View the recording of Fair Pay in a Time of Crisis on YouTube.

COVID-19 has brought on many challenges for museum professionals including facing severe financial hardships over the last several months. Wage disparity has long been a major issue in the museum field and the pandemic has magnified this concern as countless museums face closures, furloughs, layoffs, and salary reductions. Join our panelists in discussing how to advocate for wage equity and transparency at your museum or cultural institution.

Lauren Girard is the Director of Visitor Experience for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, covering everything from hiring, training, and development of the visitor experience associates to creating access and inclusion initiatives. Prior to joining the Academy Museum, she opened The Broad museum in downtown Los Angeles, where she developed their acclaimed Visitor Services program. Her work has been featured in several publications, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and NPR, and she has consulted for institutions across the globe.

Cody Machado is a Labor Organizer, Youth Educator, and Teaching Artist at The New Children’s Museum in San Diego. His work across various organizations led him to recognize the ubiquity of many workplace issues. He soon realized that true equity in the workplace is achieved by giving workers a voice in how their jobs are done. This need for increased dialogue between staff and management pushed Cody and his co-workers to unionize. He currently serves on the Teaching Artist team in contract negotiations alongside the rest of the Volunteer Organizing Committee. They are close to an agreement with management and look forward to returning to work at The New Children’s Museum soon.

Nat Kramm is an overworked and underpaid frontline museum worker, community organizer, and artist in San Francisco. They created the Seize the Museums blog as a platform to explore, celebrate, and critique museums for all the good, bad, and the ugly. This project seeks to examine museums’ contradictory position as non-profit in a for-profit society, support cultural workers’ organizing efforts, criticize capitalism as a system, and envision a better, more equitable future for workers, museums, and the world.

Given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the museum field, we are offering this program free of charge to everyone, and asking participants to pay what they can. Cultural Connections is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit run by an all-volunteer board, and the funds earned through membership and program admission directly support professional development programs and resources for our colleagues throughout the Bay Area. Thank you for supporting Cultural Connections!