Week 12: Labor
Museum ethics have been called into question over the years and the calls keep getting louder. Soon museums cannot remain quiet or have one person resign to keep the eyes off museum’s laundry list of wrongdoings. Not only can a museum’s ethics be called into question when they take sponsorship from major companies that are benefiting from the opioids crisis or the companies that have spilt over 200 millions of gallons of oil into the ocean. It calls attention to how museums are using the money major companies are giving them. Understandable museums will need financing to keep up conservation, curation, and paying wages of employees, but not when money is only going towards paying the top executives. Museums have failed their own standards.
The wrongdoings of the British Museum have made a Board Trustee remove himself from the museum completely when they refused to listen to his concerns. Ahdaf Soueif wrote in “On Resigning from the British Museum’s Board of Trustees” and explains he left because the museum is ignoring the issues that affects the “young and the less privilege.” 1 Soueif address climate change that is affecting everyone on the planet but has a high stress on the youth of the world since their existence is in question because of the poor quality of the earth. “In 2016, I [Ahdaf Soueif] raised the issue of BP’s [British Petroleum] very high-profile sponsorship of public exhibitions with the museum’s board, the chair of trustees and the director.” 2 The British Museum has many donations and sponsorship where they do not have to take money from companies that do not back what the museum stands for. And for that reason, the British Museum has jeopardized their work focus that follows their morals but has exposed themselves for not care about people.
The issue is it not just the British Museum that has a problem of failing their workers. In “After SFMOMA Cuts Salaries by 20%, Employees Call Out Major Loans Granted to Executives” proves that “lower” workers are expendable in the eyes of the higher executives. “The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art granted $1.3 million in home loans to staff in leadership positions.” So the museum has allowed some of its staff members to purchase homes or even build their own homes on the museum’s dime. And it does not help when the board is not made up of art workers but with Charles Schwab Bank. Museums are to provide a service for the community, and it can not be done with worker at all levels. Instead, the museums have allowed their employees to miss rent or meals by cutting their salaries during a global pandemic.
Lefebvre, Sam. “After SFMOMA Cuts Salaries by 20%, Employees Call Out Major Loans Granted to Executives.” Hyperallergic, November 5, 2020. https://hyperallergic.com/586107/sfmoma-cuts-salaries-by-20-employees-call-out-home-loans/.
1.) Soueif, Ahdaf. “On Resigning from the British Museum's Board of Trustees ,” July 15, 2019. https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/july/on-resigning-from-the-british-museum-s-board-of-trustees.
Hi Rachel, these articles bring up some very interesting points about corruption in museums. It is disappointing to see that so many large museums have mishandled their money or accepted donations from questionable sources. It is also disappointing to see that so many people have decided to resign from museum jobs because the museums refused to make changes. Do you think that museums should refuse to take donations from corporations that go against their values?
ReplyDeleteRachel,
ReplyDeleteThese are some heavy hitting articles. The first article is important because it is a big deal for someone high up in a company to step away and call them out. It is one thing for the public to accuse a museum of ignoring important issues, but it makes a bigger impact when someone from the inside leaves and says the same thing. It's important that some people are taking a stance against this.
Hi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your blog post drawing attention to how big museums use their money and where much of it comes from. I knew that BP was a big contributors to the British Museum (along with other big companies), I think when that big oil rig spill happened in Gulf of Mexico it came up in the news with it. I am glad that there are people trying to stand up against that sort of influence in the museum. I had no idea that museums like the SFMOMA were LOANING money for houses for their executives! While they're cutting or under paying their lower positions! That is a board that is out of touch with their staff and probably their community of visitors as well.