Artnet and other news outlets have identified a rising trend: museum workers across the country are unionizing. These acts of organizing in the art world have been framed as a movement sweeping the nation, yet the complexities of unionization for professionals and institutions have remained opaque.
This panel discussion will examine the contemporary state of museum work that has given rise to organizing, broadening understanding of this pressing issue in the field and analyzing the benefits and drawbacks on individual, collective, and institutional levels.
Moderated by Julia Halperin, Executive Editor of artnet News, the panel will feature Kaitlyn Chandler, Video Editor and Motion Designer at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and Union Delegate for the BAM Union—Local 2110 UAW; Maria Marchenkova, Senior Assistant Editor at MoMA and Union Delegate for MoMA Union—Local 2110 UAW; Maida Rosenstein, President of UAW Local 2110; and Dana Lossia, Partner at Levy Ratner; who will share their distinct perspectives on the state of unionizing in the arts space.
Kaitlyn Chandler is Video Editor and Motion Designer at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).
Maria Marchenkova is Senior Assistant Editor at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Since 2017 she has been a steward for MoMA's Professional and Administrative Staff Association, of UAW Local 2110, which represents over 250 MoMA employees, including curators, designers, registrars, educators, librarians, editors, accountants, salespeople, and visitor assistants. Maria was on the (majority-female) bargaining committee during Local 2110’s most recent contract negotiations with the museum, in 2018. She holds a BA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Maida Rosenstein is President of Local 2110 UAW, a technical, office, and professional workers union that represents a wide variety of workers in universities, museums, cultural institutions, publishing, and non-profits. She came into the labor movement as a clerical worker employed by Columbia University, when she joined the Union Organizing Committee in 1983 to help form a union of the 1100 office support staff at the university. Maida realized then that it is mainly women workers, however educated and hard-working, who were earning less than male workers at the university. Since becoming a full-time organizer, she has organized many new workplaces, negotiated numerous contracts, and represented all sorts of workers in union grievance procedures. She received her B.A. in Art from Rutgers University.
Dana Lossia is Partner at Levy Ratner, P.C., a New York City law firm that specializes in representing labor unions and employees. Dana works with unions from their initial organizing drives, through collective bargaining, and in arbitration and litigation. She also represents plaintiffs in individual and class action litigation involving employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and violations of wage and hour laws, and she works with clients to negotiate favorable employment and separation agreements in various industries, including tech, finance, healthcare and the arts. Dana earned her law degree from Harvard Law School (’05) and a B.S. in Linguistics from Northwestern University (’01).
Julia Halperin is Executive Editor of Artnet News, where she oversees editorial operations for the world’s most widely read art news site and manages a staff of editors and writers in London, Berlin, and New York. She has managed the website’s ongoing coverage of unionization in museums and recently commissioned and edited Catherine Wagley’s November article entitled “Museum Workers Across the Country Are Unionizing. Here’s What’s Driving a Movement That’s Been Years in the Making.” Previously, Julia served as Museums Editor of The Art Newspaper, where she oversaw international coverage of museums and other major art institutions, and as News Editor of Art + Auction magazine. Her writing has appeared in WIRED magazine, the New York Observer, and New York Magazine. Halperin holds a B.A. in Art History and English Literature from Columbia University.