Marciano Art Foundation and the value of ‘art labor’

Dozens of fired museum employees and their supporters rallied last Friday outside the Marciano Art Foundation, the now-closed arts institution in a former Scottish Rite Masonic Temple on Wilshire Boulevard.

Opening just two and a half years ago, Marciano Art Foundation management cited low attendance as its reasoning for closing its collection to the general public. It shut just days after its visitor services associates, or VSAs, publicly announced their intent to unionize.

Sixty of Marciano’s employees had voted to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employee (AFSCME) union.

Since their firing, workers have filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board, on the grounds of illegal discrimination.

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