In support of the global movement towards equity and justice — as unionization movements proliferate around the world, and after a nationwide summer of unrest for Black lives and social justice — Curate LA looked to its hometown arts institutions to assess the power and influence at the very top of their operations.
UNMASK THE TOP is a report on the directive makeup of 12 Los Angeles organizations: The Broad, Craft Contemporary, J. Paul Getty Trust, Hammer Museum, Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Lucas Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), Norton Simon Museum, and REDCAT. In collaboration with the political research organization The Future Left, transparency, diversity, and accountability were investigated on the basis of information that is made public on the organizations’ respective websites.
In the first stage of our research, UNMASK THE TOP collected the race, sex, affiliations, and political contributions by their board members and trustees.
We have shared our findings below; we want more information to be made public about the decision-makers and senior staff in order to inform visitors about the experience, transaction, and often endorsement of a space through attendance or shared online content. At present, too few arts institutions achieve transparency, and diversifying a workforce is no longer sufficient to drive positive change at the systemic level of influence.
L.A.’s status as an international capital for art and culture is nothing without its thriving, cultural ecosystem.
Curate LA has documented the city’s positive trajectory towards recognition as an international capital for art and culture since 2014. We are invested in the vitality of L.A.’s cultural ecosystem at all levels, and we continue to be committed to further the diverse and economic development of our city, and best serve our artists, institutions, and community alike.
LOWEST TO HIGHEST IN DIVERSITY (BLACK/NONWHITE vs. WHITE):
10.2% (8:58) — LACMA
11.6% (2:15) — ICA LA
16.6% (2:10) — Norton Simon Museum
16.6% (7:35) — Hammer Museum
17.8% (7:32) — MOCA
22% (2:7) — Lucas Museum
23% (5:10) — J. Paul Getty Trust
100% — CAAM
Alongside The Future Left’s research, concerned with the lack of racial and gender representation at leadership levels within the industry at large — also available to read on Medium — we have drafted a letter of demands to the group of art institutions in the pursuit of transformative equity and inclusivity that could set the bar for existing and future organizations in our city and beyond.
GENDER REPRESENTATION:
LACMA: 11.5%F — 88.5%M
Huntington: 13.6%F — 86.4%M
Lucas Museum: 22.3%F — 77.7%M
Craft Contemporary: 28%F — 72%M
Norton Simon Museum: 33.3%F — 66.7%M
The Broad: 33.4%F — 66.6%M
ICA LA: 54.5%F — 45.5%M
CAAM: 50%F — 50%M
Hammer Museum: 50%F — 50%M
REDCAT: 50%F — 50%M
MOCA: 77.2%F — 22.8%M
J. Paul Getty Trust: 87.5%F — 12.5%M
DIRECTORS & CURATORS:
The Broad: WF (1)
CAAM: BM (1), BF (1)
Craft Contemporary: WF (1)
J. Paul Getty Trust: WF (1), WF (1), WM (1), WM (1)
Hammer Museum: WF (1), WF (1)
Huntington: WF (1), WF (1), WM(1)
ICALA: WF(1), BF (1)
Lucas Museum: BF (1), LatinaF (1)
MOCA: WM (1)
REDCAT: POCM (1)
LACMA: No public information.
Norton Simon Museum: No public information.
The letter to the 12 arts institutions is published below. Please consider joining us to make our demands heard: show your support and sign here. Download and share the infographics here.
To the directors and board members of The Broad, Craft Contemporary, J. Paul Getty Trust, Hammer Museum, Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Lucas Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), Norton Simon Museum, and REDCAT:
The Los Angeles arts community, and those who rely on it, is facing its most challenging time. Through this unprecedented uncertainty, it is the steps taken and actions going forward that will dictate the direction of L.A.’s cultural ecosystem in the critical months ahead: an ecosystem that our thriving creative community have collectively progressed to build upon over several years, earning recognition as an international capital for art and culture. As a platform that has documented this positive trajectory since 2014 - from its artists to its institutions - Curate LA continues to be committed to issues of accessibility and transparency to further the diverse, economic, and cultural development of our city. We have read about your support for Black Lives, racial justice, and gender equity, and we have observed your organizational pledges and pivots in your marketing campaigns. Artists, art workers, and citizens alike have increasingly challenged directives of art organizations around the globe. L.A. is rife with such challenges. The systemic root of equity begins with those who hold the power to make structural decisions, which is why we bring attention to your places of leadership, where we have not seen the changes that we want to see. We want your commitments and messages of solidarity to materialize at the very top of your operations.
Information about your senior leadership is opaque. It should not require an investigative team to gather intelligence about the decision-makers at our local organizations, yet that is what we have had to do. For Stage 1 of our campaign, Curate LA, in collaboration with the political research organization The Future Left, investigated the directive makeup of twelve organizations. Unmask The Top includes the race, sex, affiliations, and political contributions by your board members and trustees respectively, with the goal of informing the public about the names listed on your websites, who ultimately represent and inform our experience with each space, in person or virtually. Out of the twelve organizations featured in our report, eight met our accessibility and transparency requirements; of these eight, two account for over 20% of a racially diverse board (the J. Paul Getty Trust and Lucas Museum at approximately 23% and 22% respectively), and a majority representation of women board members are structured at only the J. Paul Getty Trust, ICA LA, and MOCA.
As the guiding forces of culture, we rely on you to be at the very forefront of accountability, transparency, and diversification. As our report shows, it is possible to actively operate in this way. The California African American Museum (CAAM) is the only organization whose senior leadership reflects diversity, inclusivity, and affiliations across the board, as well as prove gender equality at both board and senior staff levels. We are discouraged that few organizations come close to these expectations. Focusing on diversifying your workforce is no longer sufficient. The public, your audiences, and the L.A. arts community at large deserve to have more information about the individuals sitting on your boards; who is influencing the decisions that are made about who and what are supported by your institutions, and why; what transactions we are committing to when we visit and participate in your institutions; who we are endorsing when we share your content. As the global call for change has initiated a landscape in which we cannot go back to the way things were, you now have an opportunity to set new standards and be an example for the rest of the art community, and so we demand the following:
- Diversity, inclusivity, and equity be reflected across all levels of your organizations, especially at the leadership and board levels.
- Greater transparency by publishing detailed profiles about your board members publicly on your websites.
- Radical reevaluation by your Advancement divisions of the integrity of existing board members and to rethink and democratize the process by which prospective nominations are sought and elected.
- No relations with anyone who furthers discriminations with their contributions or political ties by way of private and public gifts and donations.
- Invest in the protection, wellbeing, and insurance of its staff and contractors, above the protection, wellbeing, and insurance of an artwork.
- Give workers and community leaders a seat at the table so their interests can be represented and their needs met.
This prioritization of creating a just space needs to extend through all levels of your workforce. Gender pay gaps, wage disparity, employment benefits, and healthcare are some issues outlined in the 2020 Los Angeles Artist Census that continue to affect workers in our ecosystem. The growing unionization movement at cultural institutions across the country shows that workers would like to see institutions become significantly more equitable and inclusive through collective organizing, rather than through exploitative, top-down decision making.
We make these demands along with our supporters in the pursuit of transformative equity and inclusivity that could set the bar for other institutions in our city and beyond.
Sincerely,
Curate LA & The Future Left
Co-signed in Support by:
Patrisse Cullors, Crenshaw Dairy Mart / Black Lives Matter Global Network
Shelley Holcomb, Artist / Curate LA Co-founder & CEO
Joshua Oduga, Independent Curator
Elizabeth Pickens
Ceci Moss, Gas Gallery
Adam Feldmeth, Southland Institute
Luke Fischbeck, Human Resources LA
Julie Weitz, Artist
Nina Sarnelle, Artist
Shana Lutker, Project X Foundation for Art and Criticism
Austyn Weiner, Artist
Angelica De Jesus
Cole Sternberg, Artist
Brooke Olsen, Artist
Jaklin Romine, Artist
Alima Lee, Artist
Farah Namvar, Curate LA
Alysia Alex
Lucy A Springs
Peter Wu+, EPOCH
Lizzy Joelson
Daniela Lieja Quintanar, LACE
Jennifer Moon, Artist
Amanda Vincelli, Navel Co-Founder
Julia Haft-Candell, Artist
Please consider joining Curate LA and The Future Left to make our demands heard: show your support and sign here. Thank you.
Credits:
Project led by Jonathan Velardi
Research by Farah Namvar
Graphics by Brooke Olsen
A very special thank you to Paige Emery, Matthew Donovan, Amanda Vincelli, and Olivia Leiter of The Future Left.
Contact: shelley@curate.la
Curate LA is Los Angeles’s most comprehensive art discovery platform. Our mission is to promote the economic and cultural development of L.A. by making its artistic ecosystem radically accessible to everyone. We deliver curated information on exhibitions, museums, programs, artist studios and galleries across the city and online. Connect with us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook + help us in our mission by becoming a supporting member here.
