“Not just for coal miners”: Unionization in U.S. art museums

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines a collective identity shift among unionizing art museum workers. Pulling data from an action research study of museum union members, I argue that museum workers today are explicitly aligning themselves with working classes in building wall‐to‐wall labor unions and embracing the collective identity, or membership within the group, of “museum worker.” In analyzing this identity label, I draw from Bruce Lincoln's theories on discourse as a mechanism for constructing or dismantling affective social boundaries. The shift from “museum professional” to “museum worker” signifies a redefinition of creative labor and museum work rooted in cross‐class solidarity and bears implications for effective grassroots organizing and coalition‐building for institutional and social change.