(WWJ) The director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, a world-renowned museum, is under fire this morning.
An anonymous group that is reportedly representing current and former DIA employees is asking for the resignation of Salvador Salort-Pons, claiming he has created a hostile work culture for Black and Latino employees.
The group, which calls itself DIA Staff Action (DIASA), wants Salort-Pons to be out by the last day of August. They accused him of hiring friends without posting jobs, fostering low morale, handling staff so badly that 62 of the museum's 371 employees have left since 2015
"These demands are a direct response to the now well-reported hostile and chaotic work culture that has affected the quality and accessibility of the service offerings for DIA’s constituents," they say.
The group started a Twitter account to air their grievances and issue demands. The account quickly garnered 200 followers.
They say the account will be used to issue a series of demands in coming days. Salort-Pons' resignation is the first demand.
Former digital experience designer Andrea Montiel de Shuman wrote on medium.com: "In the past couple of years, the institution has been reshaped into a form that many of us cannot recognize — it is a contradictory, hostile, at times vicious and chaotic work environment," directed by "leadership that has fostered a totalitarian, oligarchic system."
Montiel de Shuman said the museum could make itself accessible to all during the pandemic, but refused to do so despite having the funds and the ability.
"As a consequence, I believe that we have neglected a number of communities who support our operations through the millage, some who already go underserved by our institution and who need our attention the most these days," she wrote.
The organizers of the effort against Salort-Pons are asking all current or former DIA staff members or community partners affected by the current leadership, to use Twitter DMs, or send an email to diastaffaction@gmail.com
The DIA has not responded to the demand or to the organization's efforts as a whole.
Salort-Pons also faces charges of nepotism filed with the IRS and the Michigan Attorney General after his father-in-law loaned the DIA a $5 million El Greco painting of St. Francis. Opponents say their relationship wasn't properly disclosed, and could have been used to raise the value of the painting.
Salort-Pons told the New York Times his family’s interest in the painting was properly disclosed and that he followed a procedure approved by the DIA's board of directors.
“The loan(s) from Alan May was/were totally above board and benefited the DIA as much, if not more, than the lender,” former director Graham Beal told the Times.