in my mouth. Ask any museum employee how "liberal" his or her boss is in terms of salary, benefits, and flexible hours. You could hear the laughter from space, I'd wager.
12
@Bob G Amen, brother, I just posted a comment saying the same thing much less succinctly! That Robbins guy comes across as oblivious, to say the least...
5
@Bob G
If Howard Robbins wants to know how a true progressive acts and thinks, he should read Bernie Sanders 6/11/19 tweet. He began “All workers benefit
when the union movement grows” and went on to offer specific support to the BAM workers in their upcoming election. Considering that Mr Robbins thought that assembling a few flip inaccuracies was enough preparation for an interview with The New York Times, I can only imagine the level of frustration anyone trying to negotiate any substantive matter with him must feel.
8
Loosely quoting from Vonnegut: "Art was invented by the rich to make the poor think they are stupid." Their lackeys deserve what they get.
6
@Harris Samuels I just hope that's not an accurate quote from Vonnegut, because that's one of the stupidist things I've heard about art's role in our lives!
9
Vonnegut, an artist, actually said this: “Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake.”
11
@Harris Samuels
Yup. Poor people don’t make art.
2
The place to start is the museum heads making 700,000- 1,000,000 per year. That is outrageous.
Cut those salaries and pay the workers fairly.
My cousin got a PH d in some sort of art from a ' no name school' and could only get an adjunct job at a crappy college in NJ teaching art. She speaks multiple languages, has international internships in museums so she is now in law school so she can earn a living
18
@stan Just what the world needs, another lawyer when we're desperate for people who can mediate intelligently among different languages and cultures...I hope your cousin ultimately puts her talents to full use!
5
In my lengthy first-hand experience, most of the people at lower levels in almost any cultural "support" positions are paid coolie wages no matter how excellent their educational credentials.
13
I was a museum educator with a master's degree working at an NYC museum, and loved my job. But after I became a single parent in the 'bubs, there was no way I could afford to commute to the city and work in the same position. One of my grad school friends said our school (one of the few programs where you can get a master's in museum ed.) should have been up front with us- that we wouldn't be able to support ourselves in this career. Over the years, I've looked into getting back into the field, but NJ museums pay even less than NYC museums, and education departments have moved away from full-time educators. To me, it's another example of salaries reflecting what is really important in our society, and it ain't the arts or education. I'm hoping this new internal initiative will turn that tide.
32
@MEL
I completely agree that graduate programs preparing people for non-existent or very low paying jobs are operating in an unethical manner. Do the students have a responsibility to investigate the job market before they go to school? Maybe.
12
@EN Yes, but the schools training students for (practically) nonexistent careers need to be brought to account as well. And that includes the Ivy League, not just "diploma mills."
7
@Don Carleton
The art departments don’t like you telling your students this. No not at all. I have taught art students. I tell them no one cares so they have to care or quit. This reduces their student retention and is not good for business. Let’s get real. The college system is also one that benefits from this system. People have to keep their teaching jobs after all. Art in Academia is a bubble world.
5
I ultimately left my museum job for this reason. I could not afford to pay my student loans - which got me the degree, which got me the job - and afford to, you know, eat. The museum I worked at did this really cute thing in telling us all that staff making below $50,000 would receive a higher % annual raise than those making between $50,000 and $100,000, who would receive a max % annual raise higher than those making above $100,000. Then my boss's annual pay increase notice ended up in my inbox... she received nearly twice the % raise the museum said she would be eligible while I received less than the max % even though I received the highest score possible on my annual review (my boss showed up late often enough that I noticed, left early a frustratingly amount of the time, took 2 1/2 hour lunch breaks leaving me unable to take a lunch break some days - even though I was not paid for 1 hour in the middle of the day when I was supposed to be on lunch, she really didn't deserve the $124,000 annual pay when I was making $43,000). I started asking my peers with similar workloads how much they made, they made between $15K and $25K more a year than I did. It all felt very advantageous, as though the museum could have paid me a living wage had they wanted to but instead they chose to take advantage of me, I didn't do them the favor of two weeks. And yes, I contributed to the spreadsheet a month or so ago.
37
@Caitlin Good for you for speaking up. I hope you're supervisor gets what's coming to her...
4
Why do the top executives/directors of non-profit, donation-supported entities make huge salaries (~ million dollars)? I am always conflicted about my support because, be it libraries, universities, museums or public radio, the heads of those NYC institutions make about a million dollars a year, plus benefits, salaries that are great even by private sector standards. But there’s a huge pay gap between that small top tier and the rest of the staff. The excuse is that by working for a non-profit you’re doing good, significant, culturally vital work (true), so you can’t expect to make what you’d make in the private sector. Let’s apply that standard to the top tier managers, too, and equalize the pay scale.
40
@Cintia Amen to that! In my opinion, the best museum-director types out there won't all leave just because they're not being paid like corporate fat cats. The best ones are there because of their passion for the field.
I'll bet even the Met could hire a very good leader for a few hundred thousand a year versus the million+ I believe they're paying...
16
“... while wealthy donors are generally happy to contribute to construction projects — often drawn by naming opportunities — they are far less excited about subsidizing unsexy operating expenses, like salaries and benefits.” :
The fundraisers should incorporate an operating fund endowment into funds raised for construction and other “sexy” projects and programs. It would acknowledge that the museum is people, not merely hardware and artifacts — that the facility is being operated by people, and that such upkeep must be viewed as an integral part of the project.
19
@Michael N. Alexander But then you don't get the fancy parties, and social media coverage for the wealthy donors...
3
@Michael N. Alexander The best-run museums do foreground endowment building, but the salary disparities are still there...
3
As a specialist in the field I can say the issue of pay is entangled with the issue of higher-ed. Many of these jobs require at least an MA, with a PhD preferred. For most, this means years of additional schooling, internships, fellowships, post-graduate fellowships, and debt, all of which are highly competitive and with no promise of employment at the end of it. Even with a fully funded MA (rare) or PhD program, you find yourself financially years behind your peers once/if you finally do land full-time employment in a museum. This slog coupled with years of financial uncertainty definitely contributes to a willingness to accept lower-paid positions.
61
This isn't just endemic to the art museum world, its all museums. My younger brother recently had to turn down a job at a museum, long his dream, because the pay was $9.00 an hour. Nine dollars an hour with a college degree and staff management responsibilities.
74
If museums can't afford to pay their staff properly, they shouldn't seek to continually expand. I understand that donors want names on new walls and lobbies but that isn't the purpose of a museum.
72
The thing that gets me, as a former nonprofit fundraiser, is donors who aren’t willing to fund operating expenses, only capital efforts. We need to champion donors who fund where funding is needed. Have events honoring them, plaques on conference rooms acknowledging funding of staff, direct service clients, or simply keeping the lights on. Stroke egos of the people facilitating a mission in quotidian, critical ways.
91
“In reality, while wealthy donors are generally happy to contribute to construction projects — often drawn by naming opportunities — they are far less excited about subsidizing unsexy operating expenses, like salaries and benefits.”
If this indeed the fact, I would suggest museums attempt to set up that any construction donation (with naming opportunities) must be tied to part of that donation going toward operating expenses.
82
Perhaps Damien Hirst could donate a sliced up shark or two, to help raise money for museum staff. The modern art version of a bake sale.
21
keep the arts privileged and maintain wealth as a barrier to entry, or pay people living wages. there are no other choices.
18
@No name-Every big city I have ever visited has museums, symphony and opera companies, and theaters that offer discounted tickets, or even free visiting days, summer-in-the-park events open to all, and many other events and programs for those with lower incomes. No museum or arts program wants income to be a barrier to entry--attracting visitors is part of their mission and why they exist. Anyone can find out the free days or low-cost performances by simply calling the organization and asking.
14
@Ms. Pea - I suspect that No name wasn't referring to the cost of visitation (which has its own complexities), but the cost of getting into and working in the field, which requires significant financial investment. The cost of education and unpaid internships erects significant barriers to entry for those who cannot afford to work for little or no money for years or accrue major debts that they will not be able to easily pay off on low salaries that stagnate for years. This has huge repercussions for the diversity of the field, which means that museums can never fully or appropriately meet their public service ambitions.
11
Long a problem, so good that it’s being addressed.
20
So glad to see museum employees recognizing the benefit of unions. If only more workers did. Too many workers depend on the munificence of their employers--to the workers' detriment. Assuming big-daddy corporation will reward dedication and experience has led many a worker to the unemployment line. Begging for a living wage should not be necessary. Strength in numbers.
49
I worked at the Philadelphia museum of art for 10.00 an hour as a conservation technician in the 1990’s. The pay stayed the same for years. It may be more now but not much more.
The arts is just as unfair and exploits people as any other field, probably more so because so many artists need employment and will do more for less.
I would like to see an article that highlights what people do behind the scenes at museums, in studios and all of the labor that goes into it. Many artist assistants are making most of the work of the artist- for many many artists: this should be exposed.
In the end one sees the age old difference of the classes. The laborer and the overseer.
67
Love this. It’s about time. I am a former art museum worker who left my profession years ago and one of the reasons was the abysmal pay. Many museum/library/archive professionals have multiple degrees as well as vast reserves of talent and knowledge. Their compensation should reflect it.
107
@ActOnClimateCrisisNow Maybe I'm a little callous, but if people want better pay perhaps they should put those vast reserves of talent towards an engineering degree.
8
@Mac
If everyone in the world was an engineer it might be pretty dull. Engineers are tethered to profit-making -- so they may earn more $$ (but also are frequently declared redundant and laid off). Museum professionals are the people who ensure that the inventions and innovations of engineers as well as artists, musicians, writers and scientists etc. etc. -- in other words all creative people -- are preserved and celebrated for future generations.
119
@Mac--I'm not interested in visiting an engineering firm, but I'm thrilled to visit museums in every city I visit. No thanks to your suggestion. More artists, please, and those who preserve and exhibit their work.
89
Having worked in this industry for many years, I'm happy to see this evolution. Art industry jobs are still jobs, and deserve fair and equitable pay, especially in one of the most expensive cities in the country. I think the holdover tropes about the art world still color how people are treated and paid- the cliche of the "starving artist" and all that rot. Yet, the art industry is a multi-billion dollar global industry that relies upon the types of workers profiled here to keep itself in operation.
Quite honestly, the cultural world could use a bit of a shakeup and realignment. Not only is it plagued with financial and salary inequities (the "market" itself is also nearly unregulated), but it relies upon exploitative and excluding practices like unpaid internships, which are a cinch for trust fund kids, but are unworkable for highly intelligent and talented people of a more normal background. I haven't even touched upon the psychological and emotional abuse present in the industry, which is rampant.
96
@Dominic
Say more. What kind of abuse? Are you referring also to the multi million dollar artists with factories of other artists making their work? The laborers whose name is not on the label at the museum yet whose hand made the piece? I have friends who have gone to shows of the artists they worked for and the entire show was made by their hand. This is where some light needs to shine.
44
@Dominic @Jones The museum industry straddles a number of difficult topics: the art market and the purported prestige/market value of "the artist's hand"(which @Jones' comment is really hitting), the class system (whether we acknowledge that we have one or not), and the racist roots of a Eurocentric institution that, rather inexplicably, is (or has been for a long time) seen as both neutral and authoritative.
I've worked in museums on three continents for two decades, and without being reductive I've felt more empowered while waitressing during college summers. At ALL levels you are toadying to donors (most of whom have vile taste but a lot of opinions, of course), planning exhibitions with an eye to pandering rather than exploring, and all the while this work is done shoulder to shoulder with (usually) the whitest crowd of people you've ever met - many of whom got their jobs after an unpaid internship, which various relatives supported either financially or with in lieu gifts like a place to stay.
It is depressing to do such work for management who 'earned' their jobs via nepotism - I know at least three people who had their jobs CREATED FOR THEM because a director simply liked them - and/or are more concerned with ensuring that donors are happy rather than staff.
If I have to discuss canapés for one more Jeff Koons show with the latest Becky of the Month, I may implode.
18
@Jones Agreed, absolutely!