Posted on 10/17/2021 2:37:58 PM PDT by Robwin
The Art Institute of Chicago fired all of its trained volunteers and guides last month, who were mostly older White women, to diversify its team.
"We were surprised, we were disappointed," Gigi Vaffis, president of the docent council, said in an interview with radio station WBEZ of the firings. "There is an army of very highly skilled docents that are willing and ready and able to continue with arts education."
The Art Institute used to have more than 100 docents, 82 of whom were active, until an executive director of learning and engagement, Veronica Stein, sent an email on Sept. 3 firing them all, the Wall Street Journal reported. Docents are trained volunteers who lead tours of museums, and at the Art Institute, they averaged 15 years of unpaid service.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Anyone notice the grammatical error in Fox’s title?
‘...fires all of it’s... .”
Should be ‘fires all of its...’
Fox news, to boot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docent
I suspect many are also financial contributors. They just cut off a major source of funding....................
One has to wonder where the donations going to come from. My guess, this group was in the bunch that probably support the museum the most.
On well, go woke go broke.
First the volunteers and then the art. Watch for a cultural change in the Chicago Museum of Art displays.
When we moved to the Seattle area 25 years ago, we moved our daughters out of the public school system om Kent because their first-grade teacher could not remember whether Antarctica was the North Pole or the South Pole, but she was supposed to be teaching them about the Poles. It sounds like the lack of teacher knowledge just kept going down from there.
Is it cultural appropriation if one of the new “diverse” docents is giving tours of the European art section of the museum?
Sue them.
My daughter had a six grade teacher who insisted Saint Patrick was famous for bringing the potato to Ireland. I am NOT kidding !
So, because eubonics (or whatever) are their preferred ‘language’ doesn’t mean they can’t speak grammatically correct English. Once I called my daughter’s public highschool to speak with the administration office, and I promise, I couldnt understand what the woman who answered the phone said to me. It’s laziness, and we are suppose to overlook it, and ALL of it. We are just suppose to bow down, and step out of the way.
‘Sue them.”
And, they were ‘older’ white women at that!
I bet most of these women consider themselves to be liberal and in favor of “diversity’ (whatever that is supposed to mean) but that doesn’t make this right.
I read in a report from Chicago that ALL of the fired Docents were unpaid volunteers.
Several times in the last 18 months, I have asked people to remove their mask when they speak to me because I can’t understand their accent filtered through a mask or two. Even on telephone calls. Amazing how many times somebody on a phone call has taken their mask off and become more understandable without the mask on.
I’m sure there will be hundreds of POC applicants whom are art history buffs.
Those docents were discharged because they were white. They should get together and file a lawsuit for racism.
Is this not classic racial discrimination ?
All that’s missing is a picture of Michael Palin as the “it’s” guy from Monty Python.
I bet Black people have been waiting in line for years to volunteer for these non-paying jobs.
At $25 an hour if the original story is correct. Museum must be swimming in cash to replace volunteers with $50K employees.
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