Art Institute of Chicago staffers push to unionize and MOCA Cleveland reveals new board
The recent round of cuts at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has been blasted by arts professionals – the institution announced last month that it was axing its online magazine, film programming, podcast and offsite gallery. SFMOMA called the cuts – which will lead to seven layoffs – a ‘strategic refresh’. But a recent public board meeting saw attendees slam the decision as ‘shameful’ and an ‘insult to art’. Critics of the museum say that the cut programmes were amongst the institution’s most diverse and accessible ventures.
Meanwhile staffers at the Art Institute of Chicago are pushing to unionize. An open letter signed by 60 employees at the museum alleged a current ‘system of hierarchy and opaque decision-making that undermines its stated goals and values’, citing layoffs and furloughs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘We urge senior leadership to honour our legal right to organize a union without facing intimidation or coercion,’ they write.
And the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, has unveiled a new board headed up by copresidents Audra T. Jones, Joanne R. Cohen, and Stephen Sokany. MoCA Cleveland was accused of censorship last year following the cancellation of artist Shaun Leonardo’s show The Breath of Empty Space portraying white police violence. Director Jill Snyder soon resigned her position days later. Jones, the board’s first African-American copresident, said of the new leadership: ‘It allows for equitable conversation, decision-making, listening, and a diversity of perspectives that are unprecedented in MoCA’s history. A refreshed board leadership structure allows MoCA to move forward with a unique and bolder lens centred fully on artists, audiences, and equity.’
