Workers at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the largest art museum in the western United States and a cornerstone of L.A.s cultural landscape, announced Wednesday they are aiming to form a union, LACMA United, with AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36.

The new labor alliance would represent over 300 museum staffers, a workforce comprised of curators, educators, guest relations associates and more. As detailed in an open letter announcing its formation, LACMA United urges museum management to extend beyond rethinking hierarchies of display to include prioritizing the people who bring its mission to life. Many employees are struggling with wages that have not kept up with the rising cost of living in the sixth-most expensive city in the world. At the same time, employees in virtually every department continue to absorb expanded responsibilities and workloads, often without additional compensation, due to high turnover, limited resources, and positions that have been vacated or frozen, the letter reads.

Workers have requested voluntary recognition of their union via a show of majority support from the museums executive team and board of trustees by Nov. 5.

If that happens, LACMA will follow in the footsteps of other Los Angeles County museums like Museum of Contemporary Art, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Foundation, and most recently the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and La Brea Tar Pits, all of which granted voluntary recognition to their staff unions, all of whom also organized with AFSCME District Council 36.

The move to unionization comes as LACMA nears the end of a radical redesign over a decade in the making. The $750 million David Geffen Galleries, designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, will replace four older buildings to create a single gallery structure spanning Wilshire Blvd.

The avant-garde design which critics have describes as resembling everything from a freeway overpass to an amoebic pancake will contain 110,000 square feet of exhibition space, 10,000 square feet less than the spaces it replaces. The museum itself has over 150,000 artifacts and works of art in its collection.

The David Geffen Galleries are scheduled for a grand public opening in April 2026.

Read the full letter below.

October 29, 2025

To Our Fellow Coworkers, Executive Team, and Board of Trustees,

We are proud to announce that a supermajority of eligible staff across departments at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art are coming together to form our union,LACMA United, in association with AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36.

We celebrate LACMAs reimagining of the encyclopedic museum, presenting a more interconnected and inclusive narrative of artistic expression. As the museum evolves, we believe that this vision should extend beyond rethinking hierarchies of display to include prioritizing the people who bring its mission to life from employees who care for the collections and develop exhibitions to those who maintain the museums infrastructures and engage with our audiences every day.

As we near completion of the new home for our permanent collection, ensuring the stability of our staff is equally crucial to LACMAs future. Many employees are struggling with wages that have not kept up with the rising cost of living in the sixth-most expensive city in the world. At the same time, employees in virtually every department continue to absorb expanded responsibilities and workloads, often without additional compensation, due to high turnover, limited resources, and positions that have been vacated or frozen.

Our vision is one where our shared love of art and service towards the Countys diverse and culturally rich communities is paired with a thriving workforce where the progress of the museum is not dependent on precarity for any staff member. To this end, we are forming our union to improve our staffs well-being through fairer compensation, expanded benefits, and increased transparency in institutional protocols and resources.

We invite LACMAs executive team and Board of Trustees to join the growing community of unionized Los Angeles cultural institutionsincluding the Museum of Contemporary Art and our neighbors, the Academy Museum and Foundation and the Natural History Museum and La Brea Tar Pitsby voluntarily recognizingLACMA United. We respectfully request a response by November 5 [email protected].

We look forward to working together to improve our staffs wellbeing and sense of belonging in a workplace we all already deeply care about.

In solidarity,

LACMA United