Hyperallergic: Hundreds of Philadelphia Museum of Art Workers Call for Institutional Accountability on Sexual Harassment

By Hakim Bishara

15 January 2020

Fallout continues from Joshua Helmer‘s departure from his job as executive director of Pennsylvania’s Erie Art Museum. Hundreds of current and former staff members at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), Helmer’s workplace prior to the Erie, signed a petition in support of the women who came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Helmer in a New York Times article. The signatories call for a structural change in the museum’s sexual harassment policy.

Helmer worked at the PMA as assistant director of interpretation from 2014 to February 2018. During that period, he engaged in several romantic relationships with women in the workplace in violation of the museum’s policy while dangling promises of professional advancement and favorable treatment. But the revelations brought by reporting by the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer “barely scratch the surface” of abuses committed by Helmer, the signers say.

“Former and current staff of the Philadelphia Museum of Art listed below wish to express solidarity with our current and former colleagues who so bravely spoke out in the New York Times and those in Erie who did the same,” the petition, which has garnered 365 signatures as of this writing, reads. “We believe their stories and admire their courage.”

The statement will be shared publicly with the hashtag #MuseumMeToo

Read the full article on hyperallergic.com.