A Petition Calling on the Erie Art Museum to Fire Its Director After Sexual Harassment Allegations Gains Thousands of Signatures

A petition calling for Pennsylvania’s Erie Art Museum to fire its director,
Joshua Helmer, has received more than 2,600 signatures since
Friday, when allegations of sexual
harassment were published in the New York Times. A
statement of support for the women who spoke out has been signed by
more than 200 current and former employees of the Philadelphia
Museum, where Helmer previously worked.

One of the youngest museum directors in the country, 29-year-old
Helmer was hired at the Erie in 2018, despite several complaints
filed against him by women at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where
he was an assistant director in the education department.

“In light of… Joshua Helmer’s abusive and predatory conduct
toward women, it is time to put pressure on the Erie Art Museum to
do the right thing and fire Joshua Helmer,” reads the Change.org petition. “Whatever benefit
this man provides the art museum pales in comparison to the damage
that he has done to women.”

Helmer resigned from the Philadelphia Museum in early 2018 under
undisclosed circumstances. (He told the Times he left
on his own accord.) As of this past November, he has been banned
from entering the museum premises. On Friday, several museum
staffers were seen wearing “We Believe Women” buttons. Employees
who work in public-facing jobs were asked by the administration to
remove the pins, but that decision was reversed later in the day,
according to the Philadelphia
Inquirer.

During Zachary Small and Robin Pogrebin’s four-month
investigation for the Times, nine women came forward
with complaints about Helmer’s behavior, including one at the Erie
Museum, who claims he called her “the most useless intern we have”
after she refused to meet with him at his home. The other
eight were at the Philadelphia Museum, where women allegedly filed
complaints against Helmer beginning in 2016.

The Erie Museum maintains that it was unaware of Helmer’s
history with female employees when it hired him in spring 2018. It
says it investigated the intern’s complaint against Helmer, but
found no cause for disciplinary action.

“The Erie Art Museum board of directors takes seriously all
allegations of misconduct,” read a statement from the museum’s
board following an emergency meeting on Friday, as reported on the
local news site Go Erie. “Prior to
offering Mr. Helmer the position at the Erie Art Museum, the board,
with the help of an employment consultant, conducted due diligence
including background checks. No issues were identified during our
due diligence.”

Representatives for the museum did not respond to requests for
comment.

Helmer’s predecessor, John Vanco, who ran the museum for close
to 50 years, has joined the chorus calling for the young director’s
ousting, according to local news outlet Your Erie. Vanco issued
a statement suggesting that the best form of resolution would be
“firing Mr. Helmer immediately and then quickly determining a
method for creating a new board.”

The post A Petition Calling on the Erie Art Museum to Fire
Its Director After Sexual Harassment Allegations Gains Thousands of
Signatures appeared first on artnet News.