A Letter from MCA Leadership

Dear Friends,

In these past few months, we’ve heard calls for action and demands for change – in our country, in our city, and in our museum. We, along with the rest of MCA’s leadership, take these messages very seriously, and agree, change is needed, and art is one of the most powerful instruments to foster this dialogue. That is why the MCA exists – to encourage everyone to draw inspiration and hope from the contemporary artists we have always championed, to look afresh and with critical eyes at the inherited legacies of the status quo, to advocate for just and equitable treatment of one another, and to speak out when the times demand it. One group in particular, MCAccountable, wrote a petition to amplify the voices of some staff members with common concerns. We respect everyone’s right and responsibility to raise issues and have heard these from a variety of channels and means. We are grateful for everyone’s input and taking the initiative, and are listening to all of you and taking steps toward meaningful and long-term changes.

Addressing complicated, nuanced issues such as those expressed by MCAccountable, other MCA staff members, and stakeholders, takes time and care and often doesn’t satisfy every point of view; however, the process of doing so has also created opportunities for positive change, making us better cultural leaders, more responsive, more adaptable, and yes, more accountable. That means recognizing, respecting, and listening to input and opinions of MCA staff, including a focus on our BIPOC colleagues; as well as the artists with whom we work; the people who support the museum; our community partners and organizations; and voices from our community at large. We have many channels in place for asking questions, offering input, as well as providing answers and clarification. Admittedly, two-way communications have been harder during this period of adjustment as we are rarely together in person, but we are committed to improving and learning from our missteps. After numerous staff meetings and town halls that only accomplished so much, we listened to staff feedback and began smaller, more intimate conversations with a mediator to help facilitate a two-way dialogue that will be ongoing, informed by still other lessons learned.

Reservations have been expressed about whether the museum should be open to the public during this time. We heard your concerns, channeled them into our reopening plans, and took a conservative path of being open three days a week, with no admission fees for July and August. We strongly believe museums are essential to our communities and to the public. Since we opened, we have heard from countless visitors that the art and exhibitions have helped to heal and inspire them during this difficult time. We have received letters and comments of praise and thanks. Experiencing art is not just about the solitary contemplation of objects, it is about responding to artistic prompts in communion with others, seeing the same things but interpreting them differently, and finding meaning in those differences. Art can also direct and guide us toward social change at a time when we need it most. While the community in Chicago needs us, and we feel we are providing a safe experience for visitors and staff, we will stay open. As part of ensuring our staff’s care, we converted our part-time, public-facing Visitor Experience positions into a smaller team of full-time positions with health benefits. Certainly, there are human and organizational implications to this move, and we prioritized the urgency of health benefits.

Through all of this, we felt an obligation to balance the input of staff and other stakeholders, not prioritizing one point of view over another, thus our decision not to respond directly to the demands in the MCAccountable letter. Make no mistake, we are committed to continuing to improve the functions and operations of the museum and how we fulfill its mission — and know we still have much work to do in order to lead our field. To get there, we will continue to foster more meaningful communication across our stakeholder groups; and we want to create an anti-racist institution that our community can hold up as an exemplary platform for the art and artists who will inspire us all toward positive social change.

From new staff and leadership training programs on systemic racism, to creating an Anti-Racism task force made up of representatives from all departments, we are beginning to embed equity initiatives across everything we do. Artists and the revelatory art and ideas they put forward are the moral compass of our museum, and historically they have created space in their work for audiences to envision the change society has called for, both inside and outside the museum. We thank them and our staff for their role in shaping the current and future direction of the MCA as well as their myriad talents which have put us in a position to uniquely rise to these challenges and meet them with intelligence, dignity, and humanity.

Madeleine Grynsztejn and Michael Darling

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