New York, NY | A Discussion on Pay Equity in the Visual Arts

Data about pay and gender equity when it comes to arts professionals is woefully inaccessible and incomplete. Over the past several months, in an effort to remedy some of these problems and contribute valuable knowledge to our community, ArtTable has collected new data via a survey about the changing contours of the artistic labor market in order to better understand trends and advocate for arts professionals, artists, and arts workers of all types. Based on the feedback we have received so far, and continue to receive, we are pleased to present this discussion on gender, compensation, and inequality among arts professionals at the Ford Foundation in New York City.

Click here to take the survey if you have not done so already! And read, “Why You Should Fill Out ArtTable’s Survey on Working in the Arts” in Hyperallergic, an op-ed by ArtTable’s Lila Harnett Executive Director, Jessica L. Porter.

Panelists

• Tania Aparicio, PhD | Full-Time Lecturer, Program in Arts Administration, Teachers College, Columbia University
• LaKeisha M.A. Caton | Partner, Pryor Cashman, Labor + Employment and Litigation Groups
• Gillian Gualtieri, PhD | Assistant Professor of Sociology, Barnard College, Columbia University of New York

The discussion will be moderated by ArtTable’s Lila Harnett Executive Director, Jessica L. Porter.

This program is free for all to attend. Registration is required due to capacity restrictions.
Donations to support our continued efforts toward gender equality are always appreciated.
People of all gender identities are allies in supporting women’s leadership in the arts and all are welcome and encouraged to join.

Please review the below before registering:

This program is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council. We also thank the Ford Foundation
for hosting this discussion.

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About Dr. Tania Aparicio

Dr. Tania Aparicio (she/her) is a full-time lecturer in the Arts Administration Program at Teachers College-Columbia University. Using ethnographic and archival methods, her research has focused on the study of cultural production, cultural organizations, and cultural workers–with particular attention to the dynamics of inequality in art worlds. In particular, she has conducted a comparative investigation of the effects of unionization in arts organizations and how it shapes racialized and gendered relations in the workplace. Her research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, Fulbright Program, Institute for Critical Social Inquiry, and Janey Program in Latin American Studies. At The New School she completed her doctoral degree thanks to a Dean’s fellowship and a dissertation award.

About LaKeisha M.A. Caton

Partner LaKeisha M.A. Caton is a member of Pryor Cashman’s Labor + Employment and Litigation Groups, and combines her comprehensive litigation background with a focus on employment-related matters to bring results to clients across the globe. Having represented both management and executives in discrimination and harassment cases, LaKeisha brings her extensive knowledge of the law as well as her familiarity with the strategies often adopted by the opposition to every engagement. She leverages her comprehensive experience with federal, state, and local discrimination law and her background in litigation and dispute resolution to achieve favorable outcomes on behalf of her clients.

Recent representations include:

• A Fortune 25 multinational bank in various litigations involving allegations of harassment and discrimination;
• A large global airline in connection with advice concerning employee classifications;
• Various award-winning restaurants in numerous wage and hour litigations; and
• A global technology and consultancy firm in disputes involving restrictive covenants.

While a student at Harvard Law School, LaKeisha was on the Board of the Harvard Journal on Racial and Ethnic Justice. She also interned with multiple children’s rights organizations during which she represented individual clients as well as prepared for large class actions.

About Gillian Gualtieri, PhD

Gillian is a sociologist of inequality, art, and work. In 2018, she received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, where she wrote a dissertation focused on understanding how gender and ethno-racial inequality shape the work experiences of cultural entrepreneurs, especially chefs, under the direction of two of the leading scholars in feminist theory and work. Alongside her dissertation research, Gillian worked closely with several campus offices to conduct program evaluation research related to sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention education on campus. After completing her PhD, she was a Dean’s Fellow at NYU, where she continued her research focused on inequality and artistic labor and completed several consulting projects for the university focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion recruitment and retention efforts at the university.

After two years at NYU, Gillian moved to Vanderbilt University’s Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, where she collaborated on projects related to the study of inequality in artistic labor markets, developing expertise in SNAAP (Strategic National Arts Alumni Project) data and receiving a National Endowment for the Arts grant to fund her collaborative research. Also at Vanderbilt, she wrote the curriculum and helped lead the NEA-funded Racial Equity in Arts Leadership program, an evidence-based diversity, equity, and inclusion leadership program co-sponsored by the Curb Center and MetroArts Nashville. Gillian recently began a position as an assistant professor of sociology at Barnard College, Columbia University, where she teaches classes in race, gender, work, and the sociology of art.

Additional speaker information is forthcoming.

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Image courtesy of Getty Images, Mary Hall/NewsNation.