Workers 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 just some 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 near completion of the new home for our permanent collection, ensuring the stability of our staff is equally crucial to LACMA’s future. Many employees are struggling with wages that have not kept up with the rising cost of living in the sixth-most expensive city in the world,” employees wrote in a letter addressed to the museum’s government crew and the board of trustees. “At the same time, employees in virtually every department continue to absorb expanded responsibilities and workloads, often without additional compensation, due to high turnover, limited resources, and positions that have been vacated or frozen.”
The union requested the executives and trustees to voluntarily acknowledge LACMA United by Nov. 5.
LACMA didn’t reply to a request for remark from The Instances.
Along with elevated compensation, the union is asking for expanded advantages and extra institutional transparency with regards to protocols and sources.
“We realized that there was a feeling among employees that we all very deeply care about the museum, we all very deeply care about the collection, about the art, and we would like that care also reflected towards the employees,” stated Aurora van Zoelen Cortés, a curatorial assistant within the up to date artwork division, in an interview.
Cortés famous that these issues will not be confined to LACMA. In what Cortés thought of a significant coincidence, a publication, “2025 Report on Workplace Equity and Organizational Culture in US Art 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 workplace culture remain entrenched across the field.”
The report additionally discovered that almost half of all respondents have regarded for an additional job, and greater than half have thought of leaving the sphere altogether. The highest three causes given have remained unchanged since 2023: low pay, burnout and a scarcity of development alternatives.
Among the many report’s different key findings: Greater than 1 / 4 of full-time employees don’t make a dwelling 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 to move that needle,” stated Cortés, including that LACMA workers have been impressed by different profitable unionization campaigns within the metropolis’s cultural sector in recent times, together with on the Museum of Modern 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 biggest museum within the Western United States, and it has spent greater than a decade working to fund and construct a brand new residence for its everlasting assortment, which consists of greater than 150,000 objects spanning 6,000 years of worldwide 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 in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the invention of fossils beneath the development website.
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 value “well 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 big present from the Pearlman Basis. It additionally just lately introduced the set up of “Split-Rocker,” a monumental topiary sculpture by the artist Jeff Koons, which can anchor the brand new constructing.
The unionizing workers are targeted 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.
“Building an environment around care is really important,” stated Cortés. “And we’re using that as our core value.”
