1
0 Alison Caplan loved the Akron Art Museum in Ohio, where she worked for almost 15 years. But after raising repeated concerns about the museum’s lack of implicit bias training, she was fired last year from her position as the director of education, she said, and asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
After Jen Alverson complained in a letter to management about the unfair treatment of women art handlers, she saw her hours reduced and was cut almost entirely out of exhibition installs. Around the same time, she claims, another manager trapped her at the security desk, asking about her workout routine and calling her “baby.” She complained twice to an administrator and says she was told not to speak about her experience with other employees.
And when executives announced layoffs last month due to the coronavirus pandemic, the museum’s collections manager and exhibitions registrar, Chrissy Marquardt, resigned after she was transitioned to part-time work and barred from completing most of her regular tasks. She also believed that the measures had unfairly targeted staff who had written a 2019 letter calling for the removal of the museum’s director and chief executive officer, Mark Masuoka.
Twenty-seven employees—roughly a third of all staff members—anonymously wrote the letter of complaint, which was addressed to the Akron Art Museum’s board of directors. Only one remains employed by the Ohio institution, now on a part-time basis; the others have either resigned, been fired, or were laid off by the museum during the Covid-19 shutdown.
“What we are seeing is severe mismanagement by leaders who are using the pandemic as a scapegoat,” said Alverson. “I’ve watched countless coworkers leave or be pushed out because of a lack of professional leadership.”
Responding to a request for comment, the museum denied having strayed from its planned approach to managing its shutdown, but the apparent contrast between the Akron Art Museum’s public and private messages concerning the fate of its staff has reignited allegations of mismanagement.
