A FEW MONTHS ago, I found myself in a familiar position: at a museum, taking selfies with an artwork, which, in my defense, was made of mirrored surfaces in the shape of Queen Elizabeth II’s face. The opportunity was too good to resist. There I was, snapping away, long coat and checkered socks coordinating with a print near me that read, “Empire buying begins at home.” That’s when I heard disgruntled murmurs.
I pretended to photograph more art, all the while inching closer to the source—museum security guards. I listened to them commiserate over their low pay and meager benefits compared to salaried employees, and the unfairness of hourly wages in the case of emergency museum closings. I completely agreed with them.
Since my introduction to art museums, it’s become increasingly clear that the values many tout (equity, multiculturalism, and inclusion, for example) are far too vulnerable to the wiles of capital, capital, and capital. Not only is there a problem with wage and benefit gaps, there’s an interesting breakdown of who works in museums and what positions they hold. I remember my first visit to the Art Institute of Chicago: I was an awed high school freshman racing down hallways with my friends, trying to complete an educational scavenger hunt. I did well, but that’s in part because my teachers didn’t ask me to find a person of color who wasn’t a security guard. Although conversations around race and class in the creative community have progressed since then, you’re still more likely to find people of color protecting art than curating it. Many museums try to diversify their workforce through internships and part-time jobs, but these positions depend on employees having external sources of income. Despite seemingly good intentions, the problem hasn’t disappeared, only disguised itself.
Case in point: Last spring, 90 employees at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum attempted to unionize. In an article documenting their struggle, published by Hyperallergic, Zachary Small wrote that wages have stagnated for decades, leading employees to take drastic action. In doing a bit of digging on the subject, I found a spreadsheet where employees of various cultural institutions worldwide entered their job titles and salaries. To say the results were grim would be an understatement.
It’s not that people shouldn’t protect art, or that working as a curator is the only position of value. The problem comes when we ignore the hundreds of people who make museums possible, refusing to value all of them as human beings, and keep taking selfies, pretending we can’t see the toll it takes.
Faith-Marie Zamblé is an artist, writer, and M.F.A. candidate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Yale School of Drama. This is her final "Curated" column (for now).
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