An Ex-Staffer Is Suing the Akron Art Museum and Its Former Director, Claiming She Was Fired for Complaining About the Work Environment

An Ohio court will review
allegations of racism, sexism, and intimidation involving upper
management of the Akron Art Museum. The news comes on the heels of
last month’s resignation of museum CEO and director Mark Masuoka,
who has been accused of discrimination and
retaliation.  

Amanda Crowe, a museum employee
who was laid off on March 30, filed a lawsuit in a county court
against the institution and Masouka last week, alleging that she
had been the victim of libel, defamation, and unlawful workplace
retaliation. 

In her complaint against
Masouka, Crowe claims that the former director verbally embarrassed
her at a public event she helped organize in 2019. Masouka was
angry, according to Crowe, over the fact that the children at the
event were making messy art projects and said that the event was
“not properly planned,” had “inadequate staffing and
security.” 

He allegedly told her that, by
telling her this, “he was kicking the dog,” and that she should
“kick the dogs below her.”

In a second complaint, filed
against museum, Crowe alleges that the termination of her
employment was a form of “unlawful retaliation” for her role last
year in writing a letter, along with 27 other anonymous employees,
that accused museum leadership of fostering a “pervasive culture of
race and gender discrimination and bullying which have resulted in
a dysfunctional work environment and severely unhealthy turnover
rate.”

While on staff, Crowe says she
reported to her superiors violations such as “racial slurs, sexual
harassment, bullying, improper use of funds, improper diversion of
grant monies, [and] misuse of museum resources,” among other
infractions.  

The museum hired an external
legal team to conduct an investigation into the allegations and
employees were told that “no retaliatory actions would be taken.”
But Crowe says that following the investigation, she was
“systematically subjected to new and overbearing oversight,
criticism, reductions of resources for her projects, diminishment
of her ability to facilitate family events, disciplinary action and
other unjustified and unwarranted harassment.”

The museum declined to
comment on pending
litigation.

The letter, first reported
by ARTnews in April, recalled one specific episode in
which an employee suggested making part of the museum’s collection
available to the community through a smartphone app. Masouka
allegedly responded by saying, “I mean, really, how many people in
Akron actually have access to a cellphone? And if they do it’s
probably a gangster throwaway phone.’’

One former employee told ARTnews that most of
those who were laid off had participated in the letter. “What we
are seeing is severe mismanagement by leaders who are using the
pandemic as a scapegoat,” said the employee, Jen Alverson, a former
art handler at the museum. “I’ve watched countless coworkers leave
or be pushed out because of a lack of professional leadership.”

Masuoka, who was hired by the
museum in 2013, submitted his resignation letter to the board on
May 18. His departure was announced the next day along with the
details of the institution’s search for his
replacement. 

The post An Ex-Staffer Is Suing the Akron Art Museum and Its
Former Director, Claiming She Was Fired for Complaining About the
Work Environment appeared first on artnet News.