Guggenheim ‘bullies’ in ‘anti-racism’ twist
A group of current and former employees working to denounce racism and sexism at the Guggenheim Museum is led by “disgruntled” white women who are “intimidating” employees of color to join their cause, sources told The Post.
The group, A Better Guggenheim, claims it is holding the museum “accountable for systemic racism and a toxic work environment.” Members, including a leader who was furloughed and was not hired back, want to force the resignation of the institution’s top executives.
But the group has been accused of creating its own toxicity among the museum’s nearly 300 employees. Among the complaints are fears of having personal conversations and meetings taped by the group and uploaded to social media, the sources said.
“It feels sinister,” said an employee of the museum who did not want to be identified. “They are terrorizing employees and compromising the work that people are doing to address the issues, and diluting the real cause. It’s a joke that it’s called ‘A Better Guggenheim.’ ”
The Guggenheim employee told The Post that members of ABG have secretly recorded staff meetings without consent and posted them on social media. “A lot of people have been disgusted” by that, said the employee. “It’s just damaging to everyone.” The employee also said the group has exerted such “intense pressure” on employees to join their cause that some employees had been left in tears.
At least 169 former and current staffers signed a June 29 letter supporting the group when it called for “restorative justice” for a black guest curator who was allegedly mistreated by museum staff. But many stopped supporting the group when it demanded the “immediate” resignation of Director Richard Armstrong, Chief Operating Officer Elizabeth Duggal and Chief Curator Nancy Spector, the employee said.
Many employees complained in e-mails to management that their initial support was being “repurposed” and used by the group to suggest that they have widespread support, one of the sources told The Post, adding that ABG currently consists of “half a dozen” current and former employees.
Among ABG’s leaders are Cassie Dagostino, a furloughed member of the Guggenheim’s communications staff who has not been hired back, and Caitlin Dover, the Guggenheim’s associate director of digital media, the employee told The Post.
Neither woman returned The Post’s calls and e-mails seeking comment. In an e-mail to The Post, ABG said that “due to the museum’s record of retaliation,” all of its members have chosen to remain anonymous.
In June, the group sent a letter to the Guggenheim’s board saying that the museum had mistreated Chaédria LaBouvier, the museum’s first black guest curator who organized a 2019 exhibition of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
A spokeswoman for the museum declined to offer a comment on ABG.