The Baltimore Museum of Art has joined the Walters Art Museum in raising full-time employees’ wages to a minimum of $15 an hour.
The BMA announced this week that it received a $110,000 gift from philanthropists Harriet Anne and Jeffrey Legum to raise the base pay for hourly workers from $13.50 to $15. Because of their generosity, the wage increase went into effect on February 1 and benefits and more than 50 museum employees.
The Walters previously disclosed that it would raise employee salaries earlier this month. It now pays full-time employees at least $15 per hour and part-time employees at least $13 an hour.
“These adjustments reflect both the work of our rigorous and thoughtful internal diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion process and our longstanding commitment to reaching a $15/hour floor for all full-time positions,” said Julia Marciari-Alexander, the museum’s Andrea B. & John H. Laporte Director, in a statement.
As a long-time board member and former treasurer of the BMA, “I am very aware of how hard the museum works to balance its operating budget,” Legum said in a statement.
“I knew the BMA was unable to accommodate an increase in the minimum wage this year, so I decided to help them out until they could afford it. I am glad that so many people on the staff will immediately benefit.”
The Legums’ gift is one of three that the BMA received recently to support its efforts to promote diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion (DEAI).
A gift for $350,000 came from The Rouse Company Foundation to extend public hours to 9 p.m. one day per week, starting “when the museum is able to fully reopen.”
The museum had identified late-night access as a way to increase and diversify its audience, by making it easier for people who work during the day to visit during the evening.
The $350,000 gift is expected to cover costs for evening hours for 16 months, and the museum intends to continue fundraising to maintain evening hours after that.
Also, philanthropist Eileen Harris Norton gave $1 million to establish and endow funds for DEAI initiatives. Half of the money will be committed as a “spend-down” fund to be used over the next three years, and the rest will be used to establish an endowment to support DEAI initiatives beyond that.
Norton’s donation is the lead gift in the museum’s $3 million fundraising campaign to raise funds to achieve DEAI goals. The museum is working with a consultant called The Empathetic Museum on diversity-related programs, including staff training sessions that will be funded with Norton’s gift.
“We are deeply honored” by the gifts from Norton, the Legums and the Rouse foundation, said museum director Christopher Bedford, in a statement. “Their support provides the resources necessary to take our commitment from the realm of words to critical action.”
The BMA’s galleries have been closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but its sculpture gardens are open Wednesdays through Sundays and some indoor spaces are available to limited groups by appointment.
Officials at The Walters have indicated they are looking to re-open in mid-March.
