Staff on the Los Angeles County Museum of Artwork introduced Wednesday that they’re forming a union, LACMA United, representing greater than 300 employees from throughout all departments, together with curators, educators, visitor relations associates and others. The transfer comes simply six months earlier than the museum is scheduled to open its new $720-million David Geffen Galleries, and only a few days earlier than it holds its most high-profile occasion of the 12 months — the LACMA Artwork + Movie gala, co-hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio, and honoring artist Mary Corse and director Ryan Coogler.
“As we close to completion of the brand new dwelling for our everlasting assortment, making certain the steadiness of our workers is equally essential to LACMA’s future. Many workers are fighting wages that haven’t stored up with the rising value of residing within the sixth-most costly metropolis on the earth,” employees wrote in a letter addressed to the museum’s government staff and the board of trustees. “On the similar time, workers in nearly each division proceed to soak up expanded obligations and workloads, typically with out further compensation, because of excessive turnover, restricted sources, and positions which were vacated or frozen.”
The union requested the executives and trustees to voluntarily acknowledge LACMA United by Nov. 5.
“Museum management has acquired the letter from LACMA United,” responded Michael Govan, the museum’s CEO, in an e-mail. “We’re reviewing it rigorously and really a lot sit up for persevering with to assist our superb workers.”
Along with elevated compensation, the union is asking for expanded advantages and extra institutional transparency relating to protocols and sources.
“We realized that there was a sense amongst workers that all of us very deeply care concerning the museum, all of us very deeply care concerning the assortment, concerning the artwork, and we wish that care additionally mirrored in the direction of the workers,” mentioned Aurora van Zoelen Cortés, a curatorial assistant within the up to date artwork division, in an interview.
Cortés famous that these considerations usually are not confined to LACMA. In what Cortés thought of a significant coincidence, a publication, “2025 Report on Office Fairness and Organizational Tradition in US Artwork Museums,” created by the nonprofit trade group Museums Transferring Ahead, was additionally launched Wednesday. That report, which surveyed 3,100 workers respondents and 91 museums nationwide, discovered that “inequities in pay, promotions, and office tradition stay entrenched throughout the sector.”
The report additionally discovered that almost half of all respondents have appeared for an additional job, and greater than half have thought of leaving the sector altogether. The highest three causes given have remained unchanged since 2023: low pay, burnout and an absence of development alternatives.
Among the many report’s different key findings: Greater than 1 / 4 of full-time employees don’t make a residing wage — a quantity that rises to 69% for entry-level employees; the median annual revenue for full-time artwork museum employees is $65,000, with 26% of employees making lower than $50,000 yearly; and museum employees are predominantly white.
“Unionizing was, for us, the way in which to maneuver that needle,” mentioned Cortés, including that LACMA workers have been impressed by different profitable unionization campaigns within the metropolis’s cultural sector lately, together with on the Museum of Up to date Artwork, the Academy Museum of Movement Footage and Basis, and the Pure Historical past Museum of Los Angeles County and La Brea Tar Pits. All are a part of AFSCME Cultural Employees United District Council 36.
LACMA is the most important museum within the Western United States, and it has spent greater than a decade working to fund and construct a brand new dwelling for its everlasting assortment, which consists of greater than 150,000 objects spanning 6,000 years of world artwork historical past. The brand new Peter Zumthor-designed David Geffen Galleries took longer to construct than initially anticipated, with delays exacerbated by provide chain points through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the invention of fossils beneath the development web site.
The brand new constructing is now anticipated to make a splashy opening in April, and LACMA has currently introduced a spate of thrilling and high-profile acquisitions together with greater than 100 works of Austrian Expressionism price “nicely over” $60 million, gifted by the household of artwork vendor Otto Kallir; and its first work by Vincent van Gogh and Édouard Manet, as half of a giant present from the Pearlman Basis. It additionally not too long ago introduced the set up of “Break up-Rocker,” a monumental topiary sculpture by the artist Jeff Koons, which can anchor the brand new constructing.
The unionizing workers are centered on asking LACMA to match its lofty objectives for the gathering and the brand new constructing with a dedication to elevating working situations for the workers that makes it run.
“Constructing an setting round care is absolutely essential,” mentioned Cortés. “And we’re utilizing that as our core worth.”
