The occupation of art museum educator in the time of Occupy Museums

This article considers the occupation of art museum educator in the time of Occupy Museums (OM). I maintain these two different forms of occupations – the job of educator as occupation within art museums and OM as an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests as occupation – are both related and at odds with one another in the context of the art museum under neo-liberal managerialism. The working lives of art museum educators are morphing into occupations within art institutions that employ populist veiling tactics as cover for labour abuse in fulfilling their missions. OM reveals contradictions inherent to a museum system working hard to normalize such economic injustices, with a particular focus on the workers associated with these institutions. Current trends in art museum education and features of OM are analysed through neo-liberalist and horizontalist ideologies, bringing to light similar anti-hierarchical motivations, aiming for dissimilar ends. The article closes with a call for a return to modified forms of verticality in institutions based on cultures of mutual support instead of capitalism alone.