Gwendolyn Fernandez and Hannah Heller

Introduction

Born from a “rogue session” at the American Alliance for Museums 2015 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, Museum Workers Speak (MWS) is a collective of activist museum workers interrogating the relationship between museums’ stated commitments to social value and their internal labor practices. Our membership is fluid, working from within and outside of institutions, and our activities are responsive to the needs of museum workers. MWS has always prioritized collaboration, working internally with a shared leadership model and externally through partnerships with other activist groups. We center the perspectives, voices, and needs of museum workers—the lifeforce of institutions—who facilitate vital connections between visitors, objects, and communities. In this article, we will share findings from the data analysis of applications to the 2024 iteration of the Museum Workers Relief Fund. We will also share snapshots of who these workers are, their hopes, lived realities, and visions for the future.

A Brief History of the Relief Fund

The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenging moment worldwide, and the experiences at US museums were no exception. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that over 51,000 jobs (or 29% of total jobs in the museum sector) were lost between March and July 2020 (see Figure 1).¹ Although cultural institutions received a total of $771 million in forgivable Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans, 228 of the biggest institutions laid off more than 14,000 workers—at least 28% of their combined workforce.² According to a fall 2020 study by the American Alliance of Museums and Wilkening Consulting, these cuts were felt the most by workers in front-facing roles like visitor services, admissions, retail, and education.³ Further, in their article examining the impacts of COVID-19 on art museum educators specifically, Krantz and Downey note the discordance of these cuts when the educational missions of museums are held up as part of their greater purpose.⁴

_{Figure 1}

Prior to COVID-19, museum workers were already in crisis, with many living paycheck to paycheck. The pandemic proved what we already knew and provided MWS’s oft-quoted slogan: the institutions we love do not love us back. Embracing the philosophies of community-based mutual aid and working in opposition to the capitalist tendencies of cultural organizations, MWS launched a relief fund for museum workers adversely affected by layoffs, furloughs, and cutbacks.⁵

From May 2020 through April 2022, MWS received over 1,500 applications for $500 payments.⁶ Every single donation came from another museum worker.⁷ In total, the Relief Fund has redistributed over $125,000 to workers representing nearly all museum departments and all types of museums. We asked potential applicants to self-select based on need in order to prioritize those who faced the most precarious financial situations, including front-line, janitorial, visitor services, security, retail, and cafe staff; part-time, temporary, and contract staff; freelancers; those living paycheck to paycheck; those who do not have generational wealth to lean on; interns; and caregivers. Recognizing that front-line and part-time workers were the hardest hit, some of the lottery rounds were designed to funnel funds to these applicants. Also considering the baked-in racial inequities of the museum sector, and in the midst of the national response to the murder of George Floyd, specific lotteries focused on payments to BIPOC museum workers.

Behind every payment made, there is a fundamental belief in radical trust, equity, and transparency. When we wrote about the Relief Fund in September 2020, we had over 850 individual donors and an average donation amount of $67. Guided by the principles of mutual aid, particularly as expressed by Big Door Brigade,⁸ we are committed to the “dignity and self-determination of people in need or crisis”: if you tell us you need, we believe you. With this model we aimed to center respect, self-determination, and mutuality.

2024 Museum Workers Relief Fund

As the acute phase of the pandemic began to wane in 2022, Relief Fund payments paused, but donations continued to trickle in. In summer 2024, MWS received notification that its fiscal sponsor, Open Collective, would sunset in September 2024. Without organizational capacity to find a new fiscal host or convert quickly enough to a 501(c)(3), MWS membership made the decision to spend the remaining $14,000 in a lottery dedicated to addressing debt relief. A public poll conducted on the MWS social media feeds determined this area of focus.

Applications for the 2024 Relief Fund opened on September 6, 2024. Within one week, MWS received 175 applications. In the next section, we share who these workers are by the numbers—their races and ethnicities, ages, genders, where they come from, where they work, how long they’ve been in the field, and what types of debt they carry.⁹


2024 Relief Fund Applicants: By the Numbers

Race and ethnicity: 58% of applicants are white; 23% identify as Latinx; and 17% identify as Black or African American.¹⁰

Age: 56% of applicants are between the ages of 25 and 34. The average age of applicants in September 2024 was 31. The age of applicants ranges from 19 to 65.

Gender: a majority of applicants identify on the female spectrum with 20% identifying as non-binary or agender.¹¹

Geographic distribution: applicants live in 28 different states and Puerto Rico, with concentrations in major metropolitan areas such as: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. They represent every US region: West (31%), Northeast (26%), Midwest (23%), and South (20%).¹²

Museum type and area of work: 54% work in art museums and 75% hold positions in either education, public programs, or visitor services.

Museum Type

Area of Museum Work

Experience: a majority of applicants are new to the field, with 55% reporting fewer than five years of experience, meaning most were likely hired in the recovery period after COVID-19.

Employment status: 48% report having full-time museum employment.

Types of debt: applicants self-disclosed their type of debt. 81% noted debt from cost of living (rent, bills, groceries, tax bills, etc.); 59% from student loans; 23% from medical bills; 9% from dependent/caregiver costs; and 8% from credit cards.

2024 Relief Fund Applicants: By the Stories

While the close-ended questions on the application tell us a lot about museum workers hardest hit by the cumulative effects of COVID-19 and precarious work conditions, they don’t tell the full story of who these workers are, the specific challenges they face, and what they think about the field. The rest of this article offers an analysis of the application’s open-ended questions: 

1. How are you feeling about museums right now?

2. What is your vision for the future of museum spaces? 

Remarkably, 90% of applicants wrote responses to these questions. Together, the answers to these questions tell a multifaceted story about the realities, hopes, and fears of those applying for funds. They demonstrate the deep love museum workers have for their institutions and particularly the communities they serve, despite challenging and often harmful work environments. They also collectively articulate a hopeful, human-centric vision for the future of museums. Below are our findings for each question followed by a discussion of the data as a whole.¹³

How are you feeling about museums right now? (n=160)

Responses to this question were almost equally split between critical or negative feelings and expressions of gratitude and hope, including a significant number expressing a combination of both.

36% of respondents felt positive about the future of museum work and ongoing efforts to change museums. Respondents expressed hope in unionization efforts, reiterated their belief in the good museums do, and the value of their work.

38% of respondents expressed mixed feelings, describing a tension between their love of the work and feeling disappointed in the ways that museums fall short of their ideals. Many noted unhealthy work environments.

16% of respondents described a tension between the harm they feel institutions cause and appreciation for their colleagues—typically immediate team members or others in similar positions—and/or positively mentioned specific aspects of their work.

39% of respondents indicated they felt that employment in museums is unsustainable, underpaid, and/or precarious. Respondents referred to low wages that don’t cover living expenses—particularly in high cost of living locations—as well as inequitable salaries with money concentrated at the top. They described “hustling” while working multiple jobs to make ends meet and barriers to entry or progressing in the field (e.g., expensive advanced degrees):

17% of respondents felt negatively about their museum’s leadership. They stated that they felt undervalued by their managers and that their expertise was often ignored, particularly front-line visitor services and education staff. They used words like “hostile,” “clueless,” and “anti-worker” to describe their bosses. A few felt “disposable,” and “like just a number” to higher-level staff.

10% of respondents called out their institutions as white supremacist and/or colonialist. They linked these characteristics to concerns about the future relevance of museums, and 5% specifically noted inequitable funding practices.

 What is your vision for the future of museum spaces? (n=154)

Museums for all

61% of respondents shared a vision of museums that tell meaningful, diverse stories. The word “welcoming” was used extensively to describe institutions where people of all backgrounds, abilities, classes, and beliefs can gather and learn.

Better places to work

37% of respondents described a future vision of equitable, transparent workplaces that employ a diverse staff who are compensated with living wages, receive appropriate job training, and seen as bringing value to the institution. These visions shared a desire for greater solidarity among workers, often championing an expansion of unions.

Third space for local community

18% of respondents included descriptions of museums that provide dynamic spaces and valuable services that are responsive to their specific community’s needs. This was different from the responses that described museums as accessible to all audiences, in that they emphasized physical museum spaces, and/or the idea of a “third space,” and how museums can directly benefit their local communities.

Discussion and Conclusion

When seeing all the responses together, one narrative rises to the top: 

Palpable throughout the data is a tension between a profound belief in the potential of museums and feeling regularly mistreated and disappointed by the realities of low-paying jobs, toxic work environments, and a failure to meet the ideals set forth in mission statements. If we made a word cloud of the data, the word “but” would be at the center. As one applicant put it, “I love [museums], but I often feel that they prey on people who are passionate about the arts and overwork and underpay them.” And another: “I love museums, but I worry I will burn out of this elitist environment.” Tellingly, it is important to note that only three, representing 2% of future visions shared, were entirely pessimistic or felt museums would maintain the status quo. Museum workers care deeply and want institutions to return that care to them and the visitors they serve.

However, museums continue to exploit their workers, assuming (correctly) that there will always be someone else willing to work long hours for little pay because of their passion for the job. The data shows us that many workers remain in the field despite mounting debt and burnout because of their deep care for the collections, their colleagues, and the communities they serve. They continue to hope that museums will achieve their ideals and live up to their commitments to DEAI. A few respondents noted that some workers can rely on family, partners, or other financial safety nets that allow them to remain in their jobs.

This faith will undoubtedly be tested as the field’s overall precarity and scarcity mindset persists long after the acute crisis of 2020–2021. A few examples rise to the top as of July 2025: SFMOMA announced a layoff of 8% of its workforce, including members of their union.¹⁴ The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art announced a 14% reduction in their staff, including significant losses to their public programs and education departments.¹⁵ The Guggenheim laid off 7% of their staff, affecting mostly front-facing departments, while protecting curatorial and senior staff salaries.¹⁶ The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco announced a 5% reduction in staffing.¹⁷ The Trump administration has also slashed major federal support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation, meaning that more cuts and layoffs are probably on the way.

We believe solidarity is the key to resisting capitalist structures and building institutions that care for people and not just collections. Thanks to the advocacy of unionized workers and other supporters, further staff cuts were avoided at the Brooklyn Museum after voluntary buy-outs of 27 staff and outright layoffs of five non-unionized staff in February 2025.¹⁸ A smaller but important trend in the data is the hope applicants continue to hold in the union movement overall. As one response put it: “without unions we are all vulnerable.” Over a quarter (28%) of applicants were either part of a union or organizing efforts at their institution, with several noting their desire to learn more about the topic. As Amanda Tobin Ripley has written, US museums are in the midst of a labor revolution.¹⁹ Nonprofit art museums alone have seen a 238% increase in labor organizing since 2019.²⁰ Despite this, museum workers still face an uphill battle to create the museums of our highest ideals.

We hope that MMF readers might see their own dreams and fears reflected here. Know that you are not alone in both your love for museums and grief about the ways they enact harm. We must continue to seek out ways to be in community and solidarity with each other. Watch out for each other; little and big gestures are what we all need right now. Buy a colleague a cup of coffee; compliment each other’s work; tell someone how much you value them. While we continue to fight for better wages and working conditions, we can hold each other up.

We also hope that those in positions of power will use their influence to advocate for the visions shared here. Create new models of collaborative, bottom-up leadership;²¹ challenge longstanding financial structures that benefit funders at the expense of local community interests;²² and educate yourself on the benefits of unions so you can liaise between workers and leadership.²³ 

And to those of us who need to protect ourselves and support our families, we hope you find the strength and courage to do what’s best for you—even if that means walking away from work you love and finding employment that better meets your needs.

The collective vision for the future of museums described in this article imagines community-centric spaces dedicated to serving the people who work for, learn from, and are represented by them. It is this enduring hope and belief in the positive impacts of museums that will keep the field alive despite all its uncertainty.

Acknowledgements

The authors and the entire collective of Museum Workers Speak activists are deeply grateful to these applicants for their honesty, vulnerability, and immense love for each other. And to every single person who has contributed to the Museum Workers Relief Fund, we thank you for trusting this collective with your hard-earned cash. We learned long ago that while institutions may not love us or have our backs, we can lean on one another for support and solidarity.

To view the full dataset of responses to the open-ended questions, please click here.

Endnotes

_{[1] “Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National),” US Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES7071200001?amp%253bdata_tool=XGtable&output_view=data&include_graphs=true}

_{[2] Cultural Institutions Cashed In, Workers Got Sold Out, AFSCME Cultural Workers United, https://afscmeatwork.org/system/files/afscme-cwu_accountability-report.pdf}

_{[3] National Snapshot of COVID-19 Impact on United States Museums, American Alliance of Museums and Wilkening Consulting, https://www.aam-us.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AAMCOVID-19SnapshotSurvey-1.pdf}

_{[4] Amanda Krantz and Stephanie Downey, “The Significant Loss of Museum Educators in 2020: A Data Story,” Journal of Museum Education 46, no. 4 (2021): 417–29.}

_{[5] Read more about the philosophy and structure of the Relief Fund here.}

_{[6] Because applicants could apply more than once, this number refers to the total number of applications received, not the total number of applicants.}

_{[7] While the Fund was supported by other museum activist organizations, the only institution that donated was the Intuit Art Museum.}

_{[8] “What is mutual aid?,” Big Door Brigade, https://bigdoorbrigade.com/what-is-mutual-aid/#:~:text=Long%2Dterm%20commitment%20to%20provide,making%20rather%20than%20majority%20rule.}

_{[9] Applicants were notified about this article and offered the opportunity to opt out of sharing their data for it.}

_{[10] Applicants could choose from the US Census categories for racial demographics, selecting as many categories as applied to them, and could write in any identities not listed.} 

_{[11] Applicants were able to write in their gender identity.}

_{[12] We recognize there are many ways to categorize the different US regions. We used the following geographic designations: West (Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico); Midwest (South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota); South (Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware); Northeast (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine).}

_{[13] The authors coded all the open-ended responses into categories by theme. Themes are presented in order of most- to least-frequently occurring. When describing the findings, we use qualitative data terms like “most” and “several,” or percentages and proportions where appropriate. Note that a single response may be coded for more than one category. Quotations from responses have been lightly edited.}

_{[14] Torey Akers, “SFMoMA lays off 29 employees amid $5m structural deficit,” The Art Newspaper, May 9, 2025, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/05/09/sfmoma-lays-off-29-employees-amid-financial-distress.}

_{[15] Jessica Gelt, “Lucas Museum layoffs hit 14% of its full-time staff, including education team,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2025, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-05-20/lucas-museum-narrative-art-layoffs-opening-sandra-jackson-dumont.}

_{[16] Benjamin Sutton, “Guggenheim Museum lays off 20 employees,” The Art Newspaper, February 28, 2025, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/02/28/guggenheim-museum-layoffs-20-employees.}

_{[17] Aidin Vaziri, “San Francisco’s top art museums announce layoffs as money and visitors dry up,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 19, 2025, https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/famsf-layoffs-budget-cuts-20776156.php.}

_{[18] Valentina Di Liscia, “After Pressure, City Saves Jobs at Brooklyn Museum,” Hyperallergic, July 1, 2025, https://hyperallergic.com/1024413/after-pressure-city-saves-jobs-at-brooklyn-museum/#:~:text=The%20Brooklyn%20Museum%20will%20not,Year%20budget%20yesterday%2C%20June%2030.}

_{[19] Amanda Tobin Ripley, “‘Men! Let’s Stick Together This Time’: A Review of Collective Action in US Art Museums, 1930s–Present,” Museum Worlds (forthcoming).}

_{[20] “Art Museum Unions Index,” Museums Moving Forward, https://museumsmovingforward.com/research/projects/union-organizing/spotlight-current-wave.}

_{[21] See the community-based reinterpretation of the Portland Museum of Art’s American collection: https://www.portlandmuseum.org/passages.}

_{[22] We continue to be inspired by the Yale union’s decision to transfer ownership of its buildings and land to a Native-led nonprofit: https://www.artforum.com/news/yale-union-art-center-cedes-property-rights-to-native-arts-and-cultures-foundation-248136/.}

_{[23] Here are a few resources to get you started: https://www.reprojobs.org/blog/ask-a-union-organizer-whats-the-upside-for-managers-of-unionized-staff; https://museumsmovingforward.com/research/projects/union-organizing}