This Image Strikes Deep Fear and is About to Explode!
by Gordy Grundy
On June 3, 2019, Hyperallergic broke a news story of a small, artistic exercise and ArtReportToday.com quickly promoted the combustible piece. Naturally, we headlined it: Trouble in the Lunchroom!
As arts journo Zachary Small wrote in his exemplary article,
"Transparency can be radical, especially in an industry as financially oblique as the art world. Last Friday, museum workers began contributing to a Google Spreadsheet documenting their place of employment, salary rates, and demographic details like race and gender. The data points offer crucial insight into the economic hierarchies inside some of the world’s most prestigious museums.
"Entitled “Art/Museum Salary Transparency,” the spreadsheet has attracted more than 660 submissions after it was published just three days ago. The public push for disclosure adds to an insurgent movement of artists and museum workers who wish to address the economic inequalities manifest in cultural institutions. Tensions have increased in recent years as museums embark on multimillion-dollar expansion projects, arts staff unionize across the country, and activists scrutinize the ethics of institutional funding."
[ArtReportToday recommends reading all of the above links and the article.]
Four days later, that little piece of kindling has ignited. Articles have appeared in ArtNews, Artsy, ArtForum, Non-Profit Quarterly and the list is growing.
The action highlights the difference between the function of private and public organizations—Your tax dollars at work! How much does Senator Snograss earn and what is he doing for me? How private or public is the Broad or the Getty?
You heard it here first! We believe this gamine query, a little arts project, may burn far beyond the art world and into non-profit and government, institution by institution.
The response will be deafeningly quiet.
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