At least four employees of the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art have resigned after alleging the museum’s executive director violated labor laws and was abusive toward staff.
In a statement released by the museum, officials said five employees sent a letter to BMoCA in March complaining of labor violations, improper financial practices and a pattern of abusive behavior by executive director David Dadone.
The museum hired former Boulder District Judge Gwyneth Whalen — who is now in private practice — to investigate the claims, but said Whalen found “that there is no basis to the allegations concerning labor law violations and mistreatment of staff.”
The museum said that, based on Whalen’s findings, it would retain Dadone and allow the five staff members to remain in their positions with some improvements to the museum’s organizational structure.
But according to the museum, on June 12, “an individual or individuals entered the locked museum after hours, removed files, documents and artwork, and destroyed certain of BMoCA’s electronic records.”
The following morning, four of the five staff members who signed the complaint said they would resign, according to the museum. Those four also returned the missing items, the museum said in its statement.
But the New York Times, which first reported this story, said most of the museum’s employees resigned: five full-time staffers, at least two part-time visitor-services workers, and seven contract support staff and educators.
“How many organizations expect employees to work for 10- to 12-hour shifts without even a single 15-minute break,” Nora Lupi, the museum’s former visitor services and membership manager, wrote in her resignation letter, which was sent to The New York Times. “How many institutions expect someone who makes less than $14/hr to be on call 24/7 for operational, managerial and executive assistant demands?”
Read the rest of this story at dailycamera.com