Workers at the Storm King Arts Center (SKAC) in New York’s Hudson Valley passed their first-ever union contracts in late July after eight months of negotiations.
Workers in the Visitor Services, Education, and Conservation departments as well as the gift shop and administrative offices at SKAC, an outdoor sculpture museum, are the latest group to reach a deal in union negotiations this year. In a photograph shared with Hyperallergic, a worker holds up a sign urging SKAC to be a “leader in the field,” pointing to recent union gains at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Dia Beacon, among others. In the last few months, workers at Glenstone in Maryland, the American Folk Art Museum in New York, and the Denver Art Museum have also made moves to unionize.
Employees at SKAC, backed by the Civil Service Employees Association, secured an average hourly raise of $5.03, from $18.28 when they first announced their intent to organize in 2022 to $23.31. By 2027, the contracts — one for Visitor Services employees and another for the remaining departments — ensure that average wages will reach $25.17.
“It’s incredibly heartening to see all of these union movements coming out of the art world in this moment, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Curatorial Assistant and CSEA Local 720 negotiating member Adela Goldsmith told Hyperallergic.
“When art workers are able to organize … they can have a little bit more of a say in the conditions of their work, in a way that feels attuned to the present moment,” Goldsmith continued.
There are currently close to 60 members in the union across both units, but that number is expected to rise to 75 in the fall at the peak of the season, when the museum takes on additional workers, Goldsmith told Hyperallergic.
The Visitor Services team in particular is prone to high turnover because of lower wages and high cost of living in Orange County, union member and Visitor Services Team Lead Bam Bowen told Hyperallergic.
“While we’re not quite at a living wage, which is notably high in Orange County, we’re much closer than before,” Bowen said in an email. “We hope this contract lays the foundation for better wages, benefits, and retention in the future.” The living wage in Orange County for one adult with no children, according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, is $24.77.
Hyperallergic has contacted the Storm King Art Center for comment.
In the wake of the pandemic, Goldsmith said Storm King employees realized that their outdoor space was unique in the art world at a time when indoor venues were heavily regulated.
“[We realized] this place was really valuable for people in the pandemic as a place to go and experience art and nature and each other,” Goldsmith said.
The new deals also include guaranteed employer contribution to retirement accounts, cancellation pay for days called out of work, and two paid days off, according to a statement CSEA provided Hyperallergic. Beyond the pay increase and benefits additions, the contracts symbolize an important act of solidarity for the museum’s employees.
“We can feel like across different departments, our work is really siloed,” Goldsmith said. “But at the end of the day everyone has a real stake in the well-being of the staff in the institution … Arts workers deserve a voice in how institutions are shaped moving forward.”
