Labor Unions and Museums: We Need to Have This Conversation! (2)
What does the wave of successful organizing efforts mean and how will it change the field? Deborah Schwartz and a panel of three colleagues will talk about the harsh realities of organizing in the face of anti-union leadership, how a campaign succeeded, and what it means to put a union in place. The session will entertain questions and talk openly about the aggressive anti-labor sentiment that most museum directors and trustees espouse and why unions in museums pave the way for a more transparent, equitable and stable institutional culture.
Deborah Schwartz (Moderator) is an independent museum consultant. From 2006 to 2020 she was President of Brooklyn Historical Society, and in 2020, she successfully led the effort to merge BHS with the Brooklyn Public Library. Schwartz was Deputy Director for Education at the Museum of Modern Art from 2002 to 2006, and before that, Vice Director for Education and Program Development at the Brooklyn Museum. She began her museum career as an educator and member of AFSCME DC37, NYC's largest municipal employee union.
Amanda Bock (she/her) is a curator of photography at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. At PMA, she is co-curator of this spring's retrospective exhibition of the photographer Judith Joy Ross and is organizing an upcoming exhibition and publication about Dorothy Norman (1905-1997), a Philadelphia-born photographer, writer, and political activist whose work has been long overlooked. With the Philadelphia Museum of Art Union, she is currently the co-lead shop steward, and serves as a delegate to AFSCME DC 47. Previously she served as a member of the table team negotiating the union's first contract and as a strike captain during last fall's three week long strike. She lives in North Philadelphia with her partner, three orange cats, and a terrier. Twitter: @ amandabock
Sheila Brommel has been the Evaluation Specialist at the Minnesota Historical Society for nearly 12 years. She is a member at large on the Executive Board of the MNHS Union, AFSCME Local 3173, as well representative on its Escalations Committee and Organizing Committee. She earned her Ph.D in Social Work, with a focus on Program Evaluation from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2006. She has taught program evaluation and research at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN.
Martina Tanga is a Delegate for the MFA Union with Local 2110. She is a curator, art historian, and educator, working in the Boston area since 2006. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture from Boston University and her Master's and Bachelors's in Art History from the University College London in the UK. Currently, she is the Curatorial Research and Interpretation Associate in the Art of the Americas department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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