A scorching story published Thursday by Art News disclosed allegations of racism, sexism and intimidation against museum leadership. All but one of 27 employees who signed a 2019 letter to the board of trustees outlining these complaints have either resigned, been fired, or were laid off during the Covid-19 shutdown.
The story quotes multiple former employees on the culture at the museum — “chaotic, disorganized, and unstable” — and describes a series of gasp-worthy incidents of racist and sexist language and behaviors. The women were forced to scrub floors while the men got to set up exhibits, for example. Members of the facilities staff, (among the most racially diverse departments at the museum), were banned from the employee break room and asked to to take breaks in the boiler room.
After an investigation led by an outside law firm in response to the letter, the Akron Art Museum’s board of trustees elected to retain CEO Mark Masuoka, a decision that “rankled” the staff. Many of the workplace culture issues were thought to stem directly from him.
Employees said that their decision to pen a letter of complaint was prompted by Masuoka’s firing of the museum’s former education director, who had pushed for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion while at the institution. Three employees also told ARTnews that Masuoka used derogatory language in a meeting to describe the city’s black population, calling them “Summit Lake people,” a reference to a poor Akron neighborhood with a large African American community. According to the employees, Masuoka said that black visitors from Akron wouldn’t be able to access the mobile applications the museum developed because they used “throwaway gangster phones.”Many of the museum’s staff have now either been laid off or have had hours reduced in light of the pandemic. But the museum’s public and private messaging has not been aligned. Executives told the press that some of the 35 full-time employees would be furloughed or have hours reduced, but that everyone would receive full wages until May 1.
But several staff members received emails that very day saying they were effectively laid off and that their final paychecks would arrive on April 17. As of the story’s publication, the laid-off employees had not received their checks or had been underpaid for previous hours worked.
The full story is absolutely worth a read.
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This article appears in Apr 29 – May 5, 2020.
Did he lie? Didn’t use the N word.
Easy to imagine the ones who complained.
This article is so off base that it’s laudable.
Such a vague article. Since labeling someone as “racist” is enough to get someone fired these days, it’s going to take more than some cry babies crying foul to get me to believe it.
Until then IDGAF
Crazy business these days,,although things like this do happen, there are those that take advantage. What ya gonna do
We are in desparate times. Anybody can say anything and ruin a persons career and reputation. This article is totally false. It makes me wonder if people are falsely accusing the director because he is Asian in our current COVID19 climate.
I worked here for years as security, or as Mark called us, “the help.” If you weren’t ultra rich, he had no regard for you as a person. Behind the scenes, he was definitely racist towards the citizens of Akron, amd he wanted to change our customer base. He sexually harrassed multiple employees, but nobody wanted to say anything because we were bottom of the ladder, and management were getting fired when speaking up. You can assume he’s the victim here if tou really want to, but after working for him, I am very glad to see this finally happening. It doesn’t surprise me at all that the board sat on those allegations for over a year.