wage in Los Angeles, but their job involves overseeing the galleries while acting as gallery educators and security. (The trend for this dual role began at the Broad, a non-profit museum founded by billionaire collector Eli Broad, which hired personable, art-aware quick-learners to protect the art while also engaging the public when it opened in 2015.)

When MAF’s visitor services associates decided to unionize, they reached out to the New Museum union, which announced its formation in January. “The New Museum was sort of our direct Dharma transmitter as it were,” said Eli Petzold, an organizing member of the MAF union.

This kind of information sharing has been critical to the formation of museum unions. Dana Kopel, one of the New Museum union organizers who stayed in touch with thevalues and a corresponding evolution in expectations for workplace culture” and that “the museum listened closely and worked very hard to quickly reach a positive resolution.”

Nevertheless, the divides will take considerable time and effort to bridge. And for its part, the MAF union is still attempting to hold their bosses accountable. On a recent Saturday, they gathered outside LAXART, a small non-profit in Hollywood where Olivia Marciano, the MAF’s artistic director and the daughter of Maurice Marciano, sits on the board.

A child when her father and uncle thwarted mid-1990s unionization efforts at Guess by laying off organizers and moving production to Mexico and South America, she has spoken liberally about wanting art to be accessible in Los Angeles. In 2017, she told Modern Luxury Magazine, “Once you start