For Love or Money

Foreword
Melody Kanschat
Executive Director, Getty Leadership Institute, Claremont, CA

Introduction
Dawn E Salerno, Mark S Gold and Kristina L Durocher

1. THE STATE OF MUSEUM SALARIES
Museum Pay: The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same?
Steven Miller, Executive Director Emeritus, Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ

Setting Salaries: A Perspective on Practice 
Purvi Patwari, Principal, Segovia HR Solutions, Arlington, MA

How To Enhance Your Value 
Micah Styles (Founder and Director) and Ian Duckworth (Associate Director of Research), Barker Langham Recruitment

Counter-Intuitions for Museum Compensation
John Wetenhall, Director, The George Washington University Museum & The Textile Museum, Washington, DC

Tough Love: Museum Salaries and the Working Class
Mathew Britten, Museum Manager, Bury Transport Museum and
Kerry Grist, Collections Assistant, Science Museum Group, London.

Service or Servitude? Wage Policies of Mexican Public Museums
Amelia Taracena, Art Historian and Museologist, Mexico City

2. CAUSES AND EFFECTS
Passion as Pay: The Widespread Effects of Staff Turnover
Michelle Friedman, Head of Education and Academic Initiatives, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT

Far Too Female: Museums on the Edge of a Pink Collar Profession
Taryn R Nie, Membership and Grants Manager, The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY

What’s Going on in This Picture? Museum Education as Undervalued Labor
Emily Turner, Museum Educator, Seattle, WA

Gender, Equity, and Museum Technology Salaries
Kelly Cannon, Museum Educator, New York;
Liam Sweeney, Senior Analyst, Ithaka S+R, New York;
and Seema Rao, Principal and CEO, Brilliant Idea Studio, Cleveland, OH

3. ADDRESSING THE ISSUE
How to Fix Museum Sector Recruitment in 15 Easy Steps
Tom Hopkins, Museum Curator, West Midlands, UK

Decent Working Conditions are Essential for Decent Compensation
Paul C Thistle, Formerly Curator & CAO, The Sam Waller Museum, The Pas, MB, Canada

Creating a More Equitable Experience for Museum Interns
Natalie Sandstrom, Programs Coordinator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA

Why Museums Must Stop Using Volunteer Docents and Start Paying their Educators
Tara Young, Independent Museum Professional, Shrewsbury, MA

Re-engineering The Way Museums Work 
Jon Ingham, Senior Associate Consultant, Barker Langham Recruitment, London

A Case for Salary Transparency in Job Postings
Charlotte Martin (President), Sarah Maldonado (Membership Coordinator); 
and Anthea Song (Event and Job Listings Coordinator) New York City Museum Educators Roundtable

4. TURNING TALK INTO ACTION
Achieving Salary Transparency – Just by Asking
Michelle Epps, President, National Emerging Museum Professionals Network

Professional Associations and Labor Policies
Jessica Brunecky, Director of Visitor Experience, University of Colorado Art Museum, Boulder, CO

Advancing Salary Equity Through Legislation
Kristina L Durocher, Director, Museum of Art of the University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

A Promise to the Workers
Jaclyn J Kelly, Educator, Milwaukee Public Museum

OMG We Won! The New Museum Union
Stefanie Jandl, Independent Museum Professional, Acton, MA

Next-Gen Thinking for Museum Recruitment
Micah Styles, Founder and Director, Barker Langham Recruitment, London

Making Salaries a Priority for Museum Boards
Dawn Salerno, Executive Director, Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum, New Bedford, MA; and Mark Gold, Partner, Smith Green & Gold LLP, Pittsfield, MA

Financial Resources for Pay Equity, Visitor Experience, and Public Value
Michael O’Hare, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, CA; and Jodi Kovach, Curator of Academic Programs, Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH

Kristina L Durocher is the director and curator of the Museum of Art of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. Previously, she was curator at the Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA. She has nearly twenty years’ experience with civic and academic art museums, creating innovative programs and leading organizational change. Kristina serves on the board of directors of the New England Museum Association and as the New England Region Representative for the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries. She has reviewed grants for the National Endowment for the Humanities and was selected to attend the Getty Leadership Institute in 2017.

Mark S Gold is a partner in the law firm of Smith Green & Gold, LLP, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He holds an undergraduate degree in Economics and International Studies from The American University, a law degree from Georgetown University, and a Masters in Museum Studies from Harvard University. His practice includes business and corporate law, venture capital and traditional financing, and non-profit and museum law. Mark has written extensively and par­ticipated in panels of national and regional associ­ations and academic institutions on deaccessioning, legal issues for museums, non-profit governance, and under-compensation in museums.  

Dawn E Salerno is Executive Director of the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She previously served as Deputy Director for Public Engagement and Operations and Acting Director at Mystic Museum of Art in Connecticut. Dawn has been a grant reviewer for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and was elected President of New England Museum Association in 2017. She completed the Getty Leadership Institute program in the same year.

Ansley Simmons | Founding Member, Museum Workers Speak:
The issues of systemic under-compensation and salary inequities are far-reaching and affect museum employees at every level of their career, from internship to leadership. For Love or Money is a timely and vital text for those looking to recharge their own practice with new perspectives, as well as a must-read primer for students considering joining the museum profession.

Steering Committee | Fair Museum Jobs:
A bold collection of essays that address the topics of museum recruitment, salaries and working conditions, For Love or Money: Confronting the State of Museum Salaries comes at a time when these subjects are becoming less taboo and moving to the forefront of discussions about the sustainability of our sector. We hope that the insights contained within this volume will contribute to this important transformation, open conversations, and drive the museum industry towards a greater sense of equitability.

Garrett James Donnelly | Head of Museographic Exhibitions | Louvre Abu Dhabi:
Through a diversity of voices this collection of essays provides vital reference and guidance on the complex journeys facing museums and their employees; highlighting existing paradigms and their pitfalls while articulating the benefits of fair and equitable financial and personal rewards that should shape our future.

John Stomberg | Director, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College:
Museum compensation has long been shrouded in mystery. Largely due to their “not for profit” status, and the volunteer ethos that it takes to run them, museums have avoided public discussions on the subject of pay - in fact, such conversations have been considered taboo. We are today witnessing a rapid correction to this stigma. Museum professionals today seek pay on par with other fields and actively share information to instigate change. This collection of essays addresses thorny issues from employee privacy to fair compensation and examines how values intrinsic to the museum field have perpetuated an aura of secrecy in an age of disclosure.

Juline A. Chevalier | Museum Education Division Director, National Art Education Association | Head of Interpretation and Participatory Experiences, Minneapolis Institute of Art:
This important collection is exceedingly relevant and useful to museum staff, museum directors, and board members alike. It features a wide range of perspectives that carefully balance background and theory with practical steps for change the field needs. 

David Green | Director | Florence Nightingale Museum, London:
Thought provoking commentary and analysis of some of the biggest challenges facing museums today. The concept of value is a vital one for all museums, for those who work in them, and for those who visit. Challenges around this concept must be addressed if museums are to increase their success and play a bigger and continuing role in society and its development. I hope such thinking facilitates influencers in confronting this time-bomb.

Charity Counts, Executive Director | Association of Midwest Museum:
Thought-provoking! For Love or Money offers a variety of perspectives on the issues surrounding salary inequity in our field today. Moreover, it offers solutions to the challenges often ingrained in the culture of the museum workplace. Open-minded readers will find the insights offered to be a springboard for further discussion on how to move the field forward.

William Underwood Eiland | Director, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia:
A most timely book with insightful, thoughtful and provocative essays. All museum professionals should read it, especially those who humbly equate "service" with low pay. With this publication, we may begin to imagine with a broader, more compelling, vision how our profession will respond to the growing divide between the museum proletariat and the various nabobs who determine compensation for their work.

Meta Knol | Director, Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, Netherlands:
A vital resource for anyone interested in the economy behind the passion. From interns to board members, everyone in the cultural sector should be aware of public value and working conditions in the context of diversity and equality politics. The economic innovation presented in this important book is essential to the future of museums.

Sumantro Ghose | Culture Programming Director | Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi
Billions are spent on museums worldwide but alongside the cutting edge architecture and innovative display technology, staff are still treated as if their roles are more hobbies than professions. This book looks at the causes and effects of poor pay in the museum sector. The analysis reads like a call to action.

Paul Orselli | President, POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.)
For Love or Money addresses each of the two realities of museum life called out in the title with the passion you would expect from the museum workers who wrote each of the pieces inside. This book is a clear call to action that offers both context and specific solutions so we can move past the museum field’s foot-dragging and rationalizations to provide every museum worker with the fair and equitable pay they deserve.

Suse Anderson | Host and Producer, Museopunks:
The authors of this book have the audacity to speak publicly about uncomfortable things, like money, labor equity and institutional change. With radical ideas that are simultaneously grounded and institutionally situated, this is a crucial book for anyone dedicated to making a fair, equitable and inclusive museum sector.

Pages 532
Illustrations 39
Size 216 x 140 mm | 5.5" x 8.5"
Publication October 2019
Editions £49 [paperback] | £39 [eBook] 
ISBN 978-1-912528-12-7 [paperback]